The Reclaimed Rose (Annalise and Steven)

Steven spoke deliberately, his voice devoid of emotion. Yet, his words hit Chloe like a bolt of lightning.

Her lips parted slightly, but it took her a long time to respond. "I never expected things to turn out this way."

"Does that mean you can just shirk responsibility?" Steven mocked coldly.

Chloe had no answer to that.

Steven continued, "You can't. The reality is that Zachary won't forgive you. And neither will I. You might as well stay home, focus on Jessica's child, and live your life."

Just as he was about to hang up, Chloe quickly interjected, "Didn't you forgive us before?"

Steven paused before replying, "The fact that you can still reach me by phone is proof enough that I don't hate you."

Chloe let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Steven added, "For now, I can't get over the fact that I'll never have another child forever."noveldrama

The heavy feeling began to weigh down in Chloe's chest when she heard that.

...

Otis showed up at Zane's house in the middle of the night.

Zane was surprised to see him and was about to ask why he had come when Otis suddenly rushed up to me and blurted out, "I'm sorry!"

I let out a dry laugh. "Yelena couldn't seduce Zane, so now you're here to

apologize to me. If she had succeeded, wouldn't you already have had me under your thumb?"

Otis frowned. "How could you think that of me?"

I met his gaze coldly. "Why wouldn't

I? We talked about reconciliation a few days ago. Then I found out everything you were doing behind my back. I was already struggling to accept that, and I spent the past few days trying to calm down so we could talk things through? But you pulled another stunt like this.

"It makes me feel like you never really intended to make things right. You've not

shown any real sincerity about working things out."

Otis pursed his lips. He knew all too well that he had gone too far lately, and it was unlikely that I would forgive him.

"I know I've done some terrible things," he admitted.

Otis wasn't stupid. After all, he had built two successful businesses from the ground up. It didn't take him long to come up with a way to plead his case. "But I hope you can try to understand me."

Understand him? How was I supposed to do that?

I looked at Otis disdainfully and replied, "Sorry, but I can't. If you had been good to me before, then even if you were a little harsh now, I

wouldn't hold it against you. The problem is you were never good to me. You betrayed my mother and helped Yelena bully me. Fremember everything you did."

Otis grew impatient. "You can't only remember the bad, can you? What about the times I was good to you?"

I met his gaze and said, "Please think carefully. Have you ever been good to me?"

When he divorced my mother, I was still a child. She walked away with nothing, and he made sure she had nowhere to turn.

I had always felt it was unfair. My mother had done nothing wrong-why was she

left with nothing, while he moved on to lead a good life with his new wife?