The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 5

Annelise kept her eyes open, staring blankly at the pale ceiling.

The room was so quiet she could clearly hear the heavy, rhythmic thumping of her own steadied heart beating inside her chest.

She slowly shifted her gaze, scanning the empty hospital room.

It was a private VIP suite, personally arranged by Hackett.

Enjoying the finest medical resources he could provide, lying on the very slaughterhouse table he had orchestrated, Annelise's mind began uncontrollably replaying every sound from the operating room.

The sharp clink of metal instruments.

The casual banter of Dr. Lewis.

Nurse Josie's weak, trembling question.

And Hackett. Every word he spoke was like an ice-tipped needle driving straight into her memory.

"Proceed as planned."

"Take it out."

Annelise's breath hitched. She remembered more.

Just as her baby was being lifted from her body and the surgery was nearing its end, Hackett's voice cut through the room—utterly devoid of warmth, as detached as if he were commenting on an academic paper. "Make the stitches neat. Don't leave a visible scar."

Lying there completely paralyzed, Annelise had almost burst into hysterical laughter upon hearing that.

He murdered her child, yet put on a hypocritical show of caring whether her stomach would bear an ugly scar.

Was this the final shred of "dignity" he could offer her as a husband?

Clarissa was Hackett’s sister-in-law, and Annelise's nominal best friend.

Hackett’s brother, Elias Lehman, was a stern and unsmiling military man. He had "died" unexpectedly during an overseas deployment in their second year of marriage. No body was ever recovered. Overnight, Clarissa became a widow.

In a highly patriarchal, rigid family like the Lehmans, a young widowed daughter-in-law held an incredibly awkward and precarious position.

Annelise had genuinely pitied this "sister-in-law" who, like her, had no real allies in the Lehman household. She had treated Clarissa like blood.

Lizzie Zucker, Hackett's mother, suffered from erratic mental health after losing her eldest son, often taking her anger out on Clarissa. It was Annelise who constantly played peacemaker, stepping in to shield her.

The wedding fund Annelise had brought from the Sargent Group was slowly being devoured by the Lehman family's business. Even as she found herself strapped for cash, she would secretly funnel her own private savings to Clarissa, just so the widow could maintain some dignity in the household.

For four entire years, they were practically inseparable. Yet she had never, not once, heard Clarissa mention she had a child named "Manuel." A child who would run a fever in the middle of the night, requiring Hackett to abandon his wife—who had just "miscarried"—and rush over immediately to care for him.