I Said Divorce When He Sent Me Red Roses Chapter 01

I Said Divorce When He Sent Me Red Roses Chapter 01

The summer after I graduated high school marked my mom’s thirty-ninth birthday.

My father walked through the door with his mistress, the woman’s teenage daughter, and a single red rose clutched in his grasp.

The girl held the rose out to my mother, her smile sickeningly sweet and innocent.

My mother said nothing. She took the rose, kept a soft smile plastered to her face, and finished the entire birthday dinner without a single complaint.

That same night, she slit her wrists in the bathroom and took her own life.

Red roses had haunted my worst nightmares ever since that day.

Which was why, on my wedding day, I’d told my husband Callum Rourke, “If you ever want a divorce, send me red roses.”

He’d pulled me tight against his chest and sworn, “Annelise, don’t you worry. Not a single flower will ever cross the threshold of our home.”

Five years later, I walked out of my lab right after wrapping up a revolutionary drug trial.

The entire stretch of hallway was carpeted from wall to wall with red roses.

My husband stood waiting at the far end.

And the person standing right beside him?

It was the exact same girl who’d handed that fatal red rose to my mother all those years ago.

“Maris set this whole surprise up,” Callum said, his tone lazy and dismissive. “She’s your sister. She only wants to make amends for everything that happened back then.”

I stared straight at him for two full seconds, then spun on my heel and walked away.

A sister?

I never had a goddamn sister, not then and not now.

And starting this very second, I wouldn’t have a husband either.

Rourke Biotech had survived and thrived solely off the research breakthroughs I’d created.

I wondered just how long the company would stay afloat without my work holding it up.

Congratulations, Callum. You’re about to be served divorce papers, and you’re going to lose everything you’ve built.

The next time we cross paths, I’ll be standing beside another man, ready to deliver the final blow that crushes you.

…

I sat alone at my mother’s graveside for three whole hours.

Today was her birthday, and also the tenth anniversary of her death.

Red roses had once stood as the symbol of my parents’ love for each other.

Ten years prior on this exact date, my father had watched Maris hand that single red rose to my mother, shattering the last fragile wall of mental strength she’d had left.

Red roses were my deepest, most untouchable taboo.

Now, a full decade later, my own husband had brought the girl responsible for my mother’s death to me, surrounded me with the red roses I loathed above all else, and struck the cruelest blow I’d ever endured.

Bursts of fireworks lit up the sky in the distance—Callum’s celebratory banquet to mark the successful drug development.

I’d led my research team through six brutal months of nonstop labor.

One hundred and eighty days spent practically living inside the lab.

But that banquet right now? It was nothing more than Maris’s personal victory speech.

I bid my mother a quiet goodbye and rose to my feet to leave the cemetery.

I’d barely stepped past the cemetery gates when Callum’s name flashed across my phone screen with an incoming call.

His voice blared over the phone, thick with liquor and sharp with irritation.

“The celebration banquet’s nearly over. How does it look for the lead research scientist to be missing from her own party?”

I said nothing, just held the phone to my ear in silence.

Once upon a time, I would’ve feigned hurt anger, waited for him to coax me into a better mood, then happily let him drive me home.

But tonight, I had not a single word left to say to him.

Callum raised his voice louder down the line. “Annelise, I’m talking to you. Where the hell have you run off to?”

I spoke in a calm, flat tone. “The cemetery.”

Dead silence fell on the other end of the call.

It seemed he’d finally remembered today marked the anniversary of my mother’s passing.

He must’ve also recalled I’d canceled my own birthday dinner and our planned wedding anniversary trip just to finish this drug research on schedule.

The only favor I’d ever asked of him was to come with me to visit my mother’s grave today.

Silence stretched on for two more seconds before Callum forced out an awkward reply. “I… I got carried away with the excitement of the breakthrough and completely forgot.”

“Wait for me by the cemetery gates. I’m heading over right now.”

I hung up the call and turned toward the parking lot.

But the second I reached my car, a text message popped up from his number.

“Annelise, it’s far too late tonight. We can do this another day.”

“Maris drank too much wine, and I need to drive her home first.”

“I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

I stared at the lines of text on my screen and felt zero surprise whatsoever.

I’d seen Maris’s manipulative tactics clear as day; she’d planned to cling to Callum all night long from the start.

Callum, a man who’d navigated cutthroat business deals for years, could see her schemes just as plainly as I could.

Yet he didn’t care.

He relished the way she clung to him for support.

He didn’t spare a single thought for my feelings at all.

It didn’t matter to me anymore, though.

Starting now, I wouldn’t waste an ounce of care on him either.