Escaped My Ex, Got Snatched by His Rival - Chapter 322

Chapter 322: Centre of attention
Trigger warning: Mention of criminal activity and brutality against animals.

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‘Mother! You have been carrying that cat everywhere you go. Why are you not paying attention to Penny!?’ A little girl whose long blonde hair was tied in two pigtails looked at a young woman who was holding a feeble white cat in her arms.

Kaylyn looked down at her daughter and so did Keon who was in the same room as the two of them. He raised his head from the book that he was reading and frowned when he heard his little sister’s words.

He knew that Penny liked to be the centre of attention, but he did not think that she would fight with a cat for it.

‘My dear, this little kitten was abandoned by his mother because he was born weak,’ their mother gently comforted Penny with her soft voice. ‘Mommy is taking care of him until he gets better because we should always protect the weak and vulnerable.’

‘If mommy doesn’t pay attention to this kitten…it will die.’

Keon took one look at his sister’s face and knew that the little brat had not understood a single thing that their mother had told her.

However, he did not stop their mother from teaching Penny the importance of kindness.

‘Oh, I understand,’ the little girl nodded with a smile as if she had understood what her mother was telling her.

However, her hands were tightly clenched in tiny fists. Keon noticed these actions of his sister, and suddenly, he found himself feeling nervous not for himself but the little kitten.

However, he couldn’t just tell his mother that he was worried that the kitten would be harmed by Penny.

‘What a fun conversation would it be, if I were to inform the mother that her daughter is on the path of becoming a psycho killer,’ thought Keon with a frown on his face.

A faint memory came to his mind.

On his last birthday, his parents brought a canary for him.

Keon liked it very much, but one day the canary got sick, and he had to skip the family to the amusement park.

This trip was something that Penny had begged for as it was her sixth birthday, however, Keon cared for his canary more as he could sense that it was dying.

So he went to the vet instead.

Because of that one incident, he found his canary dead. Strangled and squashed to death with all its wings ripped from its body.

‘Oh, did it die?’ Penny along with his two brothers came to see him when he was mourning the loss of his beloved pet. ‘It must be because of the neighbour’s cat. This is why I asked you to send it away brother.’

‘No, you wanted me to send it away because you wanted me to pay you more attention,’ thought Keon in his mind while patting the mound of soil over the grave that he had dug for his canary.

While his brothers comforted him, Keon heard Penny ask in a sweet voice, ‘Brother, now that the canary is gone. You will come to the musical with me right?’

Her words were slow and tentative. They were filled with innocence, but Keon knew the innocence was fake!

It was her.

Penny was the one who killed his canary.

Keon turned to look at his sister who looked back at him with a sweet smile on her lips. However, for Keon, that sweet smile was taunting.

She was only ten and yet, Penny knew that there was nothing he could do for her. Who would believe him, if he were to tell others that it was a little girl who killed his canary?

That too so ruthlessly?

Keon had no evidence to prove anything, so he could only stay quiet. But from that day onwards he started to stay wary of Penny.

As he pulled himself from the memory of his canary, Keon turned his attention to the little kitten that his mother had saved.

He knew that there was going to be trouble if he did not protect the kitten.

Thus, Keon had asked the servants of the family to pay attention to the kitten that his mother had rescued.

But despite his desperate efforts, three weeks later, the kitten broke its leg and passed away.

As for Penny, she started following their mother around as their mother was sad, slowly regaining the attention that she had lost due to the little kitten.

“Mister Keon, are you alright?” Dorman asked as he looked at Keon through the rearview mirror. There was something wrong with Keon, and Dorman could sense it.

Keon was pulled out of those painful memories and he opened his eyes. He raised his head and dropped his hand which was covering his eyes.

He smiled at Dorman reassuringly and replied to him, “It’s nothing. I am fine, just feeling a bit tired with all the meetings and travelling.”

His gaze then fell on the screen of his phone as he tapped on Emil’s text messages. However, no matter how many times he looked at them, it remained the same.

The texts that Emil had sent him a few weeks ago did not appear.

Keon would have liked it better if they were not delivered, but he knew that those messages were not only delivered but also seen.

By Penny.

He closed his eyes and after a while opened them. Keon ordered Dorman, “Keep an eye on Penny and her assistant. I want you to tell me everything about what she is doing, whom she is meeting and where she is going, don’t leave even the smallest detail.”

Since Penny was aware of Ariana’s existence, they have to be cautious.

‘If she finds out that I know about Ariana… Penny will certainly kill that girl,’ Keon thought worriedly.

He turned his head to the side and looked at the shining moon through the window of his car.

“I hope you stay safe, my dear,” Keon prayed in a silent voice. For he knew that until everything was investigated, he couldn’t force his way into Ariana’s life.

For her, he was, after all, nothing but a stranger.