The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 69

In his mind, she was a woman who couldn't even make sense of a credit card statement, completely clueless about numbers or business.

Over the past four years, he had grown accustomed to her "ignorance" and "dependence" on him.

He assumed that as long as he dressed the agreement up in complicated, official-sounding jargon, she would just sign her name without a second thought, just like she always did.

His silence confirmed everything.

The air in the study turned even more freezing and stagnant.

Annelise sneered inwardly.

Look at this. This was the man she had loved for four years.

Spouting pretty lies about "setting each other free" while burying the most greedy, shameless traps in the paperwork.

He didn't just want her marriage, her womb, and her life.

He wanted to rip away the very last safety net her father had left her to survive on.

After a long pause, Hackett finally found his voice.

He took off his glasses and exhaustedly pinched the bridge of his nose.

It was a gesture that stripped away some of his elite, icy exterior, revealing a hint of human vulnerability.

"Anne, we can renegotiate the shares."

He pivoted his strategy, his tone softening with a touch of appeasement and compromise.

"I admit, my father... put some pressure on me. It wasn't my idea."

Just like that, he effortlessly threw the blame onto Barnum.

"I just want us to split peacefully. I don't want things to get ugly or destroy whatever dignity we have left."

Destroy her dignity?

When he stood in the operating room, personally tying her tubes and murdering the unborn child in her womb, did he care about her dignity then?

When he sat by her hospital bed, texting explicit, flirtatious messages to her best friend, did he offer her any dignity?

When he brought his illegitimate son into the Lehman household, forcing her to look like a complete joke while they played "happy family," did he ever once stop to think if she had any dignity left?

Annelise felt a wave of nausea seep straight into her bones.

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