Chapter 4

Grabbing the flowers and the address, I started for my car. I made sure to set the arrangement in the stabilization canister back, then I plugged the address into my phone. I was twelve minutes away, which meant I didn't have a lot of time to account for red lights.

I would have to be quick on the road if I wanted to make it on time.

As I drove through the streets of the city, my mind began to wander. I had graduated from nursing school a month ago, but I was finding it hard to leave the flower shop. Natalie had given me a part-time job to give me some sanity through my schooling, and there were days during my rotations where the flower shop was my only reprieve. I could throw my creative energies that weren't being nurtured in school into growing our flowers and the arrangements and the decorating for wedding ceremonies. And even though I was now licensed to be a nurse, I wasn't sure if it was what I wanted to do any longer.

I still had a passion for helping people, but I was burned out on the hospital scene.

My parents supported me in anything I wanted to do, but my mother was worried about my ability to take care of myself on the measly pay from the florist. And it wasn't necessarily measly. I had a roof over my head and food to eat. But health insurance was hard to come by and my car wasn't in the best of shape. My parents knew I'd make better money as a nurse, so they were slowly pushing me towards applying for those kinds of positions.

But I didn't want to leave the shop. Or Natalie, for that matter.

My eyes came into focus with the thick fog of the city broke. Instead of passing homeless men urinating on the sidewalk and people running after their children down the street, I was rolling down a road with lush greenery on either side. Cars were floating by as if they weren't quite touching the pavement and there was blocks of yard in between houses.

Massive, humongous houses.

Where in the world was I delivering these flowers?

I looked at my GPS and realized my last turn was coming up on the right. I watched the thick foliage on the side of the road break into a rolling hill. I saw the turn in for a concrete driveway, but I didn't see a house.

It wasn't until I began to drive back across the hill that a house emerged.

Rising from the beauty of the land it sat on, a beautiful brick house sat on top of the careful incline. The winding driveway was lined with blooming apple trees and I rolled down my windows to take in the smell. There was a six-car garage I pulled up in front of and a beautiful backyard landscaped with all sorts of flowers. Tulips and rose bushes and anemones and freesias. Hydrangeas and carnations and massive cherry blossom trees. There was a weeping willow way out on the edge of the property with what looked like a gazebo underneath it.

And there was steam rising from beyond a wall of daffodils.

Was there a hot tub back there?

It would make sense.

Daffodils loved a consistent mist.

I forced myself out of the car and wrapped myself around to get the flower arrangement. It was perfectly intact, and I smiled as I pulled it out of the trunk. I walked up the concrete walkway and ascended the steps onto the porch of the most gorgeous house I'd ever seen in my life.

No, not house.

Mansion.

Estate, really.

"For the last time, Alfred. You have to stay in that wheelchair."

"Don't worry. I don't plan on moving."

"Just let me take you outside. You love that backyard."

"I spent money on that backyard. Doesn't mean I love it."

"Of course you do. Why else would you have purchased it?"

"Other people tend to do it. I don't tend to do things I don't love."

I furrowed my brow as I listened to the argument behind the door. I lifted my hand to knock on it, then stepped back and waited for someone to open. A gust of wind almost knocked me off balance as someone pulled the door open, and in the doorway emerged a very exasperated woman. There were bags underneath her eyes and they were red. Bloodshot. Like she had been crying or constantly waking up from nightmares.

"I was wondering when you were going to get here," she said breathlessly. "Come in."

"Where should I place these?" I asked as I stepped inside

"On the table in the kitchen. Down the left hallway. There's a dining table you can place them on. And don't mind the canker sore in the wheelchair."

I nodded my head, but I had no idea what she was talking about.

The door closed behind me with a thud and it caused me to jump. The woman rushed up the stairs, rounding around and disappearing beyond the wall. I looked all around me, taking in the decadence of the home.

And how eerily silent it was.

The onyx floor was a strict contrast to the white staircase that followed the wall on either side of the foyer. There were two hallways that jutted off in either direction. The right hallway looked like it was dumped into a sitting room of some sort. I could see the corner of a fireplace and what looked like a bookshelf, along with a very comfortable-looking couch. The walls were a very pale blue, which lended a brightness to the entire house.

But I was supposed to go left, so that was where I headed.

I walked down the short hallway and was quickly dumped into a luxurious kitchen. Stainless steel appliances that didn't look as if they'd ever been touched. A double-oven embedded into the wall and a hibachi grill where the stove would've naturally been. There was a kitchen island and the countertops were this beautiful gray-and-cream marbled color.