The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 155

Annelise didn't hang up right away.

Her fingers gripped the icy phone in a death hold, her knuckles turning bone-white from the force.

Yet, her face betrayed absolutely nothing.

She was as unnervingly calm as a statue buried under the snow.

It wasn't out of sympathy.

Whenever the name Clarissa Sherwood crossed her mind, all that remained was the frigid, dead silence of ashes after a fire.

She was merely, suddenly, a little curious.

She wanted to know what this woman, who had practically rewritten the definition of "shameless," could possibly say or do by reaching out to her now, of all times.

She didn't speak. She even shallowed her breathing.

She just waited quietly for the person on the other end to start the performance.

Clarissa clearly hadn't anticipated this dead, suffocating silence.

The barrage of tears and desperate pleading she had prepared hit a brick wall and was shoved right back down her throat.

She froze for a few seconds before seemingly snapping back to reality, erupting into a sharper, more gut-wrenching wail.

"Annelise... I know... I know I'm so sorry... I'm a monster... I'm worse than an animal..."

Her voice broke in waves, every single word soaked in an unbearably thick layer of regret and despair. She sounded exactly like a cornered gambler making one last, pathetic play.

Annelise listened in absolute silence.

She even walked over to the counter and topped off her lukewarm coffee with some fresh hot water.

Clarissa cried to the dead air for several minutes.

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