Dropping The Crown

Chapter 39: Peace And Pieces

Penelope's POV

I was summoned into my father's office at his company on Wednesday morning. As the secretary escorted me there, I texted rapidly in my cellphone to escape the images of my father's expression playing in my head.

Reaching the tall glass double doors, I exhaled before steadying myself then I entered.

The images I saw in my mind was nowhere close to the one I was seeing right in front of me.

"Yeah, I screwed up," I began as I sat down.

"You hold your tongue, Penelope. You have no idea how much I'm disappointed in you right now!" he shouted at me.

"Aren't you always, dad?"

"And yet, you wouldn't try to do better! You're a chip from your mother, program exactly like her too."

"Leave my mother out of this," I told him, holding back the tears. The jabs about my mother always cut me.

"You had one job. O-N-E! And you fucked it up because you can't do anything right. Why is it that you can't do anything right, what is your malfunction?"

"I told you what was happening but you weren't listening. Ricardo doesn't love me, he never did."

"Shut up! An ex is the easiest person to get back in your life, especially if it's a man. You let a freaking maid get you riled up and can now take your spot, and what the hell were you thinking going to Jamaica and having a surprise wedding blow up in your face?"

"I was trying to impress you!"

"Impress me, I told you to focus on planning the wedding which would have been scheduled to take place in December! I had the perfect plan!"

"I wanted to prove I could have married him before then, to impress you, surprise you and make you happy."

"You were unsuccessful with it all! That was very stupid, Penelope. You ought to know better. A beach wedding without even his mom and his sister present, what were you thinking, were you even thinking?"

"No."

"Of course not! That's what is wrong with you, you don't think! You do listen and you don't do better!" dad shouted at me at the top of his lungs. He stood up for his chair and walked to the glass windows.

"I'm sorry. You're disappointed, I get it, but I tried. I tried to love him correctly and to fix my mistakes."

"What did you do after you returned from Jamaica, huh?" he asked, surprisingly calm.

"I went to my own place and..."

"Before you went to your place, where did you go and what did you do?"

The images flashed. I took my wrath out on Ricardo's grand master bedroom, ruining everything my hands could have possibly reach.

"I wrecked Ricardo's bedroom," I answered.

"Exactly. You destroyed the man's bedroom where he has to lay his head! Even if you or I try to mend what you did once again, it's a wrap! He wouldn't want you! You're a nut!"

"Dad, he never wanted me. Why can't you understand that, do you know how hard it is to get him to open up to me or hold a conversation or even smile at me?"

"I told you this was bigger than your feelings, Penelope. Didn't I?"

"You did but it's too late for that right now."

"Too late, no such thing. You're going to find a way to fix this, I don't care who stands in your way, I don't care if you have to build an army to get him back but you would. I have too much riding on Ricardo and his company for everything to just go down the freaking drain. Fix it!"