The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 49

After a long while, he finally let out a slow sigh.

The sound carried the weary, earnest resignation of an elder.

"Annelise, you've been married into the Lehman family for four years now."

"And there has been absolutely no news of a child between you and Hackett."

"This matter... your mother is very anxious about it." He looked at Annelise, his gaze turning complex. "You know our family's traditions. Having no heir is a serious issue."

His words were like an iron hammer wrapped in velvet, slamming heavily against Annelise's chest with every strike.

"If eventually..."

He didn't finish the sentence, but the unspoken implication hung over her head like a gleaming blade.

If she remained childless, her status in the family would be in constant peril.

Handing over the shares was perhaps the only 'bargaining chip' she had left to maintain her hollow title as a high-society wife.

It was a transaction.

Trading the last safeguard her father had left her for a precarious, easily revocable position in a billionaire household.

Annelise was just about to counter with another prepared argument to shut down this blatant threat.

Just then, a sharp knock sounded on the lounge door.

Felix pushed the door open, practically rushing to Barnum's side, and whispered a few urgent words into his ear in a hushed tone.

Annelise watched as Barnum's expression drastically changed in a split second.

For the first time, his perpetually calm, fathomless eyes flashed with utter shock and disbelief.

*Bang.*

Through the thick walls, she could faintly hear Barnum on the phone—his voice deliberately lowered, yet unable to conceal his intense emotional turbulence.

What on earth was going on?

Who exactly had confirmed what?

What could make a shrewd old fox like Barnum Lehman, who never showed a hint of emotion, lose his composure like this?

Annelise picked up her now-cooling drink and took another sip.

The liquid slid bitterly down her throat, but inside, it felt as though a fire had been lit.

She knew that a massive boulder was about to be dropped into the unfathomable, stagnant waters of the Lehman family.

And her job was to find the tiny eye of the storm within the incoming tidal wave—the one spot where she could not only survive unscathed but ultimately turn the tables.