The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 125

"If we don't find the money to fill this hole ASAP, the banks will pull our loans, and our suppliers will cut us off! Within three months, the entire Lehman Group will have to file for bankruptcy!"

"When that happens, what about those two thousand families, those two thousand mouths relying on the Lehmans to eat?! Tell me, what then?!"

Barnum Lehman's chest heaved violently, his shrewd eyes revealing the true exhaustion and madness of a cornered titan for the first time.

Elias Lehman fell silent.

He wasn't an ignorant brute when it came to business.

On the contrary, before joining the military, he had worked at a top Wall Street investment bank for two years.

He knew his father was telling the truth.

The Lehman business crisis was real.

No matter how morally bankrupt and disgusting the methods behind it were, the massive financial hole threatening to crush the entire family was an undeniable fact.

He could take his revenge and drag everyone to hell with him.

But he couldn't ignore those two thousand innocent employee families.

The thick study doors muffled the fierce argument happening inside.

But out in the hallway shadows, Clarissa Sherwood heard every word clearly.

She was still wearing her glamorous, diamond-studded white wedding gown, though the hem was now dusty and stained with wine, and the emerald necklace sat crookedly against her skin.

Her makeup was ruined from crying, leaving messy, dark tear tracks of eyeliner and mascara running down her face.

The white gown that had once symbolized her ultimate glory now clearly bore the dirty finger marks from Lizzie's frantic beating.

Clutching Manuel, who had cried himself to sleep, she sat quietly on the cold bench at the end of the hall.

She knew her position had plummeted from a "queen about to be crowned" to a "rat chased by everyone."

There was no way she could stay at the Lehman Estate anymore.

Hackett Lehman was completely unreliable, having thrown her under the bus to save himself by declaring he "never loved her" right in front of everyone.

But she also realized one crucial thing.

As long as the Lehmans were desperate to plug that three-billion hole...

As long as Annelise Sargent's life-saving shares hadn't officially fallen into the family's hands...

When Annelise left, she didn't take a single thing with her.

She didn't take any of the jewelry he had bought her over the last four years, which she rarely wore anyway.

She didn't take the orchids she had so carefully tended to on the windowsill.

She had even taken off the Cartier wedding ring she had worn for four years, quietly leaving it on the table in the banquet hall.

The exact same table where he had signed the divorce papers.

She left so cleanly that it was as if she had never even lived in this house.

As if their four-year marriage was nothing more than his own absurd dream.

Hackett slowly lowered his head, staring at the cold black pen in his hand.

His knuckles were white from gripping it so hard.

An unfamiliar panic he refused to acknowledge began to churn and spread in his chest like cold, sticky fog. But he hadn't realized what it was yet.

He just felt like a piece of his heart was missing.