Penny didn't idle in line after listening to Wild's short report about Nathaniel. After all, Wild had ordered the operation to lie low, as he felt that the Phantom Circle was shifting its focus onto them. As much as possible, they didn't want to attract attention before anything else.
"That's what's wrong with me," she told herself quietly. "I've become too relaxed and too… happy."
A surge of bitterness swelled in her heart as she thought that ignorance was indeed bliss. At the same time, it made her bitter because it felt like being too happy was a sin.
"I need to reassess everything."
With that thought in mind, Penny prompted herself to return to work with this revived agenda. No matter how determined she was to avoid going back to prison, Nathaniel's existence felt like a thorn in her throat.
Even if Penny and Zoren's marriage was a product of brief insanity, one fact remained: someone had their eyes on the Bennets and Zoren.
