death is the only ending for the trash queen

Part 4

"Mama. You should divorce him."

Cale laughed openly. The cold words of her frustrated daughter caught her by surprise and she scooped up her little munchkin, kissing her head as she carried Penelope over to the bed they shared. They had an early morning tomorrow and it was time to get some rest. "Now what could possibly make you say that?" Cale asked.

"He invited himself on our vacation. That's rude. He's rude. And entitled." Penelope's plaintive eyes sought out Cale's, a frown on her adorable little face. "You deserve better than that jerk."

Cale looked into the critical eyes of her daughter and wanted to feel happy.

She felt complicated.

It was better that her daughter didn't care about that man. He was shallow compassion personified. The moment you thought he might care, he'd prove to be just as politically motivated as he looked. She always worried about how her daughter would cope with it when she realized how shallow her father's love really was.

And yet...

Cale knew what it was to question how much your parents cared for you. She didn't wish that on her daughter. She might hate the ground Alberu walked on but she'd hoped that the obnoxious man wouldn't cause Penelope any distress.

"You're right about that." She tucked Penelope in, kissing her forehead before settling in herself. "It's a bit complicated though, munchkin."

Penelope frowned.

She knew it was complicated. She wasn't a child. She knew that divorce wasn't an easy thing even in the best of circumstances and a political marriage would certainly be more difficult to disentangle. But it wasn't like she could tell her mother mama, I'm actually twenty years old and from a different world. Oh, and I read that you'd die in a reverse harem game where his majesty was a capture character so let's get away from that cheating scumbag before he hurts you.

That was why she was resorting to her mothers family instead. She needed to get them aboard team divorce so that adults that Cale would take seriously would tell her to dump his ass.

"Hey, munchkin...?"

Penelope let her half cooked plans drift away as she looked to her mother. "Yes?"

"...why do you want to go to the Henituse territory?"

It all got arranged very suddenly. They were leaving first thing in the morning and Penelope had only mentioned it to her father today.

Of course, she hadn't actually asked her mother first. She suspected Cale would have said no.

In the four years of scattered memories that Penelope had been alive as Cale's daughter, she couldn't remember meeting her maternal family once.

At first Penelope suspected the worst and didn't want to see the Henituse family either. But whether or not her mother got along with them, they had the best chance of getting a divorce. The Henituse territory wasn't politically powerful, remaining neutral even after their daughter married into the royal family, but they were financially powerful. And Penelope was all too aware that money moved mountains.

"I want to meet them." Penelope said, meeting her mother's gaze and feeling a pang of guilt at the expression she saw.

Cale was as kind and affectionate as she always was when they were alone but there was a hint of pain in her smile.

Penelope hoped that she hadn't acted too impulsively.

"Don't worry, mama." She reached out and touched her mother's cheek. "I'll protect you."