The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 168

After he finished, he smiled at Annelise. His eyes, which took on a fascinating gray-blue hue in the sunset, held an all-knowing, gentle warmth.

He didn't say anything more. Turning around, he walked out of the shop, his tall figure quickly disappearing around the corner of the street.

Annelise stood alone in the empty store, still gripping the cold broom handle, as the word Yves had used echoed over and over in her mind.

"Stubborn."

How long had it been since she last heard that word?

When she was little, her mother would use that exact word to describe her, her tone laced with a mix of endearment and exasperation.

"Our Anne is the most stubborn girl. She falls, scrapes her knees bloody, and never cries once. She just dusts herself off, gets up, and keeps running."

When did she stop being "stubborn"?

Probably from the moment she joined the Lehman family—from the exact second she decided to play the role of the "good wife" and "perfect daughter-in-law."

For four years, she had been like a jagged rock, eroded and smoothed over day after day by the rushing river of her marriage.

She had sanded away all her stubbornness, all her sharp edges.

She learned to endure, to yield, to swallow all her grievances and bitterness.

She morphed into the compliant, obedient, sensible, flawless Lehman wife who never caused anyone trouble.

But these past three short months of solitude and freedom made her realize that the stubborn-as-a-mule Annelise—the girl she thought she had killed with her own hands—was slowly coming back to life inside her.

That night, Annelise returned to her apartment. After finalizing the shop's accounts, she opened her laptop to reply to a few customer emails.

Just then, a new email notification popped up in the bottom right corner of the screen.

The sender was an unfamiliar address with a French domain.

But the subject line struck her eyes like a bolt of lightning.

"Invitation: Exposition Internationale des Créateurs Floraux Paris 2023"

(Invitation: Paris International Floral Designers' Exhibition 2023)

Annelise's heart completely stopped in her chest.

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