The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 55

Annelise didn't know how she made it back to the main house.

She only remembered the blinding sunlight outside the sanctuary and the sickeningly heavy floral scent in the courtyard.

She locked herself in her room and drew all the curtains.

In the dark, she sat on the cold floor, her back pressed tightly against the edge of the bed, looking like a hollowed-out statue.

Two battlefronts.

Right now, two intricate yet subtly intersecting battlefronts lay clearly before her.

The first was Hackett and Clarissa's betrayal.

The forced sterilization, the loss of her unborn baby, the illegitimate child, the theft of her family's assets.

On this front, she had gathered a mountain of evidence: the medical reports from Vivian's hospital, Josie Platt's testimony, photos of the insurance policies, and her own firsthand account of the adulterers sleeping together in the guest room across the hall.

The endgame here was divorce, ruining their reputations, and reclaiming everything that belonged to the Sargent Group.

The second front was the mystery of Elias's life and death, which had just been ripped open right in front of her.

The diary, letters, and photograph in the sanctuary.

Plus the torn plane ticket to Oslo and those earth-shattering words: "He is not dead."

If Elias truly was alive, the entire power dynamic of the Lehman family would be overthrown instantly.

Clarissa's status as the "grieving widow" would become a monumental joke.

And her so-called "posthumous child" would entirely lose any claim to the main branch's inheritance.

These two battlefronts were like intertwined venomous snakes, biting at one another while simultaneously keeping each other upright.

Annelise knew she had to strike on both fronts at once.

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