“And what was that?” her father asked calmly.
“Acceptance. People who simply accept me as I am without constantly trying to change me.”
“We didn’t want to…” her mother began, but Penny didn’t let her finish.
“Of course you wanted to change me, Mom! You wanted me to be a female Gareth who never disappointed your expectations.”
“No,” she said in a high voice. “One Gareth is truly enough.”
“What does that mean?” her brother asked in disbelief.
She sighed. “Honey, you’re wonderful. But your perfectionism and your desire to always be the best have ensured that no woman could live up to your standards and that’s unhealthy. We want you to be happy — not be the best.”
“Oh, really?” he asked sharply. “Then you conveyed that poorly!”
Now it was Darron Clark who sighed heavily. “Fine. You’re right. We didn’t always see eye to eye when it came to raising you.” He squeezed his wife’s shoulder. “But you’ve been given a lot in life, and I didn’t want it to go to your head. So you’d keep your feet on the ground…”
“…and I had endured so many newspaper headlines during my first year as Darron’s wife that I wanted to spare you that pain,” her mother murmured, lowering her gaze. “I thought that if you lived up to people’s expectations, they would have less reason to criticize you. But I should have known that people will always find a reason to gossip. No matter how perfect you are.”
Penny blinked and opened her mouth in astonishment. “You…you had to endure headlines?”
Her mother waved her hand. “A mere receptionist marries a multimillionaire? Obviously, it made the headlines.”
“But you weren’t a receptionist!” she said, perplexed. “You ran a successful hotel, you…”
“Penny, my dear,” she said. “I haven’t owned a hotel at any point in my life. I started out as a receptionist.”
Penny glanced at Gareth — her brother looked as shocked as she felt. “Why the hell didn’t we know?” he demanded.
“Because I didn’t think it was relevant,” her mother replied stubbornly. “I’m not the woman I was back then.”
Penny’s eyes burned and she leaned forward with shaking fingers. “But I’m not either, Mom,” she whispered. “That’s exactly what I wanted to show you! That you can trust me with the Hawks. That I’m strong enough and smart enough to lead them.”
“Of course you’re strong enough and smart enough, Penny,” her father said impatiently. “That was never the point.”
“So, what was the point then?” she asked desperately. “Because I don’t understand, Dad. Why all this crap? Why a competition?”
Her parents exchanged a look…before her father sighed heavily and said quietly, “Penelope, I simply wanted you to stay. Not just for a few days, but for…forever. I wanted you to give your all to the job, to build something. Something worth staying for. You ran away from your life — ran away fromus. I wanted to make sure you…stayed with us. That you wouldn’t flee again. We missed you. If I had just given the team to you both, you would have let Gareth do what he wanted and disappeared again.”
“I wouldn’t have! I…” But she stopped. Because that was exactly what she had been thinking about. That was exactly what her original plan had been. She swallowed and took a shaky breath. “Okay. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I would have left straight away, but I didn’t think you wanted me to stay,” she finally whispered. “Because no matter what I do, I always cause a scandal! I really did everything I could this time not to draw attention to myself, but I still caused chaos. And I wanted you to be proud for once. To see how competent I am…”
“Oh, darling.” Her mother patted her hand awkwardly. “We are proud. The scandals are…unfortunate. I wish you’d pay more attention. But they don’t change the fact that we are proud.”
She stared at her parents with her mouth open. “Are you serious? Why haven’t you told me?”
How could she not have known all this?
Her mother looked at her, perplexed. “Penny, to be honest, we didn’t realize that you cared about what we thought of you. You’ve always lived your life the way you wanted.”
“Well…yes! But I care about what you think!”
“We think you should stay,” her father said stubbornly. “Then we can talk about if the team…”
“But I want to stay!” she interrupted. “If you had just asked me what my plans were, I could have told that you weeks ago!” She jumped up from her chair, her heart pounding wildly in her chest.
“You want to stay?” her father asked, perplexed.
“Yes!”
