The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 2

But her body felt as if it had been encased in wet concrete.

She couldn't move a single millimeter.

She could only lay there like a living corpse.

Terror poured over her like ice water, flooding into every vein and seeping into her bones.

She would later learn the medical term for this phenomenon: anesthesia awareness. A vanishingly rare complication during general anesthesia where the patient's consciousness returns, but the muscle relaxants are still in full effect, rendering the body entirely paralyzed.

Right now, she could distinctly feel the cold, clinical press of metal instruments against her abdomen.

Those were her husband's hands, taking her baby away from her body.

A tear slipped from the corner of Annelise's eye.

She didn't know she was crying, because she couldn't even feel the act of weeping.

But the tears were undeniably falling, sliding past her temples and soaking into her hairline.

"Hiss."

A sharp intake of breath came from beside her.

Dr. Lewis, the anesthesiologist, leaned in for a closer look and casually wiped the corner of her eye with a piece of gauze.

"Just a reaction to the anesthesia, perfectly normal," he remarked, his tone as breezy as if he were wiping a spilled drop of coffee off a table.

*Normal?* Annelise wanted to laugh hysterically. *I am wide awake, feeling my baby being murdered, and you tell me this is normal?*

"Beep, beep, beep, beep."

The heart monitor suddenly spiked with a rapid sequence of beeps.

"Heart rate's a little fast." Dr. Lewis frowned, adjusting a dial on his machine. "Pushing a little more anesthetic... alright, she's stable."

Just when she thought she was finally going to slip away completely, Hackett's voice broke the silence. It was light, utterly casual, like an afterthought thrown out as he wrapped up his work.

"By the way, that file from four years ago... was it destroyed?"

Dr. Lewis paused what he was doing before answering smoothly, "Relax. It was cleaned up a long time ago. No one will ever find a trace."

Four years ago? That file?

Annelise's fading mind latched onto those words right before the darkness swallowed her whole.

Four years ago... what happened four years ago?

The rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor faded further and further away, sounding as though it were coming from the bottom of a deep ocean.

Annelise finally lost consciousness. But her tears continued to fall.