Penny gave it some thought, taking in what her aunt had to say. If one looked on her side of the fence, they would agree but her actions were not justified for what she had put her through. If things had gone wrong when she was still in the slave establishment where she wouldn't be able to escape, Penny could hardly imagine how her life would have turned out.
Spending a few hours with Grace, being disgraced to the fall lower than an animal where she was kicked and slapped, she didn't know what could have happened. Her stars were lucky that she had been saved over and over again. Be it her, Damien or strangers like the lady who had stopped Grace from taking her into the black market.
What her aunt and uncle put her through, she would never come to forgive their actions. Her aunt had issues with her mother, avenging her lost baby on Penny was wrong.
"When was the last time my mother visited you?" she continued to ask the questions as they arose in her mind.
Her aunt gave a deep thought over her question, trying to recollect which meant it wasn't anywhere around the year that had passed by, "Must have been three years ago."
"What did she come for?" Penny could only conclude that her mother was overprotective over the family she had been given but the word didn't quite fit well in here. Her mother wanted to monopolize them, manipulating the people around her. The more she found out about her mother, the more horrible she felt.
Was this the same person who had raised her? The person whom she had known and called mother, they felt like two different people. One whom she knew and the other what she heard from her aunt just now.
"I don't know. I didn't bother to ask her and didn't want to know about it. I didn't want to do anything with her. She had created enough of a mess in my life and my family," her aunt's tone came out to be bitter.
"If you hated her so much, and hated the fact that I was her daughter, why did you agree to bring me in here?" Penny could still not understand the logic and connection of what her aunt said and did. If a person didn't like someone and disliked them to the point of hate, wasn't it the easiest to just avoid than bring painful memories?
Silence filled the room with no one speaking. Penny continued to stare at her aunt and uncle, waiting for one of them to speak.
Her aunt finally spoke,
"When she said in the letter that she was dying do you know I felt? It was a relief from reading that from her. I took you in so that I could let her soul know how it feels when you put your child through death. The grief and depth of how they feel with the child, only a mother can know and understand."
"And you thought her dead self would know it?" Penny didn't know if she was supposed to continue feeling sad anymore for the lady.
No one caught the amused smile that came upon Damien's lips after listening to the way Penny had phrased her words for her mother. He knew that there was more to the surface of how Penny appeared. As she had been moved from one place to another, from the slave establishment to Quinn's mansion with the tag of a slave, she had been quiet but the girl was a spitfire.
Her aunt failed to perceive Penny's words as she took the gist and felt offended, "I didn't care and I don't even now. I am happy to have sold you and if the time came by again, I would do it again," said her aunt, her eyes fuming in anger.
Penny wondered if there was any point talking to her right now. The woman would avenge for her loss over and over again where she would never be satisfied no matter how many times she would repeat it. Yet, still wanting to give a piece of her mind, she said,
"I am sorry for what happened to your child. For what she did, but I would never say it was okay what you did to me. You don't know what happens in the slave establishment," this had the woman rolling her eyes and her uncle joined in to laugh at her words.
Her uncle who had been quiet all this time said, "Penny. There's a mirror there on the wall. Why don't you have a look at yourself and repeat it again."
"Look at you," her aunt said, sizing her up and down with the way she was dressed, "Slave life did you good. For what your dead mother put me through consider it to be repayment. Like I said that day, you are living a life a lady. Look at you all dressed while we are still here."
"I wonder why that is so," chimed Damien from the side, "Maybe people with ugly hearts tend to live a life of rats."
"Vampire-" her uncle began to warn Damien.
Damien tched again, correcting the man, "Don't put me in the lower class. I am a pureblooded vampire. My name is Damien Quinn, and if you haven't heard about me, then let me tell you that I don't mind going against the law to satisfy my bloodthirsty instincts where I not only snap your fingers but every single bone in that old body while leaving the other to watch it."
If it was possible her uncle could be seen fuming like the bull in anger but he could do nothing.
Everyone knew what or who the pureblooded vampires were. The number of pureblooded vampires was less compared to the normal vampires as they multiplied along with the half-vampires. Being not only part of the highest food chain, but the people there also had the authority of control and manipulation.
"All you pure-blooded vampires think you are higher than us. A day will come where we will laugh at you," said her uncle, that hardly fazed Damien.
Damien took a step forward dauntingly...