Adele parked her old model Ford pickup truck in front of her small store. She relaxed before turning off that old rusty engine. It’s a twenty-six-year-old model and her father’s first vehicle.
She looked at herself in the rear mirror before elevating her chest with more oxygen.
“Today will be a good day,” she declared to herself.
Her eyes docked on her store display board.
FLOWER FETISH - A flower shows love
That was the store built by her parents with love and care.
Her mother died when she was five, leaving three of them alone.
After a long canyon of time, her father decided to marry again for the sake of girls.
And there, Adele’s stepmother entered her life.
She thought to get love from her new mom, but all she got was ignorance from her.
She gave birth to a son, which made her dad happier than ever.
Her stepmother never loved these girls as her own. Her focus was to entice her husband and love her only son.
Later as the teenage hit the life of these girls, Adele’s sister rebelled against her father. She wanted something more than being a country girl.
She decided to abscond her home at the age of nineteen to pursue her dreams.
After that, there was no news of her.
Their business suffered as her father’s frequent visits to the hospital were not able to pay off the hospital bills.
Five years back, they got a piece of news where they found her sister dead in some accident.
Nobody knows what happened to her neither did they discover her body.
Business loss and the death of her loving daughter, her father couldn’t sustain this trauma. He killed himself.
Adele blinked her lashes with tears in them.
She loves to come to this place, but after her father’s suicide, this place was merely a source of income for her remaining family.
She picked up her file and buckled her tiny waist with her fanny pack.
She pulled her long chocolate-brown hair into a messy bun and fixed her Dark green checked shirt, jumped out of her vehicle.
“Hey, Blaise,” she called her partner, who was opening the glass door.
“Good morning, Adele,”
They entered the store, which was filled with the fragrance of different flowers. Blaise got busy arranging the flowers in front of the store in the metallic racks.
Adele’s father owned a flower farm, but after his death, it was difficult for Adele to handle the farm and store together.
Adele moved towards her desk, trying to check her online orders for flowers.
“Well, we have six orders for the funeral ceremony.” Adele sighed.
Blaise looked at her with concern.
“It’s good; at least we are getting some business.”
Adele rubbed her temple with stress.
“It’s not good, Blaise. I can’t wish for my business to grow on someone else’s death. It’s selfish,” Adele pressed her lips, trying to justify her point.
“I would be more than happy If I send my flowers in happy moments of someone’s life.”
Blaise holding pink peonies in her hand, frowned towards Adele.
“I understand, but it’s not you who gave them death wish. Come on, get up; we have lots of work to do.” Blaise tried to cheer her up.
Adele smiled and refreshed her website page.
“What the heck?” Adele whispered, refreshing her page again and again.
“Now what? Someone else died?” Blaise rolled her eyes.
“No, this is a huge order; I mean, they need all the expensive flowers for decorating their mansion.” Adele jerked her neck towards the screen.
Blaise stood next to her as she browsed the address.
“It’s in the city; look at the address,” Blaise pointed.
“But, why did they order here? I mean, they could have gotten the flowers from their nearby place.” Adele shrugged her shoulders.
Blaise folded her hands on her chest, giving her an angry look.
“What? Did I do something wrong?” Adele muttered.
“No, you were worried about the dead people. Now you have an actual business opportunity; you are still wondering why it came to you?”
“Girl, they ordered here, maybe they wanted a fresh batch of flowers from the countryside,” Blaise wiggled her brows.
“Ok, sorry. You are right,” Adele smiled.
“I will handle all these funeral orders, and you, my beautiful, call them and get more details regarding this order.”
Blaise winked at her.
Adele rolled her sleeves and started to call the respective place to confirm her order.
“Hello, is this Mr. Vincent?” Adele spoke on call.
“Sir, I would like to know all the details, and how many flowers you need?” She added.
After an hour-long call, she jotted down all the details on her notepad.
Shit, shit, shit; She slammed her head in stress.
Blaise came inside looking, her pulling her hair.
“Now what?”
“I agreed to send the order, but we are short on tulips. You know it’s not Tulip season, but they wanted it.”
Blaise rested her hand on the table.
“It’s ok, let’s check our farm. I am sure we will get something; if not, we will buy from another florist.” Blaise gave her some hope.
“But... it’s a big order of...”
Blaise showed her hand.
“Tomorrow, you will take the flowers in your truck,” Blaise assured her.
****
Adele, after a long hectic day, came home. She opened the door as she saw her eighteen-year-old brother kissing a teenage girl.
“Stop, Mike. Your sister is here,” the girl chuckled.
Mike scanned Adele with an ignorant gaze.
“Forget about her,”
Adele crossed him and went towards the kitchen to fill her dry throat with water.
“Mom went to the neighbor’s house, and she wanted you to prepare dinner for all of us,” Mike shrieked from the living room.
Adele sighed as her day made her exhausted.
She went for a relaxing shower and prepared dinner for the rest.
“Yucks, you don’t know how to cook?” Adele’s mother spat on her face.
“Mom, I don’t want to taste it.” Mike scoffed.
He stomped and took out bills from her fanny pack.
Adele ran as she tried to grab the hard-earned bills from his hand.
“Don’t take that,” she tried to fight.
He slapped him across her face, making her shiver at her place.
“Stop it, bitch.”
“Mom, I ordered a pizza for you,” Mike answered.
“Thank you, son. And you filthy shit, eat what you have cooked for us.” Her mother launched the food on her face.
Mike left with all the money he took from Adele.
In the last few months, he started a job.
But Adele knows it’s not a job. He was dealing with drug dealers for his needs.
Tears filled up her eyes, as this was not the life she wanted.
She missed her father as he was the only one who used to love her in this place.
She cleaned the floor and walked towards her room.
“I wish...” she couldn’t speak anymore.
The warm salty water rolled over her cheeks.
That was her daily routine. Even if she wanted to run, she couldn’t.
His father loved his farm and his store more than his life, and this would be the last thing Adele would allow to let go of her life.
****
The morning lights knocked at Adele’s window showing her new hope.
She got up as her phone didn’t stop buzzing.
“Ummm... hello,” she whined.
“I am calling you for the last fifteen minutes. Get your ass here asap.” Blaise barked from the other side.
Her eyes wide opened as they reminded her she has to deliver the flowers to the mansion.
“Cominnnggggg,”
Thud
“What happened?”
“Nothing, I fell from my bed...Ahhhh,” she rubbed her ass as she ran towards the bathroom.
She prepared herself and reached her store in no time.
“I am sorry, I had a bad night.”
She closed her truck door, looking towards Blaise.
“I have sent the funeral flowers; now we are all set for the mansion,” Blaise added.
“Wow, Thanks, Blaise. What about the Tulips?” Adele asked.
“We will upload it in your truck, and the rest of the flowers will come in that truck,” Blaise pointed to where the driver waved his hand.
Adele released a relieved breath and turned towards Blaise.
“I don’t know what I would do without you. Thank you for helping me.” Adele hugged her.
“Don’t make me cry. You deserved love and care, my beautiful, ” Blaise patted her back.
They started their journey. It was a forty minutes drive to Michigan City.
During their journey, Adele told Blaise about her last night’s incident with her brother.
“I am worried about him. He is getting involved in wrong things.” Adele remonstrated.
“Girl, you can’t control others’ fate. What I see is you need to live your life, and I hope you meet your man soon.” Blaise giggled.
“I don’t think he exists, and even if he did, you know I can’t leave my farm and store. I need to pay all the dues and make my farm debt-free before I could think of anything else.” Adele sighed.
Blaise’s smile vanished for a second.
“I am sorry, I didn’t tell you, but we got our second letter from the bank to pay the amount, and we have only one month left to pay the dues,” Blaise affirmed.
Adele’s stress lines popped up on her head.
“I saw it; They sent me the copy through the mail. I don’t know Blaise how I am going to save my dad’s last thing.”
Tears filled up her eyes.
They reached the front door of the mansion.
“Oh... MY...GOODDD,” Blaise’s mouth dropped open, looking at the door.
Adele extended her mail confirmation to deliver the flowers to this place.
The guards checked her truck and the truck that followed them.
“You are good to go,” the guard lowered his weapon and opened the door.
Adele drove inside in a winding driveway lined with big trees, which they could not see through it. It took them five minutes to reach the end of the drive away.
And once again, Blaise could barely hold her open mouth, looking at the sight in front of her.
“Oh, I wish I could marry the owner of this house.” Blaise released her wishes in the air.
Adele chuckled and pushed the brakes in front of this humongous mansion.
“I am sure he must be an old guy,” Adele teased her.
“Oh, never mind, I would marry him too.” Blaise jumped out of the truck.
“Let me check on the flowers,” Blaise walked.
Adele looked at herself in the rear mirror before coming out.
She rubbed her plump lips together, which made a fresh stock of blood rush in it, making it more fluffy and red.
“Cool,” she fixed her long shirt and jumped out of the truck.
“Refreshing,” the sight was more intimidating.
There was a big welcoming fountain containing a mesmerizing statue in it.
Adele walked towards it to get a clear vision of that statue.
It was a white marble nude lady holding her drape, hiding her face while revealing her beautiful body.
Every curve in her body enhanced her beauty.
Adele stood there, taking it all in as she was enchanting the beauty of that statue.
“So beautiful,” she cooed in her head.
“Excuse me,” a voice interrupted.
She turned and saw a tall man holding a shovel in his hand.
His face is mostly covered with dry mud as the drops of sweat make it more intense.
He was wearing muddy pants with mud boots and an open shirt revealing his sculpted chest.
She observed his appearance coming towards her.
“Sorry, I... I... I am Adele,”
He was looking at her without blinking his eyes.
“Hi,”
“What are you doing here?” the man asked.
“Oh! I am sorry, I came to deliver the flowers.” She smiled.
The man replied with a smile.
“Flowers?”
“Yeah, I think there is a party in this mansion.”
She extended the paper from her pocket.
“Oh, don’t show it to me. I am a gardener here, You will find Mr. Vincent inside.”
The stranger smiled and got back into the garden.
Adele looked at him as her peer was drawn towards this stranger.
Adele knocked on the door, but somebody was already talking to Blaise.
“Adele...” Blaise waved her hand.
“He is Mr. Vincent,”
