The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 119

When did she find out?

How did she know?

If she knew, why on earth did she marry him?

If she knew, why had she endured this freezing, suffocating prison for four entire years?

A million questions exploded in his brain like tangled shrapnel.

Annelise looked right through his confusion.

She answered the questions he hadn't even managed to voice.

Her voice was incredibly soft, floating through the dead-silent hall like a feather, yet it echoed with crystal clarity in everyone's ears.

"I didn't know you never loved me."

Her gaze was icy and clear, as if she were simply stating an objective fact that no longer had anything to do with her.

"I found that out on the operating table."

"But from that moment on, who you were, and whether you loved me, stopped mattering entirely."

She slowly shifted her gaze away from his shocked, disbelieving face, dismissing him like a piece of dusty old trash.

"What matters is..."

She paused, before delivering the final, absolute death sentence to his pathetic, belated confession.

And then, she offered a faint, genuine smile of pure gratitude to the brother-in-law she had met only once, but who was the absolute only person to extend a hand when she was at her lowest.

She reached back into her blood-soaked pocket. This time, she didn't pull out the silver flash drive. She pulled out a neatly folded, pre-printed document sealed in a folder.

It wasn't the humiliating 'divorce agreement' loaded with traps and predatory clauses that the Lehmans had tried to force on her. It was a legitimate divorce decree, custom-drafted word for word by Zachary Coleman, solely to protect her rights and her future.

Gripping the papers, she walked step by step toward Hackett. Walking right past him, she slammed the document onto the pristine white tablecloth right behind him.

The sound wasn't loud, but it cracked like a sharp slap across Hackett's face.

She looked at him, her tone as clinical as a judge delivering a final verdict. "Sign it."

Hackett slowly lowered his head. He stared at the document that offered no 'amicable split.' It merely offered a permanent 'clean break.'