Penelope's POV
I stood before the shattered remains of my bakery house, broken wood and scattered flour dust drifting through the air like the ghost of what once lived here.
The moment the news reached me, I left the academy without a second thought.
"W-What happened…?" I muttered, my voice trembling as fear coiled tightly around my chest.
I asked the neighbours, but some turned away as if I carried a disease, while a few looked at me with open disdain and whispered that my father had stolen money from a noble house.
The moment those words reached me, it felt as if lightning split through my mind.
"N-No… that's not true… Please, it can't be…"
Tears blurred my vision, spilling down despite my desperate attempts to hold them back, while fear pressed against my heart like a suffocating storm cloud that refused to pass.
