Page 224 of A Love Like Venom

The doctors had said that I was as sure as dead and it was miraculous that I woke up. They don't know how to explain it.

Except I know.

I knew as soon as I wrapped my fingers around hers with all the strength that I had why I woke up.

It was her.

She breathed life back into me. She gave me her bleeding battered heart. All her fucking strength. She gave me everything.

And I found her soul, her soul that belongs to me, her soul that couldn't exist without me and I woke up.

She's the reason I'm alive.

She's everything.

Which is why I'm doing everything in my power to be stronger for her. Because the man who nearly died six months ago wasn't strong enough to protect her.

I need to be better.

Stronger. Faster. More powerful.

My body needs to be a fucking machine. Built to where it can never fail her again.

Because I had failed her.

And I fucking hate myself because of it.

"Reed.” Her calm soothing voice calls out to me. It's enough to break me out of my dark thoughts but not enough to stop me from pushing myself to the breaking point.

My physical therapist mutters something underneath his breath but I don't catch it. I don't have to look at him to know that he's frustrated.

I increase the speed on the treadmill to nine miles per hour. My legs are like jello beneath me but I haven't collapsed yet. The burning sensation in my chest is now an inferno. My head pounds and pounds until it's the only thing that I can hear. Sweat continues to pour down back. The muscles in my legs are strained to where they are about to snap.

A movement happens in my peripheral vision and before I know it Alice stands in front of the treadmill. She's staring me down with pursed lips and unreadable eyes.

She's probably disappointed in me.

She should be disappointed in me.

I promised her.

I fucking promised her that she would be safe with me. That no one would lay a fucking hand on her.

I broke that.

"You keep pushing yourself like this you won't make a full recovery," she tells me, her voice filled with concern.

I glance away from her and increase the speed on the treadmill. Ten miles per hour. I'm sprinting at a death pace. I feel it in my lungs and it spreads throughout my entire body. I'm almost there. Almost at my breaking point.

Her hands clasp the outer part of the treadmill. "You keep going like this Reed you're going to kill yourself. And I won't forgive you for that. I can’t.” Her voice breaks at the end. It's then, through the sweat and blurred vision that I see her honey brown eyes swimming with unshed tears.

Fuck.

That's the last thing I want to do.

I slam my hand down on the stop button harshly. The treadmill slows its pace and comes to a stop several seconds later.

Out of breath, legs wobbly and both mentally and physically exhausted I rest my upper body over the treadmill.

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