Austin's POV
If you could choose to return to any moment in your past, when would you choose? After Penelope and my father died, I asked myself this question countless times - no, to be precise, I've been asking myself this every single day of what remains of my miserable existence.
My answer varies, but there's one constant thread connecting all my imagined returns - every moment I choose to revisit exists before Penelope reached adulthood.
I've been psychologically frozen in that cursed year when I lost them both. My soul stopped keeping time when theirs ceased to beat. While the world moved forward, I remained trapped in that endless summer of grief, my heart buried alongside their coffins.
But today... Today, witnessing Penelope's miraculous "resurrection," I experienced something extraordinary - a fleeting yet undeniable awareness that I am, against all odds, living in the present again. After years of emotional rigor mortis, I felt my heart restart at the sight of her.
