The Reclaimed Rose (Annalise and Steven)

Chapter 10

I stared at Steven in disbelief.

He quickly handed me the test results. He was clearly looking forward to the arrival of this new life. "You suddenly fainted last night. I was so scared. The doctor ran some tests and found out you're pregnant.

"But with all the stress you've been under lately, your emotions have been unstable, and the baby is at risk. You'll need to stay in the hospital for a while to stabilize the pregnancy."

I took the paper from him. The moment I saw the image of the tiny, unformed life, I couldn't look away. The sight of it brought a small sense of comfort to my shattered heart. Gently, I placed a hand over my abdomen, my mind swirling with thoughts.

Growing up in a single-parent household after my father passed away, I didn't want my child to go through the same.

"Steven," I said, breaking the silence.

He looked at me, confused. "Yes?"

I lifted my gaze and felt a new resolve. "I'm willing to move past everything that's happened. For the sake of this child, let's try to be the way we were before. Can we do that?" Steven met my eyes, then nodded. "Yes."

He then took out a small velvet box. "Honey." His expression was slightly nervous as he opened it to reveal a pair of lily-shaped earrings.

I was surprised. He rarely gave me gifts since we got married. "What's this?"

"It's a present for you," he replied, his voice a bit tense.

"Thank you." I accepted it.

Despite everything that had happened over the past few days, the little life growing inside me gave me a glimmer of happiness.

Just then, Steven's phone rang, and he said he had to leave for work. After a quick kiss, he left the room.

I gently touched my stomach, feeling a sense of tenderness.

At this moment, my phone pinged with a notification. I opened it absentmindedly. It was a message from Zachary-an image of Jessica's Instagram post.

I tapped on it and saw the caption read, "Thank you, Mr. Pelham, for the diamond ring this morning. By the way, the jewelry store has terrible taste. They threw in these ugly lily-shaped earrings as a freebie. They looked so cheap, so I told Mr. Pelham to toss them." The photo was a selfie of Jessica. What caught the eye most was her hand resting against her cheek, with a massive diamond ring on her ring finger.

cut, and even

seeing that, I gripped my phone tightly. The spot where Steven had kissed

worried about me. Instead, he was buying an expensive

I woke up, he tried to placate me with the cheap freebies

think so little of

to appease and that I would be grateful for

of despair crashed over me,

like this and then use empty words to pull me back every

felt the room

then, my phone rang, snapping me out of

I answered, "Hello?"

come see me?" Zachary's voice sounded

do something foolish again, I immediately got up and said, "I'll come right now. Where are you?"

him standing on the stairs. The sunlight from the

though he had done so many things to hurt me before, seeing him look so vulnerable still made me instinctively

front of him. "What's

Daddy doesn't love you, he'll stay with you for

Why was Jessica telling

to explain, Zachary continued, "She also said that you might be mad at me because of what I did. And when you have another baby, you'll shift your attention to

just a child, and when faced with problems, he didn't know how to ask an adult

hands on his shoulders and said sincerely, "No, Zachary. You're my son. No matter what, I will always

if the baby was gone, Daddy would only love me, and he'd listen to me and divorce you so he could marry

sent a chill down my

kind of things had Jessica been telling

to my ward and have a proper talk.

could take a step, I felt

"I'm sorry, Mommy. Mommy Jessie poured oil on the stairs. She told me to bring you

making it nearly unbearable, while my heart felt as if it was being torn apart.

he was just

his young age, he should still have some compassion. Yet, he seemed so indifferent to the fact that I-his mother-was being schemed against

the haze, I saw a