Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Penelope...

Samantha hugged her blanket and sat up as she carefully recalled her encounter with Penelope three years ago.

Penelope acted rather normal in the beginning and was the stereotypical arrogant rich kid. The methods she used against Samantha were relatively straightforward, such as slandering or framing her.

However, those methods all backfired and Penelope hardly ever gained the upper hand.

In the end, Sheena's revenge caused a breakdown in Violet and Justin's marriage. They both parted on acrimonious terms and Penelope no longer became a rich kid when she was kicked out of the house with Violet.

She had not seen Penelope much after that but she did bump into her at a bar. Penelope had attacked her and seemed to be in an unusual state of mind, for she had immense strength and looked like a madman.

Penelope injured Timothy at the time but Samantha was so focused on Timothy that she never questioned what kind of a state Penelope was in.

When Penelope was arrested, imprisoned, and received her retribution, Samantha did not pay much attention to her anymore.

That lasted until Samantha's battle with Harmony heated up. Penelope suddenly escaped from prison and held her hostage with the intention of committing murder-suicide.

When she held her hostage, her frame of mind was almost the same as when she attacked her the first time. She was in a frenzied state and the situation just seemed particularly abnormal.

Samantha had her doubts at the time, but the confrontation between her and Timothy during that period had, unfortunately, left her heartbroken. His behavior and words confused her so much that they distracted her even more.

She never really thought about Penelope because Penelope was an unimportant person to her.

After analyzing what happened, she felt that she might have accidentally overlooked some very important information.

First of all, the timing of Penelope's first frenzied attack on her was particularly puzzling.

She remembered that it was after she and Timothy returned from the Barrkjaer Island trip, which just so happened to be...after she met Harmony at the airport.

In other words, Penelope's frame of mind had changed ever since Harmony showed up in her life.

Although there did not seem to be any reason to associate the two incidents with each other at the time, it could not have been a coincidence.

Since she did not find anything when investigating Harmony directly, she felt that there might be some surprises in store by approaching it from a different direction.

Samantha narrowed her eyes slightly and clenched her hands little by little.

The next day, Samantha called Rochelle and said, "Chelle, could you please help me to check Penelope's friendships since childhood, like whether or not she had any friends with whom she was particularly close to or kept in touch frequently. Oh, and Violet's current whereabouts too."

"Sammy… why are you suddenly deciding to check on Penelope for no good reason?" Rochelle was surprised.

Samantha had been on bad terms with Penelope and the latter had been dead for three years.

She briefly told Rochelle about her guess and analysis.

"So that's the case… alright then, I'll get it done. But if I'm dealing with this...then what are you going to do?"

Samantha smiled. "I've got something else to check. Between you and I, we're dividing the work."

"No problem!" Rochelle smiled too. "Hang on for my good news."

…

Samantha drove to Northred Prison.

Before she went there, she had established connections through a friend on the pretext of wanting to come over for a simple interview. The prison warden, Ernest Norton, welcomed her in.

Ernest first gave her a brief tour of the women's prison and gave a short account of the situation there.

Samantha looked at the peaceful situation inside. Everyone seemed to be very orderly, and although their faces looked rather numb, neither of them showed any hostility.

She looked at them and frowned slightly.

Ernest was keenly aware of Samantha's reaction and could not help but ask, "Is there a problem, Ms. Larsson?"

"No, none at all. It's just… I'm a little puzzled..." Samantha rephrased her words before asking, "I had a friend before who came in here for a crime, but she developed vicious tendencies and became very thin too. She kept saying that someone wouldn't let her go, which is completely different from what I am looking at."

"Everyone has food, shelter, and clothing here. The only thing they lack is freedom, but I didn't seem to notice anyone who is in the same state as her."

Ernest replied without thinking, "Well, of course. You people shouldn't be influenced by TV dramas. We maintain strict discipline here and don't condone any troublemaking or brawls. The situation you mentioned is very unlikely to happen."

Samantha bit her lip lightly. "Forgive me, Mr. Norton, but my friend was in really bad condition. She was serving her sentence here and she's now passed away. I've always been unable to let this matter go, so...I'd like to ask about her situation."

Ernest was surprised. "She served here? What was her name?"

"Her name is Penelope."

"Oh... Her, I see..." It was evident that Ernest had a fresh memory of her and he had a frown too. "Ms. Larsson, her situation isn't as simple as it seems."

However, he did not seem eager to mention it.

Samantha understood his concerns and hurriedly said: "Don't worry, Mr. Norton. I just want to understand what happened. I assure you this will only be between us. I won't disclose it in any form whatsoever."

Ernest looked at her and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Let's go to my office and talk."

"Sure."

When they walked into the office, Ernest closed the door and invited Samantha to have a seat.

Samantha tried her best to act casually so Ernest could relax. She smiled and said, "Let's just have a chat."

Ernest nodded and sat opposite Samantha. He thought for a while and said, "Ms. Larsson, Penelope was in a very bad state while serving her sentence here, but it wasn't our fault. We treated her the same as we did other inmates, but she was always riddled with scars. She complained to us and said that everyone bullied her and beat her up."

"In the beginning, we paid special attention and asked the doctor to examine her injuries. It was really bad, so we had to check and see who was causing trouble for her."

"But we still didn't manage to find the person who hurt her even after observing for some time. It was very weird. How could she have had so many injuries on her body when no one hurt her?"

"When we locked her in a cell alone and installed some surveillance cameras to watch her, she seemed all fine and dandy. Her mood was even recovering slowly."

"We thought that there was nothing wrong with her, so we put her back in the shared cells. Within two days, she started crying to us again, saying that she was beaten and that she was indeed injured."

"We were stumped. Who could have been slick enough to bully her without getting caught? It was only when I personally investigated every single person that I finally learned the truth. The person who hurt her...was…"

The pause in Ernest's sentence was followed by a look of horror in his eyes.