death is the only ending for the trash queen

Part 7

What a stupid and pathetic man he was.

He'd allowed himself a moment to believe that he wasn't alone. It had happened before, there was a time where he'd thought Cale... but that was a foolish misconception and she'd made her feelings for him abundantly clear since then.

'Haa... I'll be fine. I'm always fine.'

He was always fine. He was a king and he had to line up his priorities properly otherwise the kingdom would suffer.

When this trip was over, he'd refocus his energy on his work. He'd left a lot of tasks to other people that he would normally have done himself and that was negligent of him.

Tomorrow he'd apologize to Penelope and even if she continued to hate him forever, he'd still support whatever she wanted to do. He'd been hoping that Penelope would at least reach the age of rebellious teen before wanting him scrubbed off the side of the planet but she didn't have to love him.

It was enough for him if she was healthy and happy.

And Cale...

Alberu turned over on his side as the unpleasant feelings bubbled up.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't still a little angry with her. She crossed so many lines, physically attacked him, and there was still the unresolved matter over whether or not she was a danger to their daughter. She'd more or less admitted that she'd been the one messing with Penelope's head and manipulating her. She'd also shown absolutely no remorse and no intention to stop.

Alberu had absolutely no desire to remove a mother from her daughter but Cale had basically told him that she was a danger to Penelope's mental well-being. Not to mention it couldn't be healthy for Penelope to be around a drunk woman whose hobby was to throw things at people's heads.

Alberu had every good reason in the world to distrust Cale and view her as a danger to Penelope. She hadn't even given an excuse.

It was fine if she manipulated Penelope to hate Alberu but if she had no remorse over it, what was to stop her from manipulating Penelope even more than that? What would stop her from forcing Penelope to do things she hated? Or using Penelope as a political pawn?

And what happened when Cale grew bored of toying with her daughter? She was fickle with all her other tastes, what was to stop her from deciding one day actually, I never wanted to dead weight of a daughter and leave Penelope to suffer that betrayal.

Alberu was all too familiar with what that betrayal felt like.

And yet–despite every very good reason that he should distrust and despise Cale, that he should be boiling with anger over everything she did and said to him, when he remembered her heartbroken face as though she was about to cry, all of the anger just melted away.

He didn't want her hurt.

Maybe she was a cruel woman without any sense of restraint but he never wanted her harmed.

He definitely didn't want to be the one to make her cry.

Perhaps it was because of her stubborn streak but the sight of her vulnerability was deeply distressing.

He'd make it up to her. He could accept fault for the incident tonight. She'd chosen to remove herself from the situation when it became too much for her and he'd been the one to give chase even after Penelope had discouraged him from doing so.

In retrospect, it was obviously a foolish thing to do.

It was just difficult to sit still when he knew she was so upset and he'd wanted to do something. As a king though he knew better than most that intentions meant very little.