The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 47

Annelise looked up, meeting Clarissa's gentle, smiling eyes, and returned the smile.

"I just don't want to keep bothering him," her voice was soft, laced with the considerate tone of a devoted wife. "You know how it is, Clarissa. Hackett is so busy at the hospital, with back-to-back surgeries every day. How could I bear to interrupt him over something so minor?"

"Besides, when it comes to herbal remedies and women's health, it's just more convenient for us women to handle it among ourselves."

The two women volleyed their words, hiding sharp daggers beneath polite conversation, while presenting a flawless picture of familial harmony and mutual understanding on the surface.

Listening to their exchange, Lizzie looked visibly satisfied, feeling that her two daughters-in-law had finally learned how to behave properly.

That afternoon, while Annelise was reading in her room, Harriet hurried in, clutching her phone, looking pale.

"Madam." She closed the door and lowered her voice. "I think someone tampered with my phone."

Annelise looked up from her book.

"What do you mean?"

"When I went to help out in the kitchen around noon, I left my phone charging on the small side table. When I got back, I noticed it had been moved." Harriet's face was drawn with lingering anxiety. "I didn't have a passcode on it. I don't know... I don't know if someone looked through my stuff."

Annelise's heart sank.

Clarissa was moving faster than she had anticipated.

Checking the security cameras might have just been a diversion; her real target had been Harriet's phone all along.

"Give it to me," Annelise held out her hand.

Taking Harriet's smartphone, she didn't hesitate for a second. She quickly connected it via cable to the old burner phone and transferred all their call logs, text messages, and the secretly taken photo of Manuel.

Once done, she completely wiped Harriet's phone, deleting every single trace until it was completely clean.

"Don't use this phone anymore," Annelise said, handing the burner phone to Harriet. "From now on, we only use this one to communicate."

That night, after washing up and just as Annelise was about to get into bed.

The light spilling in from the hallway under her door was suddenly blocked by a tall silhouette.

She heard the familiar footsteps.

It was Hackett.

He was home.

His footsteps paused briefly in the hallway, but instead of walking toward her room, they headed straight for the door directly opposite hers.

In that moment, Annelise felt as though an invisible hand had gripped her heart.

She heard a key slip into the lock and turn with a soft click.

Then, the sound of a door being pushed open and swiftly shut.

After the door closed, the light inside that room flickered through the gap underneath for less than a minute before turning off completely.

The entire second-floor hallway plunged back into dead silence.

But out of sheer, unadulterated rage.

It was a fury mixed with disgust, humiliation, and a towering hatred that threatened to tear her apart entirely.

She didn't know how long passed, but the violent trembling eventually subsided.

Slowly, she lifted her face from the pillow.

In the darkness, her eyes shone terrifyingly bright, like twin ghost fires in a graveyard that would never be extinguished.

Getting up, she walked to her desk and opened the hardcover notebook.

Under the wavering light, she turned to a fresh page and, with a force that nearly tore the paper, etched her fourth piece of evidence.

[Time: October 16th, 11:20 PM to 11:50 PM.]

[Location: Second-floor west suite.]

[Event: Hackett Lehman and Clarissa Sherwood had intimate relations.]

She would document everything.

She would carve down every filthy, illicit act, stroke by stroke.

Until the day everything was in place, and she could take this blood-soaked ledger and smash it ruthlessly into their faces.