The Flower That Grew from Ashes novel Chapter 76

The glow of the phone screen felt jarring against the absolute darkness.

Annelise turned the brightness all the way down, rolling onto her side and pulling the blanket up to form a makeshift tent between her and Hackett. It trapped the faint light within her own small, isolated world.

She tapped into the familiar messaging app.

Pinned at the very top was the profile picture she had etched into her bones: a white gardenia.

She opened the chat, and the history flowed like a filthy, bottomless river, snaking all the way back to two years ago.

Annelise's finger swiped up rapidly.

Her heartbeat was perfectly steady.

Her hand was just as steady, firmer than a surgeon's scalpel.

She opened the camera on her backup phone, aimed it at Hackett's screen, and began meticulously photographing the damning evidence, page by page. It was enough to nail them both to the cross of public humiliation.

[Two Years Ago]

[Gardenia]: Hackett, I'm pregnant.

[Lehman]: Since when?

[Gardenia]: Last month.

[Gardenia]: Are we... keeping it?

[Lehman]: Keep it.

[Lehman]: If Elias really isn't coming back this time, at least the Lehman family will have an heir.

Reading the words "If Elias really isn't coming back," a wave of pure ice shot from the soles of Annelise's feet straight to her skull.

At that time, the news of Elias's "death" had barely been circulating for a year.

Yet Hackett Lehman was already making full preparations to capitalize on his brother's permanent absence.

How incredibly ironic, and how utterly cold-blooded.

[One and a Half Years Ago]

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