[Flashback]
Penny’s sniffles and hiccups echoed in the room as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, but to no avail. No matter how many tis she tried to dry her eyes, she couldn’t. Her tears were simply overflowing.
Smacking her lips, she forced a smile as she gazed at the man lying on the bed. She reached out to Charles’s hand, squeezing it gently.
"Daddy," she called, pausing to let the chanical heart rate fill the silence. "Please don’t leave...?"
Before Charles’s accident, things had always been bad. However, even when he disciplined and scolded her, he would still calmly talk to her afterward. Penny had been subjected to many accusations from Nina and her cousin, Sofia. Jessa and the Bennet family weren’t helping at all. Charles had no choice but to discipline her privately, but he always defended her publicly.
It wasn’t ideal, and he wasn’t perfect.
However, ever since Charles had his accident, no one could protect her anymore. Even Allison was being talked down to by Charles’s own family. They even blad her for what happened to him.
"Dad... can you be... okay?" she whispered with quivering lips. "Brother Atlas is becoming scary..."
In this life, Penny couldn’t understand everything. She couldn’t understand why Atlas had beco so strict with everything and everyone—especially with her. She was too young to realize that with Charles in such an unstable state, Atlas had to grow up faster to take care of the family. Allison was too weak and could only endure the verbal and ntal abuse from the Bennet family.
Penny had no idea, even at sixteen years old. All she knew was that if Charles got better, things would improve. However, their hope that Charles would get better was slowly dimming. After all, he hadn’t shown any signs of improvent, and today, he had a heart attack.
"I’m scared... Daddy," her shaky voice echoed, her grip on his hand trembling. "Please wake up. I’ll be a good girl if you do. I promise I won’t cause any trouble anymore, and I will not do bad things."
Her vision blurred again as tears coated her eyes. "Daddy... please wake up."
But just as those words left her mouth, the heart rate monitor started producing loud, frantic sounds. Penny snapped out of her thoughts, turning her head toward the machine.
"Dad? Daddy?!" she panicked, tugging his hand. "Dad! What’s going on?! Daddy?!"
Her mind slowly blanked as panic overtook her. She didn’t know what to do or what to say until a group of nurses rushed into the ward. All Penny rembered was the dical professionals surrounding Charles, doing all sorts of things calmly while so of them took her away.
"What’s going on?!" Suddenly, Atlas’s voice was heard from behind. "Dad! What’s going on with him?! What’s happening to my dad?!"
Atlas raised his voice as he tried to get in, but the nurses kept him from approaching the bed. They dragged Penny and Atlas away as they both cried and shouted. Before they could even reach the door, Atlas and Penny heard the flatline echo in their ears.
Penny and Atlas stared at their father’s side profile vacantly, as if their minds had gone completely blank. They couldn’t think or react properly. They didn’t even have any idea of what was going on. All they could do was listen to the flatline before the doctor looked at each other and shook their heads.
When the doctor in charge called Charles’s ti of death, everything that happened afterward was a blur for Penny and Atlas. They had no idea when Allison or their relatives arrived. They didn’t even know how they left the hospital.
Everything just happened without any of the events afterward registering with either of them.
When their brains finally started functioning again, all they rembered was standing in front of their father’s grave while Allison fainted after crying her heart out.
Penny rembered Atlas running to Allison and calling for help. But she couldn’t rember helping as she stared at the grave with a blank face. She couldn’t even recall what she had done after the funeral; all of their relatives talked about her for not showing any reaction, even when her mother fainted.
There were many things Penny couldn’t rember from the ti her father passed... one of them was telling him she loved him. She couldn’t rember expressing those words to Charles or to Allison. She also couldn’t recall hearing those words from them.
It was one of the regrets she held secretly: not telling them she loved them, regardless of everything else.
******
"I love you," Penny blurted out, surprised at herself. However, her surprise didn’t last long as it was replaced with a subtle smile. "I love you... the two of you."
Allison and Charles furrowed their brows, taken aback by the words that ca out of her mouth. Although Penny had been with them for years, for so reason, these words sounded so unfamiliar to them. Not that they thought she didn’t love them, but they believed Penny simply wasn’t the type to say such things to people.
She showed her love for her family through her actions, after all. However, hearing those words might be surprising, but they weren’t unpleasant to the ears.
Slowly, Allison’s and Charles’s expressions softened. This ti, Charles reached out to his daughter and pulled her into his embrace.
"Ahh, my princess..." he smiled in relief, planting a soft kiss on the top of her head. Allison also hugged the two of them, smiling.
"Oh, Penny." Allison teared up, closing her eyes. "I love you, my dear. Mom loves you the most."
"Dad loves you the most too." Charles chuckled, retrieving one of his arms from Penny to embrace his wife as well. "Oh, my girls. I feel like crying... my daughter is surely the sweetest. Just stay with us for the rest of your life."
Penny smiled subtly, the corners of her eyes reddening as she held back her tears and closed her eyes. She basked in the warmth of her parents, thanking the heavens for the chance to say those words to them. It wasn’t like she was expecting anything in return, but hearing them say they loved her was good enough.
"Uhhh..." Slater pointed at himself, taking a step forward to join them. However, before he could even move, Charles waved dismissively as if he weren’t needed in this family anymore.
"But I’m... I’m family too!"
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