Pampered by my three brothers: the return of the neglected heiress novel Chapter 488

Chapter 488: Just a little experiment

"He said Slater killed him once. He claims this is his second life, and he was reborn. Crazy, isn’t it?"

Penny held her breath, her eyes widening as she stared at Hugo’s face. "What did you say he said?"

"Hm?" Hugo cocked his head slightly. "That Slater killed him?"

"And...?"

"That this is his second life — he said he was reborn and returned in time," Hugo shrugged, simplifying the absurd claims he’d heard earlier. "It’s crazy. The guy’s insane. I mean, if he really traveled back in time, why would he bother killing Slater? And why live such a pathetic life?"

Hugo pushed himself away and sat on the edge of the bed. "If it were me, I wouldn’t be as pathetic as him. Come on, if I traveled back in time, I’d hit the lotto jackpot overnight and become a millionaire. What a crazy guy! Of all the excuses he could come up with, he chose something so bizarre."

While Hugo rambled on, deep lines appeared between Penny’s brows. She lowered her eyes, her heart racing, as she clasped the sheet over her lap tightly. Unlike Hugo, who dismissed the man’s claims as ridiculous, part of her believed the story.

After all, she too... had gone back in time.

If Penny hadn’t changed her life, she was certain everything would have played out the same way as in her first life. The early years of her life as Penelope Reed had felt like watching a replay: the twins had started picking on her before they could even speak, and Jessa had been harsh over the same things.

Things only changed when Penny began making her own moves. However, even though her changes positively impacted the Cortez family, it didn’t necessarily mean they affected other people’s lives. For instance, one of her neighbors still got divorced, and another had caught her husband cheating.

Penny knew all of this — even her neighbors’ deepest secrets that they never told anyone — from her time doing fortune-telling. In conclusion, her own life had changed, but that didn’t mean the fates of others had. Unless, of course, she had interfered, like she had with Grace’s life.

’I made all these changes carefully,’ she reminded herself, glancing at Hugo, who was still rambling about winning the lottery and making easy money. ’I was careful because I’ve already seen what can happen if you aren’t cautious in changing your life — and those around you — early on. That’s one reason I chose to establish myself abroad, to stop meddling in people’s lives. But if someone is foolish, despite knowing the future, it could still backfire.’

Going back in time wasn’t as easy as one might think. The laws of cause and effect still apply. Things could spiral out of control very easily if one wasn’t careful. Penny knew that very well. She learned her lessons not just one time, but many times before she was able to grasp how to make all these changes without it backfiring on her.

’But this is strange,’ she thought, lowering her gaze, deep in thought. ’Third Brother killed him in the past? How?’

In retrospect, Slater might have been the most annoyingly loud and expressive among them, but despite his hurtful words, he wasn’t the type to harm anyone physically. Even when he despised Penny in their first life, the worst he did was pull pranks on her as a child and shoot down her confidence as an adult.

He was mean — even evil at times — but not evil enough to kill anyone.

’So why? I mean, how?’ Penny hissed internally, closing her eyes as a headache began to strike her. ’While I was in prison... what was happening outside?’

As she rummaged through her memories, she suddenly stumbled upon one she had almost forgotten. It was a strange visit she had received a few months before her execution. This memory had lain dormant in the deepest parts of her mind because she had deemed it unimportant.

Why?

’Damn it,’ Penny mentally cursed, running her fingers through her hair. ’I haven’t even found that damn Nathaniel because of the Specters, and now I have one more person to track down.’