The Love From Vengeance

341: HOLDING ON

ARIEL’S POV

Janice furrowed her brows, concern etched across her features. “Mom, you shouldn’t be pushing yourself like this. You’re hurt.”

“I know, sweetheart,” I sighed, wincing as I adjusted myself on the bed. “But I had to make sure your dad

was okay.”

“But the doctors are taking care of him, right?”

“Yes, they are.” I nodded, reaching out to gently stroke her hair. “But I just needed to see him for myself, you know?”

Janice nodded, her eyes filled with understanding. “I get it, Mom. But please, promise me you’ll take it easy. You need to focus on getting better too.”

“I promise,” I replied, offering her a weak smile. “Now, how about we both try to get some rest? We could

use it.”

Janice nodded, leaning against my shoulder. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

As we settled into the quiet room, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of gratitude wash over me. Together, we would confront numerous challenges, yet our unwavering unity would be the only thing that mattered.

L

Storms could come and chaos might unfold, but with my blood by my side, those terrors would be so

bootless,

had to think of the things ahead and how everything was going to work out. Luke being there to hold me tight, and Janice

savor

ONE MONTH LATER

endless, each step echoing the

burden I could barely carry. The sterile smell permeated the air, a constant reminder of the stark reality that awaited me behind those white doors. My beloved lay there, fragile and

up to machines that

a dagger to my soul. His once vibrant eyes dulled, mirroring the agony I felt within. I reached out to hold his hand, the touch so familiar yet foreign, as if he were slipping

assuage my growing terror. Words like “critical–condition” and “uncertain prognosis hung in the air like a curse, a constant reminder of the fragility of life and the powerlessness of my love to

the long and torturous nights: 1 whispered words of encouragement and promises of better days to come, knowing deep down that I was grasping at straws, trying to hold onto a reality

insides, and leaves you gasping for breath in a world that suddenly seems devoid of color and joy. The quiet hum of machines replaced the

clung to those moments like a drowning soul to a life raft, holding onto

stretches of darkness that seemed to stretch

watching the

longer. The tears that fell were a silent testament to the pain that gnawed at

times I felt

was the steady beep of the machines, I would whisper words of love and devotion, promises of a future we might never share 1 would tell him of the dreams we

the making I knew for a fact that we would go through it all, clinging to each other–two souls bound by a love that had weathered the storm and emerged stronger on the other side. The pain of these

also ours. The pain of watching him suffer

a bond that would carry us through the darkest of times

brightest of days

being optimistic, that any day soon we would walk hand in hand into

love was a force to be reckoned with, a beacon of hope in a world

uncertainty and pain