The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 283

Chapter 250: The Drift Begins-1

Bella POV

I set the phone back on the nightstand, turning over onto my side as the quietness of Sunday night finally closed in around me.

The long, quiet night rolled into morning, the dark sky outside my window fading into a pale, watery blue.

By eight o’clock, the familiar daytime hum of the high-risk ward started up again. Trays clattered down the hallway, nurses clicked past on the linoleum, and the bright morning sun cut across my white blankets.

On Monday morning, a nurse tapped gently on the door frame and stepped inside, carrying a large glass vase filled with fresh white and pale yellow flowers.

“These just arrived for you at the front desk, Bella,” she said, giving me a warm smile as she set the heavy glass down on the wide windowsill.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

She checked my IV line quickly and headed back out. I looked over at the windowsill. There was no note, but the simple, clean arrangement was exactly the same as last week.

Olivier.

Later that afternoon, I opened my messages. Enzo had sent a four-minute voice note. I tapped play, holding the phone to my ear while Caleb was out of the room getting water.

“Bella!” Enzo’s voice boomed through the speaker, full of overlapping street noise. “Tom’s drawing is incredible. I cannot tell if it is modern art or a cry for help from a child who needs more dinosaur books. Send him more books. Also, tell Caleb I think your baby is going to have my sense of style. Don’t tell him I said it warmly, though. He doesn’t need the ego boost.”

I pressed my hand over my mouth to stifle a laugh.

Right under his message was a text from Olivier.

Olivier: How are you

I typed back a simple, clear message: The pressure stopped. Doctors are happy with the monitors today.

His reply came back less than a minute later: Good. Stay there.

I locked my phone and set it down on the sheets. The room grew completely quiet, save for the steady, rhythmic ticking of the fetal monitor.

I picked up the device again, scrolling past Olivier’s name. Past Enzo. Past Diana, Maya, and Sebastien.

My thumb hovered over a name I had not touched in almost a year.

Margaret

Sometimes I wondered why I still had not removed her number from my contacts list.

Chapter 250 The Arift Begins 1

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It made no sense. This was the woman who had called me an embarrassment, who turned her back on me whent was pregnant and completely alone in the rain. I had blocked her long ago, but the ten digits of her phone number remained saved in my storage, a stubborn ghost in my phone.

I pressed down on her name, holding it until the small menu popped up.

Delete Contact.

The letters glowed under my thumb. It was a simple fix. One tap, and she would be gone from my screen for good, just like she was gone from my life.

My thumb hovered right over the red text. My skin brushed the glass. But my hand froze. My chest felt tight, and my breath caught in my throat.

I tried to push my thumb down to finish it, to delete her completely and prove to myself that she could not hurt me anymore. I wanted to be the Iron Empress who felt nothing.

I couldn’t do it. My finger trembled against the screen. I just could not press the button.

Frustrated with my own hesitation, I clicked off the menu, slid the phone under my pillow.

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