The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 6

It felt as if an invisible hand were crushing Annelise's heart, making it impossible to breathe.

Just then, the door was pushed open gently.

It wasn't Hackett returning, but two nurses.

They wheeled her bed out, preparing to move her from the recovery area to a proper suite.

"Take it slow, the patient just got out of surgery." One of the nurses whispered.

The wheels rumbled softly across the linoleum floor.

Annelise kept her eyes shut, her eyelashes casting dead, still shadows under the hallway lights.

The anesthesia was still wearing off; her body felt like lead, but her hearing was sharper than it had ever been.

As they passed the nurses' station, she heard the nurse pushing her bed lower her voice and mutter to a colleague. "It gives me the creeps every time I see Dr. Lehman operate on his own wife..."

The other nurse chimed in immediately, her voice even lower, laced with a conspiratorial taboo. "This is the second time, isn't it?"

"Sure is. Four years ago, the appendicitis—he insisted on doing that one himself, too. You have to wonder about those two..."

"Shh!" The first nurse quickly cut her off. "Keep your voice down, do you want to get fired?"

The conversation died instantly.

But those words had already seared themselves into Annelise's brain like a branding iron.

Just as she thought, the appendicitis four years ago definitely hadn't been an accident.

The bed was wheeled into a more spacious suite and locked into place. The nurses adjusted her IV bags, checked the monitors, and quietly slipped out of the room.

After the door closed, the world fell silent once again.

Annelise could hear the sounds outside the window.

The wind had picked up. Then, raindrops began to smack against the glass, quickly blurring into a heavy downpour.

The rushing sound of the rain, mixed with the faint rhythm of her own exhausted breathing, sounded like a suffocating dirge played exclusively for her and her dead baby.

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