Chapter 7

Ingrid seemed to also have been scared by Eric's sudden outburst. Tears immediately began falling from her eyes. "I'm sorry, Ricky… It's all my fault. I got you into this mess because I got pregnant…" Eric softened when he saw Ingrid's tears. He just sighed lightly and took out a precious blue diamond necklace from his pocket before clasping it around her neck. "The pregnancy has been hard on you. If you'll just behave yourself and not let Penelope find out about you, I'll make sure you get your share of money and properties, okay?" Ingrid's eyes lit up in excitement. She touched the priceless necklace on her neck and briefly glanced at the door. Penelope's eyes widened. She could immediately tell that the blue diamond was the very same one she had personally retrieved from Argayle. It was the same one she had set in the ring she spent half a year carving and fashioning for Eric back then. But now, the blue diamond had been taken out of the ring and fashioned into a necklace pendant for Ingrid. Penelope figured that the ring she had spent so much time on carving and designing must have also already been melted. Everyone in the ward smiled happily as they watched Eric put on the necklace for Ingrid. They even started clapping for them. Penelope couldn't stand it any longer. From her tiptoe position, she landed heavily on her heels and turned to leave without looking back. The painkillers weren't in effect anymore. And since she had used so much of her core strength to keep her balance on tiptoe earlier, her waist was starting to throb in pain once more. However, she didn't even seem to realize it. She just quickly walked down the stairs in a daze until she was out of the hospital. She wandered along the streets aimlessly. It was snowing hard, and the ground was hard and slippery. Penelope wandered around in her thin hospital gown until she suddenly slipped and fell. The coldness seeped into her bones, but she didn't move a muscle in the snow. She wanted to fall asleep in the snow forever. Staring up into the snowy sky, Penelope recalled the last time she went back with Eric to visit his parents, which was just last year. Eric's parents had held her hand and told her that she could treat them as her own parents since she didn't have any. Even Eric's uncles and aunts had said the same thing—if Eric were to do anything terrible behind her back, they would never forgive him. But now, Eric's parents were acknowledging another woman as their daughter-in-law. Eric's relatives were also fully supportive of Eric's and Ingrid's relationship. They were incredibly two-faced, just like Eric. Also, they all seemed to have known about Ingrid's existence for a long time, even constantly comparing her to Ingrid. As for Eric, who claimed to love Penelope and nobody else, he had gone and impregnated Ingrid, melted and destroyed the ring she had made for him out of love and dedication, and gifted the extremely rare blue diamond to Ingrid in the form of a necklace pendant. Penelope continued shivering in the snow, gradually losing consciousness. But she couldn't stop laughing coldly at herself. As it turned out, she had been the jester all along. After a long while, Penelope closed her eyes and let the snow continue burying her. … Right after that night in the snow, Penelope developed a high fever that wouldn't go away. Adding on to her waist injury, she could only spend the next two weeks drifting in and out of consciousness in bed. Eric would come and visit her every day, but it was only for a very short while. He would wipe away the sweat on her forehead before leaving in a rush. Penelope was well aware of the reason why. She would receive a video from Ingrid every single day, showing Eric diligently following the nurse's instructions in their baby classes. She also sent videos of Eric leaning against her belly, listening for the baby's heartbeat. He'd talk to the baby in her belly and spend two to three hours daily just reciting bedtime stories. Undoubtedly, Eric would make a very good father. However, this had nothing to do with Penelope anymore. Their wedding was just around the corner, and Eric was kept on his toes. He'd spend the day supervising the wedding preparations and the night accompanying Ingrid and talking to his baby. He no longer had much time to spend with Penelope. He'd visit her just two or three times a week, tops. However, to his relief, Penelope had begun to show signs of maturity. She never cried or made a fuss. She never asked him to accompany her every day or ask to be glued to him by the hips anymore. In fact, she would even take the initiative to follow up with the live stream and wedding preparations on her own. Eric would never find out that Penelope was simply making all the necessary preparations for her to disappear completely from his life the moment she "jumped" off the cliff. They had started teasing the global live streaming of their wedding three months before the actual date. Recently, Eric announced that he was giving out gifts and cash rewards to all of his global spectators worth a total of a billion dollars. He even promised that every person who left them a congratulatory message during his wedding would automatically be treated as a VIP customer of Fulmer Industries, entitling them to free travel packages and restaurant vouchers, amongst other benefits. That was why the comments section of the global live stream was filled with joyful spectators anticipating the wedding of the century the day before the actual wedding. "Mr. Fulmer is so generous with his online audience! I'm already looking forward to the wedding. I don't think I'll be able to process just how grand it'll be!" "I bet that every woman is going to hate Penelope Sanders for marrying the most perfect man in the world as soon as this wedding is over!" "Aww, Eric Fulmer and Penelope Sanders were just made for each other! This feels like a fairytale come true. Dreams do come true!" "Argh, why do I still need to wait eight more hours till the wedding? I can't wait to watch the biggest and most perfect wedding of the century! I'm gonna cry!" The most perfect wedding of the century? Penelope exited the live comments page as the corners of her mouth tugged upward in a mocking smile. Ingrid sent her another provocative video, but Penelope only spared it a brief glance before locking the screen. Just a few hours later, her phone was going to appear at the "scene of the crime", with the contents of Ingrid's chat window being the first thing to show after the screen was unlocked. Penelope was looking forward to finding out how Eric would react when he realized, after her death, just how much Ingrid had been teasing and provoking her all this while. She couldn't stop smiling as she looked at the corpse lying next to her. It wore a similar wedding dress. The corpse looked uncannily like her, with a body shape and facial features that were about the same. Even Penelope's birthmark and scar had been replicated perfectly onto the dead body. Doornail Corporation had already prepared everything since a few days ago. The only thing left was for the drama to unfold the next morning.