The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 3

Annelise had no idea how long she had been unconscious. Her awareness drifted in a deep sea, occasionally pulled upward by a shaft of light only to plunge right back down.

She kept having the same recurring nightmare. In the dream, she stood in the center of a blindingly bright operating room. She looked down to see her stomach sliced open, and inside, there was nothing. It was entirely empty. Hackett stood across from her. He pulled down his surgical mask and smiled at her.-

It was a gentle smile, exactly the same one he gave her every morning when he handed her a cup of milk. It was the smile that had fooled her for four years.

"Annelise? Anne, can you hear me?"

A voice dragged her out of the nightmare. Her consciousness thrashed its way to the surface.

The first thing Annelise felt was pain. A dull, relentless ache throbbed in her lower abdomen, rising in heavy, suffocating waves. Then came the sharp sting of the IV needle in the back of her hand.

And then, her hearing returned.

The sound of the hospital room door opening and clicking shut, footsteps, the squeak of a medical cart rolling across the floor...

And Hackett's voice.

"You're awake?"

Just a few words, colored with perfectly calibrated concern.

Annelise didn't open her eyes right away.

It wasn't because she couldn't. The anesthesia was slowly wearing off, and she could feel the faint ability to curl her fingers returning.

She simply didn't dare to open them. She was terrified that the second she opened her eyes and saw that face, she would lose all control and start screaming.

"Anne, the surgery was a success." Hackett's voice drew closer. He seemed to be leaning over her. "The ectopic pregnancy has been completely taken care of. Just rest now, don't worry."

He was still pushing the ectopic pregnancy lie.

Annelise's fingernails dug silently into her palms.

"I made sure the incision was as small as possible, so the scar will be barely visible. We'll focus on your recovery for a while, and then... we'll have kids."

Kids? He had personally tied her tubes four years ago, and now he was standing here telling her they would "have kids." Annelise found that sentence infinitely colder than a scalpel.

Wait. Tubal ligation?

Annelise's thoughts were suddenly pierced by a critical piece of information. Right before she had completely lost consciousness in the OR, she had heard something else.

"Dr. Lehman, while we're at it, should I check if the ligation from four years ago is still intact?"

Ligation.

The word slammed into Annelise's brain fully formed, like a delayed-fuse bomb finally detonating.

Four years ago, in the third month of their marriage, she had been hospitalized for "acute appendicitis."

Hackett had performed the surgery himself. He had told her it was minimally invasive, a very minor procedure, and there was nothing to worry about.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify