Forever and Always ✔️

Chapter fifty eight - Zack/Penelope.

You would never imagine what you life would actually turn out like. You would never think it would have ended up the way it did. I didn't think I would miss nine months of my life and I didn't think I would have a daughter to wake up to.

Katie. She was beautiful, just like her mom. I had always wanted to have kids when I was old enough but I never thought I would have one now. If someone told me a year ago I would be in love and we'd have a baby together as teenagers, I would have laughed in their face.

I didn't remember much. All I remembered was that a truck crashed into our car and I never saw the light of day that is, until I woke up a few weeks ago. I remembered the dreams I had and I could hear Penelope talk to me in them. She was telling me everything that was going on and that she'd never give up on me.

She had changed. She wasn't the girl I knew a year ago who didn't trust anyone and always kept to herself. Now, she opened up to me and told me everything. I couldn't imagine what it was like for her, carrying our child and watching me slowly fade away but I fought it. I knew it wasn't my time, I knew that I was on this earth for a reason and that was to love our daughter and to never give up on her.

It was the day after Penelope's eighteenth birthday and we decided to spend the day at her place with Katie. Mom and dad were back at work while Matt was at school. I watched my beautiful girlfriend rock our baby in her arms and stroking her head. "You're a natural." I said as I cane up from behind and wrapped my arms around her stomach.

She looked back at me and smiled. I buried my head in her neck and looked down at Katie as she slept peacefully in her mother's arms. I wanted to wake her up because she was so adorable but, Penelope would probably get mad, we hadn't sleep properly in the last few weeks.

We had been mainly staying at Penelope's until we would find our own place which we would do. I urged Penelope to go back to school so she could have a career while I stayed at home with Katie but, she wanted us to raise our child together. She still worked part time at the diner as I got myself a job at the bar that Penelope's dad owned.

We'll be saving enough money for a small place so we could be a proper family. Penelope set down Katie in her crib and we both watched her sleep for a moment until we heard the front door open and close. She took the baby monitor and my hand and we headed downstairs to greet Penelope's dad who just got home from a shift at the bar.

"How was work?" Penelope asked as she gently sat herself on the couch, closing her eyes.

"Fine." Her father said.

Penelope's eyes slowly opened and she glared at him. "What's wrong?"

I took a seat beside Penelope and wrapped my arm around her as she leaned into me. Her father sighed and took out an envelope from his jacket pocket. "I was supposed to give you this yesterday but, I couldn't bring myself to do it."

Penelope sat up and took the envelope. Her eyes read the back of it and she smiled. "It's from my mom."

Penelope's POV.

I couldn't believe what I was holding. I noticed the neat handwriting that she always had, my name written on the back perfectly. "She wrote it before she died, for your eighteenth," dad said, "she wanted me to give it to you."

Tears swelled up in my eyes, it was so unexpected. The last time me and my mother ever saw each other was when she was trying to kill me with the bathroom scissors. I never would have known what went through her mind that night. Did she even remember what she did before she died?

The baby monitor lit up with small cries in the background, bringing me back to reality. How could I read this now? It had been years. "I'll leave you to it." Dad headed into the kitchen and disappeared around the corner.