He Built A Garden For Her Flowers But Only To Help His Secret Love Win A Prize Chapter 08

He Built A Garden For Her Flowers But Only To Help His Secret Love Win A Prize Chapter 08

He didn’t follow me back to my apartment. But when I went to 

open the shop the next day, he was waiting there already. 

“I know you hate people intruding on your space, so I didn’t go to your place. Vanna, I promise I won’t disrupt your life. I’ll just stay here as long as you don’t kick me out,” he said, looking like a well–behaved sad puppy. 

I said nothing. I just opened up and did business like normal. 

Since we had customers coming and going, and he’d said that, 

there was no point in making a big scene. 

“Need help with that, Vanna? Don’t lift that–it’s too heavy, 

you’ll hurt yourself. Let me do it,” he offered. 

His eager–to–please act made me think of a clown, and filled me with disgust. I suddenly didn’t want to pretend anymore. 

“Do you think we can just go back to how we were like this, 

Charles? Fix what’s broken?” I asked. 

“What are you talking about?” He held up our marriage certificates. “We never got divorced. You’re still my wife, 

Vanna.” 

I said calmly, “The name on that paper is Savannah. My name is Hazel Lennon. Your wife is dead. That has nothing to do with 

me.” 

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, almost like he was comforting himself. “One day she’ll come back to me, just in a different 

form.” 

“Do you know how ridiculous you are? Stop acting like this fool. It’s disgusting, do you get that?” 

“It doesn’t matter. I just get to be near you, that’s enough.” 

I didn’t argue with him. I didn’t want to. 

This wasn’t some melodrama, and I wasn’t going to act stupid and take him back. 

I was carrying a bouquet of flowers to put on the display shelf when a car suddenly drove straight through the front of my 

shop. 

The car was old, its engine roaring loud. Charles went pale. “Vanna, watch out!” 

He yanked me out of the way and pulled me tight against his chest to shield me. 

Charles swore, “Fuck…” 

At first we thought it was just a bad driver. But when we saw who was behind the wheel, my heart sank. 

It was Cloris. She did this on purpose. 

She screamed from inside the car, “You ruined my life, and you think you get to be happy together here? I won’t let you get away with this! Charles, Savannah, I’m going to kill you both! I’m going to kill you!” 

She wrenched the steering wheel, blocking the shop entrance and trapping us in the back corner. 

Charles gritted his teeth. “Come after me if you want! Leave Vanna alone, you crazy bitch!” 

“Crazy bitch?! You drove me crazy! Both of you drove me 

crazy!” she shouted back. 

She rammed the car toward us over and over. If we hadn’t been 

trapped in the triangular corner, we would have been crushed 

already. 

Cloris was insane–she wasn’t just acting crazy, she’d actually 

lost her mind. 

By now the car was totaled from the repeated crashes, but she 

still kept pressing the gas. 

Charles‘ arm was bleeding badly from getting hit while 

shielding me. 

“Cloris, stop! If you keep this up the car will explode! You’ll die 

too!” 

“You think I’m scared of death? You were going to kill me 

anyway, I’ve got nothing left! Taking you two with me is a win 

for me!” she cackled. 

“Let her go! I’ll give you whatever you want!” Charles 

shouted. 

“What do I want?! I want both of you dead!” 

The car was completely dead now, oil leaking all over the floor. She climbed out of the wreckage, struggling to stand. 

She held a lighter in her hand, grinning eerily. “Let’s all die together! That way my mom can see you two in hell and be happy. Too bad it’s your parents who’ll grieve! Come on!” 

Just then, the stained–glass window on the side shattered from the outside. James roared, “Vanna! Hurry, climb out! Give me your hand!” 

The car blocked the whole front entrance, so we couldn’t get out that way. 

Charles and I only had a tiny sliver of space to move in. We couldn’t get around the car. 

Cloris was blocking our path too. The only way out was for one person to hold her off while the other escaped. 

Charles realized this immediately and yelled, “James! Get Vanna the fuck out of here now!” 

“No shit, Sherlock! Vanna, reach for me!” James shouted, panic all over his face. 

When Cloris saw I was going to escape, she threw the lighter down on the oil without a second thought. The whole place 

went up in flames in an instant. 

“No one gets out! We all die together! All of us!” 

The car heated up from the fire, the oxygen running out fast. 

Charles cupped my face in his hands quickly, like he was 

saying his final goodbye. “If only one of us can get out of this 

alive, Vanna, it has to be you. Don’t be scared. I will never let 

anyone hurt you, I swear.” 

His lips trembled. “Stop hating me, okay? You’ve already 

gotten your revenge. Just stop hating me, please.” 

James was losing his mind waiting outside. “Get her up here! Stop fucking wasting time!” 

Before I could say anything, Charles lifted me up and pushed me through the broken window. 

I wasn’t going to stay there for some dramatic farewell right then. I grabbed onto the edge of the window frame. 

Cloris saw this and lunged to pull me back into the burning shop. 

“You lunatic! Get away from her!” 

Charles ignored the heat from the burning car and threw 

himself on top of her, holding her tight so she couldn’t get 

near me. 

James grabbed my arm and pulled me out as fast as he could. 

We rolled a dozen feet across the ground when we landed. 

In that exact second, a huge explosion ripped through the flower shop. 

James pulled me tight against his chest to shield me from the 

blast. 

This same kind of explosion had killed my parents. 

Now it had killed my enemy. 

And it had also killed my ex–husband. 

In that moment, a million memories flashed through my head, like a movie running backward. 

Even now, I still felt a dull ache deep in my chest. 

It was only a small ache, but it would stay with me for the rest of my life. 

Charles‘ parents arranged his funeral. They didn’t use a funeral home. It was held at the old villa we used to live in together. 

I attended as James‘ sister, even though everyone there knew who I really was. 

Charles‘ mother saw me, trying to speak, but couldn’t get any words out through her tears. She knew her son owed me, owed my parents, more than he could ever repay. 

I looked at his photo up front. The man in the picture was calm and steady, with deep features. His body had been too damaged in the fire for an open casket, so there was no 

viewing. 

My memories flowed back to the very beginning. From the time I could first remember, Charles was always by my side. Before all this terrible stuff happened, I never imagined he’d disappear from my life like this. 

I quietly placed a flower on top of his urn. It wasn’t a chrysanthemum–it was Ash, the same flower Cloris had always wanted. 

It felt like some kind of ironic joke. Not many people get to attend their ex–husband’s funeral at this age, after all. 

When one day we walked past that old garden again, everyone who had been there was gone.