The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 156

She slowly set down her warm cup of coffee.

She let the silence stretch over the line for a very, very long time.

The pause dragged on so endlessly that Clarissa, on the other end, genuinely thought she had hung up.

"Hello? Annelise? Are you still there? Annelise?"

A sliver of creeping, subtle panic leaked into Clarissa's voice.

And then, she heard Annelise speak.

The voice traveled across the static of the connection, calm and unbothered as a frozen, rippleless lake.

There was no anger, no hatred. Not a single trace of emotional fluctuation.

"Clarissa Sherwood."

Annelise said her full name softly.

"Before you dialed this number, did it ever cross your mind?"

"If you hadn't signed your name on that surgical consent form four years ago, authorizing them to tie my tubes."

"If you hadn't stood by and watched the man you supposedly loved strip your best friend of her right to be a mother."

"If you hadn't luxuriated in my trust while simultaneously having a child with my husband—the very child you're now calling 'innocent'."

"If you hadn't weaponized my kindness and my compromises into stepping stones to climb your way up."

"You wouldn't be in this position today."

With every word Annelise spoke, the breathing on the other end of the line grew faster and heavier.

Clarissa wanted to argue back, wanted to defend herself, wanted to scream something.

But she found she couldn't form a single syllable.

Because every single word Annelise said was an undeniable, bloody fact.

Finally, Annelise delivered her last sentence with the icy finality of a judge reading a verdict.

"Manuel is innocent."

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