PAMPERED

271 Ahem, uh, uh, uh

[BENNET MANSION]

Penny pulled up to the garage and stepped out with a phone in her hand.

“Yes, Yugi,” she said as she exited the driver’s seat. “I approved Zoren Pierson’s request, and I’ll send you the details of his situation once I check the file – ah!”

Penny jumped in surprise when she saw a figure standing several steps behind her. Her heart raced as she studied the guy wrapped in a blanket and using it as a cloak. a

“Penny? What’s going on?” Yugi’s voice came through the phone. “Are you being robbed?”

She hissed and sighed. “Slater, what in the world?”

“Penny, I’ve been waiting for you all day!” Slater threw a tantrum. “It’s my day off, but you just left so early! How could you!”

“Yugi, I’ll call you back,” she said, and without waiting for his response, she hung up. “Third Brother, I’m sorry, okay? I had to do something. And what do you mean by “how could I?‘ I mean, how could you not grow up??” 1

Slater frowned dejectedly. “Penny, you left early just so you could say this to me when you came home, didn’t you?”

“Of course not!” she gasped. “I would never do that! You can check the building and see what I did today!”

“I’ll check it”

Her face froze, but she managed a smile. “Ehh, come on,” she laughed as she approached him. “I’m going to watch all your movies tonight, and we’ll have a sleepover. Isn’t that the plan, anyway? Instead of criticizing me for something important, let’s just go inside and do what we planned!”

Slater grumbled, his eyes telling her he didn’t believe any of the things she said. Even so…

“Fine,” he conceded, despite the urge to call her out. Keeping himself snug within the blanket, he followed Penny into the house. “Even if I get angry, I can’t turn back time. You’re lucky I don’t ruin my mood on my day off”

Penny secretly heaved a sigh of relief. She had promised Slater to spend the day with him on his day off, but unfortunately, more important and concerning matters had come up.

As they walked toward the entrance of the house, Penny felt the phone in her hand vibrate. She instinctively checked it, her brows furrowing when she saw an unknown number.

[From: Unknown]

Good evening, Miss Penelope. This is my number.]

Penny’s steps halted as she scrolled to make sure she wasn’t missing anything. The message was

C

271 Ahem, uh, uh uh

too short to reveal who it was. D

DING!

[From: Unknown]

Zoren Pierson.]

DING!

[From: Unknown]

Using text–to–speech. Is it working?]

“Penny, who are you texting?” Slater furrowed his brows and craned his neck to take a peek. But Penny quickly tilted her phone down. “What? Can I not see?”

Third Brother, why are you trying to peek at my private messages?”

“I don’t mind showing you mine.”

Using that logic, he thought he could just snoop through her private message? Penny looked at her third brother with pity.

“Third Brother, is this the life you got used to after stardom?” she guessed, only to see him shrug slightly. “Poor you.”

“Paparazzi are everywhere, and if it weren’t for the distance to our parents‘ home, I would’ve lived here,” Slater sighed, sharing his woes with her. “You have no idea, Penny. You have no idea.”

Somehow, Penny felt sorry for him. She had once been popular herself and hadn’t liked it. Although her past popularity was unintentionally compared with Slater’s, the lack of privacy was something she would never trade for anything – privacy and peace.

“Aww, poor you. Penny walked to his side and draped an arm around him. “Let’s go watch a movie together, Third Brother. Let this little sister console your poor soul.”

“Penny-” Slater’s eyes widened slightly, and they trembled a little.

Having said that, Penny put off replying to Zoren until later, just to make it up to Slater. After all, if Zoren had already reached out, it meant he had discovered their marriage.

When midnight hit, Slater had already nodded off. As promised, Penny had a movie marathon with Slater, Allison, and Charles. Hugo and Atlas hadn’t come home, which was no surprise; they were grown men after all.

When Allison and Charles retired to bed and Slater cozily fell asleep on the couch, Penny went back to her room to do some work. She had already accepted Zoren’s business offer, so she

271 Abem, uh, uh, uh.

needed to go through it. After all, that man not only looked sickly, but he was also going blind!

they sent me the file of the accident, she muttered, clicking on the file.

Penny’s face stiffened as soon as she saw the wrecked car.

“This isn’t minor at all; she whispered, pressing some keys on the keyboard to check the other photos of the scene. “He’s lucky he’s still alive.”

When Zoren mentioned the “minor” accident he had been in, he made it sound light. Not that he didn’t look serious about it, but he seemed to treat it as a real minor incident.

“If this is minor to him, I can only imagine what a real major accident looks like for him,” she murmured, her face darkening at the evidence before her. “That’s why his assistant always barks.”

No wonder the great CEO of Pierson Corporation reached out to Prime Group. An influential family with generations of wealth could hire other firms of the same caliber as Prime Group, which would give them a quick answer instead of Prime Group.

She now understood the reason.

“The Pierson Family is surely a complicated one,” she whispered, checking the reports and other information Zoren had promised to send her. She stopped when she saw the countless pages of his medical records.

“Seriously, this guy” Penny paused as she skimmed through the recent ones, not bothering with the rest. “He’s surely a lucky one. Not only was he born with a golden spoon, but he’s al

illnesses.

Was he outside when the heavens poured out bad luck and bad health into the world?

“Right.” Penny snapped out of it and intuitively grabbed her phone. “I forgot to reply.”

She saved his number first before replying, “Got it.”

DING!

[From: Mr. Pierson]

Got what?]

“Huh?” Deep lines appeared between her brows. “Why is he still awake at this hour?”

[To: Mr. Pierson]

I saved your number.]

DING!

[From: Mr. Plerson]

rich in

“Is it hard to use text–to–speech? Why is he trying to get used to his eye problems instead of finding a fix?” she wondered. Out of pure curiosity, Penny tried the same function on her phone.

271 Ahem, uh, uh, uh

“Text Mr. Pierson.”

Penny then cleared her throat, which sounded like a light cough, and said, “Send this…” ()

SENT!

Her breath hitched as horror slowly spread across her face. The text said,

“Ahem, uh, uh, uh,” and since the phone was modified for those who didn’t have a sense of sight, it automatically and robotically read her message:

“Ahem, uh, uh, uh.”

Mass release tomorrow

>

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