The Reclaimed Rose (Annalise and Steven)

She thought her cocky provocation would trigger me, but I ignored them and strode to the living room.

Steven "kindly" explained to her on my behalf, "She's just pissed at the moment. But don't worry. I'm sure she'll get over it by the time we come home." Zachary chimed in, "Yeah. She might be annoying, but she cooks great food! We're gonna have a feast tonight!"

Jessica was excited. "Really? Oh, I'm looking forward to it already!"

They seemed to believe I still loved Steven and that I would drag my still-recovering body to make them a feast just to get his

forgiveness, almost as if they failed to notice I had been looking at him like he was a random nutjob.

After they left, I entered the storage room, found my suitcase, and brought it into my room. One after another, my belongings went into the suitcase.

I had to pack up my stuff in advance so I could drag my suitcase and leave once Steven agreed to the divorce.

There weren't many items in the house that belonged to me. Other than a few shirts in the laundry, phone chargers, and some documents, I stuffed everything into my suitcase.

I opened one of the cabinets and wanted to pack my skirts when I saw a cell phone placed above them. Under the phone was a piece of paper. I took a look at them.

It turned out to be a pregnancy report, confirming Jessica was nine weeks pregnant. So, who was the father? Was it Steven?

As I pondered, I pressed the power button on the phone and saw the screen lit up. It displayed the chat between Jessica and her ex-husband, where she last texted him yesterday.

"I'm pregnant. The baby's yours. Probably conceived it before you left the country two months ago.

According to Steven's description, Jessica's ex-husband was abusive. If that was the case, shouldn't she be doing everything she could to stay away from him?

Yet, she contacted him first.

At that moment, I had an interesting epiphany. Did that mean Jessica had been getting entangled with Steven and staying connected with her ex-husband at the same time? And she was pregnant with the latter's child? Oh, my!

If Steven found out that the woman he found too precious to touch was bearing another man's child, he would be devastated.

I couldn't help but smile at that thought. Obviously, now was not the best time to tell Steven about it. Oh, I looked forward to the day they had a face-off!

Pulling out my phone, I captured a photo of their conversation and helped the careless Jessica remove her text.

Then, I turned the phone off, set it aside with the report, folded my skirts, and packed them into my suitcase.

I barely had any clothes. Even after tossing all my belongings into the bag, I hardly filled it up.

After zipping it up, I placed it back into the storage room. I went to the living room to get myself a glass of water after getting thirsty from the long packing session. At that moment, Steven frantically barged into the house.

He had always been coolheaded, yet his voice was tinged with utter remorse and regret this time. "Honey, Zachary has been kidnapped

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