I Said Divorce When He Sent Me Red Roses Chapter 10

I Said Divorce When He Sent Me Red Roses Chapter 10

The sudden, unplanned confession left me rigid where I stood.

My mind went utterly blank, and I even forgot where I needed to dab the healing ointment.

I rushed through patching up his wound haphazardly before practically fleeing the lounge.

Romance and tangled feelings were the last thing I wanted to deal with right now.

For the next few days, I stayed constantly alert whenever I left the facility, half-expecting Callum to reappear.

Yet he never showed his face.

My stern warning from that day had likely deterred him, or trouble had finally erupted at Rourke Biotech.

Shortly after harassing me, an urgent company call had dragged Callum straight back to his office.

The biotech firm’s flagship pharmaceutical project had spiraled into complete disarray.

Maris had only just secured her promotion to vice president, and she’d insisted on meddling with every stage of drug development and supply chain management.

Every adjustment she made only worsened the mess.

When Callum hurried back to headquarters, she threw herself at his side, eyes glistening with tears as she tried to justify herself.

“Callum, I didn’t mean to ruin anything. I only wanted to help you out.”

Callum glanced over the blinding red loss figures printed across the financial report, his temples throbbing with a vicious headache.

One hundred million dollars.

In just a handful of days, she’d cost the company a full hundred million dollars.

This time around, Callum felt no flicker of softness toward her.

He raised his hand and struck Maris hard across the cheek, then immediately called for an emergency board meeting.

Every share of company stock previously transferred to the Cross family was fully reclaimed.

Maris broke down into sobs, begging him to grant her forgiveness.

But Callum only felt overwhelming irritation toward her.

He summoned building security, who escorted Maris out of the office alongside all her personal belongings.

Once all the chaos at the firm was settled, Callum traveled back to Washington State once more.

This time, he dropped to his knees directly in front of me.

“This company was built from our shared blood, sweat, and tears, Annelise.”

“Can you truly stand by and watch it crumble into ruin?”

I regarded him with complete calm.

“I signed all paperwork to walk away with zero assets. That company no longer holds any connection to me whatsoever.”

Callum’s eyes welled up with fresh tears.

“We haven’t officially finalized our divorce yet.”

“The court summons will arrive at your residence in two days’ time.”

My voice remained flat and emotionless.

“You’ll be the one left with absolutely nothing once those papers land on your doorstep.”

Callum snapped his head upward, his voice rough and hoarse.

“Are you determined to drive me straight into bankruptcy?”

I looked at him and let a faint smile tug at my lips.

“But didn’t you choose this path all on your own?”

One day before the court summons was scheduled to arrive, Callum agreed to sign the divorce settlement.

He simply could not bring himself to accept leaving the company with nothing to his name.

The day after I received my official divorce certificate, Project 707 officially launched.

Those five years flew by before I knew it.

Five whole years felt sealed away beneath the stark white fluorescent lighting of the laboratory.

Thanks to relentless labor from every member of the research team, our new pharmaceutical drug successfully passed all trials and went into production.

News from the outside world still drifted through the facility walls every now and then.

Callum returned to pester me several times over those years.

But since Project 707 fell under federal classified operations, no staff member was permitted to share any details regarding my exact whereabouts.

His most reckless attempt landed him in police custody for two weeks, after he tried to force his way past the research facility’s outer security barriers.

Following that arrest, he never set foot in Washington State again.

Without my research and development expertise to sustain its pipeline, Rourke Biotech filed for full bankruptcy within a few short years.

Callum was buried under a mountain of outstanding debt, forced to work grueling dawn-to-dusk shifts just to make minimum payments and fight endless lawsuits.

He also finally spilled every ugly truth about everything that had happened years prior.

Maris borrowed huge sums to buy company stock, buried herself under crushing debt, and finally jumped from a downtown high-rise office tower.

My so-called artist father suffered a sudden, severe stroke.

Maris’s mother emptied every last dollar from his bank accounts and vanished without a single trace.

Legally, I was still bound by obligation to provide for his care.

I picked out a mid-tier nursing home at random and arranged for his permanent admission.

I never visited him once after that day.

That was as much kindness as I could possibly spare for him.

Over those five years, Elias never brought up his confession of affection again.

Still, he tended to my every quiet need without fail.

Whenever I pulled all-nighters running lab experiments, he’d set a steaming mug of coffee beside my notebook.

If I got too absorbed in my research to remember meals, he’d silently place a pre-made sandwich next to my lab logs.

Whenever anyone delivered bouquets of flowers to the facility, he’d sort through every arrangement first to pull out every red rose before I could see them.

He never pressured me to return his feelings, simply staying faithfully at my side through every long workday.

Years later, the night of our project’s victory banquet, light snow began falling outside the research institute.

Elias held out his wool scarf toward me and murmured a quiet question.

“Are you cold?”

I stared at him, my mind drifting back to memories long buried.

Once there had been a man who knew how deeply red roses terrified me, yet forced me to walk down a corridor carpeted in them anyway.

I realized a person ought to step out from the dark shadows of their past.

There was a brighter future waiting ahead.

I couldn’t let the people who’d hurt me destroy my ability to recognize someone who genuinely cared for my wellbeing.

I reached out and took the scarf from his hand, offering him a soft smile.

“I’m not cold at all.”

Elias’s eyes lit up bit by bit as he gazed at me.

And for the first time in years, I did not turn away from his stare.

(End)