The Reclaimed Rose (Annalise and Steven) novel Chapter 465

Zachary thought his grandmother cooked as well as his mother did. The food was delicious.

He smiled to himself.

Even though Zachary had made a mistake by going down the wrong path, he was lucky that he still had his family by his side—even if that meant his biological parents had left him.

…

When Steven got up, he looked at the time and felt the space beside him on the bed. Steven realized that the other side of the bed was cold.

He wondered if Annalise had already gotten out of bed. Steven got up and went to the kitchen. He asked impatiently, "Annalise, are you done cooking?"

But there was nobody in the kitchen. At that moment, Steven finally remembered that they had divorced.

Steven stumbled back to the dining table and plopped into his seat. Overwhelmed with frustration, he buried his head into his hands. Steven wondered why he kept forgetting that they had divorced.

Recently, Steven had been dreaming a lot. He often dreamed of the time when he was still with Annalise. Because of that, he couldn't distinguish between dreams and reality.

When Steven snapped back to his senses, he looked at the empty kitchen again. He regretfully wondered if he had spoken to Annalise with a bad attitude like he had just moments ago.

Had he been treating Annalise that way the entire time he was with her?

Steven felt like there was a void in him. He couldn't understand why he just couldn't treat Annalise better.

…

I felt a little conflicted. Willow had always been very carefree. She never noticed the negative emotions behind other people's intentional provocations. If I pointed this out, Willow may be sad to learn about their hostility.

After a flurry of thoughts, I decided not to address the misunderstanding.

Willow looked at me and then at Zane. She said, "Mommy, Daddy, you both look very serious. What's on your mind?"

I pinched Willow's cheeks with a smile and said, "I just thought you handled the situation very well. When I was younger, I would only seek help from my parents when I ran into problems. But Willow already knows how to handle problems by herself!"

Feeling proud, Willow beamed brightly.

I continued and said, "But Willow, remember this…"