death is the only ending for the trash queen

Part 8

Penelope tapped her fingers irately against her knee, eyes narrowed as she glared out at the sight her parents made.

This was new.

Disturbing and new.

What the hell was going on with her mother? Ever since that night where Alberu brought her back in his arms, she'd been quieter than normal. She was just as loving and kind a mother behind closed doors, which was blissfully plenty of time since her shitty father had buggered off, but there was something strangely pensive about her state.

She also caused notably less trouble for the servants. Penelope certainly didn't mind the change but it was a rather startling change to suddenly occur without warning.

Penelope had assumed that she was tired from the travels. Or maybe she was cooling off after that dirtbag had dared to say such vile things to her.

Penelope had expected a return to the status quo when Alberu approached them.

Nothing could have prepared her for her mothers sudden change.

Cale was humming to herself as she re-entered the carriage, drawing the curtains closed so that she could relax outside of the prying eyes of the camp.

"...mama?" Penelope asked, concern in her voice.

Cale frowned softly, sitting by her daughter and petting her hair gently. "What's wrong, munchkin?"

Penelope's pupils shook. Was Cale just going to pretend this was normal? She couldn't understand it. Why in the hell would her mother suddenly cling to the king affectionately? She hated him, didn't she?

"...I told her she's alone."

Penelope's heart hardened. Was that it? Had Alberu's words weakened her mothers defenses to the extent that she'd actually try to be kind to him?

'That manipulative dirtbag.' Penelope seethed. 'It's not enough to cheat on her and kill her, you have to manipulate her too?'

Penelope's impression of her father probably couldn't get any worse than this.

Oblivious to her daughter's concerns, Cale chuckled and pulled the pouting child into her lap. "Are you tired from our travels? We're stopping in a city soon, munchkin."

Cale was in an amazing mood.

That had gone so much better than she'd expected. At first she'd been uneasy about the prospect of using her acting skills in the opposite direction than usual. She'd never pretended to like someone before, she excelled in pretending to hate people. But her act had clearly been effective. Alberu had been all but speechless.

She grinned maliciously to herself. How good it was to give that piece of shit a taste of his own medicine. She wasn't sure how long she'd keep up the act, at least long enough for Penelope to calm down towards her father or at least for Alberu's suspicions that Penelope needed to be taken from Cale's care were abated.

She was going to have fun with this too. She reasoned that she could make it work well with her usual act so long as things worked out before they reached the Henituse territory. She'd grind Alberu beneath her heel and make him regret the day he'd ever met her.

Cale had plenty of time to ruminate in her fury and she'd come out the other end even more angry then she'd come in.

Nevermind the context, Alberu had tried to take away the person who meant the most to Cale in her whole existence. Or at least he'd threatened to. And Cale had a fairly dim view of that.