Chapter 81 | Sympathy Pain

Penelope

A laugh bubbles out of me from Donovan’s reaction about Cora. He shakes his head as he says, “Wait, she’s seriously related to you? And how? You said she’s many greats, so that means she’d be so old she should be dead, right?”

I nod as I try to stop laughing and he grumbles, “It’s not that funny.”

My lips press together to contain my laugh and I bring my hand up to his face and caress his cheek as I say, “Of course not, baby. I’m sorry. But yes, she’s really related to me. And technically, yeah, she should be dead. It’s kind of complicated. I think it’s one of the reasons she’s in hiding, if I’m being honest.”

“Well, let’s ask her why she’s in hiding.” He gets up to leave the room, but I grab his arm and say, “She needs time to herself right now. I’m the first person she’s told her story to in a while and she needs to process that right now.”

He breathes out as he sits back down in front of me. He asks, “So, what did you learn?”

I shrug, “I don’t want to go into too much detai