Rebirth: The New Bride Wants A Divorce-Chapter 356: I doubt she’s a Bennett

[Rosewood Mansion]

Sitting across Norma, Anna wore a composed smile, her posture elegant and unyielding. "So we finally meet, Aunt Norma."

Norma’s lips twitched ever so slightly at the sight of her. The expression was fleeting, but not warm. Her gaze slid past Anna almost immediately, settling on Daniel instead. He looked calmer than she had anticipated, far calmer than the boy she had once molded with grief and fury.

The boy she had raised to avenge his father’s death.

And now, that same boy was softening. Losing his footing. All because of the daughter of the very man responsible for that death.

Ever since Daniel had married Anna instead of Kathrine, Norma had kept a careful watch on them from the shadows. Every report, every whisper had led her to the same conclusion. Daniel was falling. Not strategically. Emotionally. And that was dangerous.

"Indeed," Norma said at last, her voice smooth but edged. "Though I must admit, I am still surprised."

Her eyes flickered briefly to Daniel, catching the slight tightening of his jaw, before returning to Anna. This time, her smile faltered.

"You weren’t the one my nephew was supposed to marry," Norma continued coolly. "If only I had known your father would resort to trickery, pushing you into this marriage instead, I would have stopped this alliance long before it ever happened."

The room seemed to grow colder.

Daniel’s eyes darkened instantly, the calm he had maintained cracking at the edges. The accusation hung heavy in the air, sharp and deliberate.

"That’s enough, Aunt Norma," he said firmly. "All of that is in the past."

Norma arched a brow. "Is it?" she asked softly. "Because from where I stand, the past is standing right in front of us." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Anna felt the words land like a challenge. Slowly, deliberately, she set her hands on her lap and met Norma’s gaze without flinching.

The way Norma’s words affected Daniel was something Anna had not expected. The shift was subtle, but unmistakable. His shoulders stiffened, his jaw tightening as if he were holding something back with sheer force. In that moment, Anna understood one thing with chilling clarity.

Norma was not a friend.

"Heheh," Anna said softly, forcing a polite laugh she did not feel. "Then I must apologize for my parents’ behavior. Even they had no idea my sister would leave just like that."

Norma’s gaze lingered on her, sharp and assessing, before her lips curved into a thin smile.

"But now that she has returned," Norma said calmly, "don’t you think you should step back?"

The words pierced straight through Anna’s chest. She had prepared herself for hostility, even rejection, yet hearing it spoken so plainly made her heart constrict. It was one thing to sense dislike. It was another to be told she did not belong.

"Aunt Norma," Daniel cut in, his voice controlled but strained, "this is not why I brought my wife here."

The emphasis on my wife was not lost on anyone in the room.

Norma’s eyes flicked toward him, darkening. "Then she deserves to know the reason you married her, Daniel."

The air shifted.

Daniel felt it instantly. A cold realization settled in his gut. This was his mistake. He had assumed Norma would play along, that she would keep the past buried for now. He had believed his restraint would be enough.

He was wrong.

By hiding how deeply he cared for Anna, he had only made her more vulnerable. And Norma saw it.

Anna turned slowly to look at him, searching his face. A single thought rose unbidden, sharp and painful.

Didn’t he marry me because he made a deal with my father? Wasn’t I just part of an exchange... business for a bride?

Anna was in the middle of fitting the pieces together when her phone suddenly buzzed.

The deafening silence inside the house shattered, sharp and intrusive. She flinched slightly before pulling her phone out. Her brows knit together.

"Kathrine?" she muttered.

But then she noticed something else. Several missed calls. From an officer.

Her stomach dropped.

She had kept her phone on silent for privacy, for this very visit, but Kathrine calling repeatedly was not something she could brush aside anymore.

"Excuse me," Anna said politely, rising from her seat.

Without waiting for a response, she walked away, leaving Daniel and Norma alone in the room.

Once she reached a secluded corner, far enough that no one could overhear her, she answered the call.

"Kathrine, why are you bothering me?" Anna whispered, trying to keep her voice steady. "I told you I’d tell you everything about what happens here—"

"Anna," Kathrine cut in, her voice strained. "Collin is released."

The world tilted.

Anna’s body went rigid, every muscle locking as if struck by ice. Her breath caught painfully in her throat.

"H-how?" she stammered. "When?"

Fear crawled back into her chest, cold and suffocating, wrapping tightly around her heart.

But whatever Kathrine said next drained the color from Anna’s face entirely, making her fingers tremble around the phone.

***

Back in the sitting room, the moment Anna disappeared from sight, Daniel’s restraint snapped.

"You’re making things difficult, Aunt Norma," he said sharply, his voice raised for the first time. "Anna is innocent in all of this."

The disappointment in his tone was unmistakable. It cut deeper than anger. Norma had been someone he respected, trusted. Seeing her so willing to poison the ground beneath his marriage made something fracture inside him.

"I thought you were more thoughtful than this," he added. "But you’re crossing lines."

Norma’s composure cracked instantly.

"Innocent?" she scoffed, rising slightly from her seat. "You think Hugo Bennett’s daughter is innocent?"

Her voice shook with fury now, no longer masked by polite smiles.

"Don’t forget she shares the same blood as the man responsible for your father’s death," Norma continued bitterly. "The same man who drove your mother to end her life."

Daniel’s breath hitched.

Memories surged violently, unbidden and merciless. His mother’s heart-wrenching cries when the news of his father’s death reached them. The way her screams had filled the house... and then stopped.

That silence had been far worse.

How could he forget?

His father, falsely accused. His life stolen. His mother followed him into the grave soon after. Daniel was left orphaned at an age too young to understand grief but old enough to feel it tear him apart.

If not for Aunt Norma, would he have even survived?

Hadn’t everything he had built been rooted in revenge?

Daniel clenched his fists, his chest rising and falling unevenly. The rage, the grief, the confusion collided violently inside him.

And yet... Something didn’t sit right.

"I doubt she’s a Bennett," Daniel said suddenly.

The words fell heavy and final.

"What?" Norma froze while processing through his words.