As the Flower Blooms Episode 18: The Promise Behind the Door

Somehow, the silence that followed was worse.

Rose stared at the narrow slip of paper on the walnut worktable.

Ask Ruby what she promised me.

Beside her, Ruby’s crimson petals seemed to draw inward. The faint ivory streak along one petal caught the lamplight.

“Ruby.” Rose’s voice was barely steady. “What did you promise?”

Ruby looked toward the cabinet.

“That I would bring something back.”

From behind Peony, one of the blue Hydrangeas whispered, “Please say a vase.”

“Please stop helping,” murmured the lavender one.

Nobody laughed.

White Rose moved closer to the table. “The ledger?”

Ruby shook her head.

“The key?” asked Camellia.

“No.”

Daisy lowered her gaze to the open silver locket beside the faded photograph. Its tiny, detached petal tip lay nearby.

Ruby saw her looking.

And Daisy understood.

“The locket,” she whispered.

A soft scrape came from inside the cabinet.

“Very good, Daisy.”

Peony’s blush petals trembled. Lily turned sharply toward the sound.

Rose leaned toward her sister.

“You came home for a piece of silver?”

“I came home because someone told me our mother was alive.”

“And you believed them?”

Ruby’s eyes filled.

“They knew what she used to call us.”

Rose went still.

Outside, rain ticked against the studio window.

“What did they say?” she asked.

Ruby hesitated.

“Her little red troublemakers.”

Rose looked down.

For a moment, she was back in the old garden, pressed close to her sister beneath their mother’s ivory petals while rain pattered against the greenhouse roof.

No one at the studio had ever heard that name.

White Rose broke the silence.

“Knowing something private does not make someone trustworthy.”

Ruby turned on her.

“You were there when they took her.”

“Yes.”

“And you let us spend all these years believing—”

“I know what I let you believe.”

White Rose’s answer was so quiet that Ruby stopped.

Daisy edged the locket closer to herself.

“What does this have to do with their mother?”

“Look underneath the lining,” Ruby said.

Daisy glanced at the cabinet.

“Is that what you promised? That you would give them whatever was inside?”

Ruby nodded.

“I thought it was a message.”

“And now?”

Ruby couldn’t meet her eyes.

“I don’t think they would have sent me if it were only a message.”

Daisy bent over the locket. Using the narrow edge of its detached silver petal tip, she gently lifted the faded velvet lining.

Something pale appeared beneath it.

Peony leaned closer.

“Oh.”

Folded into the shallow hollow was a tiny piece of paper.

Daisy eased it onto the table. Camellia steadied one corner with a glossy leaf while White Rose bent toward the delicate writing.

There were only two lines.

The transfer was never completed.

The original record is behind the east-gate panel.

Rose looked at White Rose.

“You said she was taken.”

“She was.”

“Then what does that mean?”

For the first time, White Rose seemed to have no answer.

From the cabinet came a small, impatient tap.

“Ruby. We had an agreement.”

Rose turned toward the door.

“You have been listening to us all this time.”

“Yes.”

“Then you heard her. She doesn’t owe you anything.”

A pause.

“That is a generous thing to say about a promise you didn’t make.”

Ruby drew closer to Rose.

“I won’t give it to you.”

The cabinet handle moved.

Lily straightened. The Hydrangeas fell silent.

Ruby’s voice shook, but she spoke again.

“You said you would tell me where our mother was. You haven’t kept your part.”

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then Camellia looked from the cabinet to the faded photograph.

“The east gate,” she murmured.

In the picture, behind the partly hidden white flower, a narrow wooden panel stood beside the garden archway.

Across its lower corner was a carving.

A daisy.

With one petal shorter than the others.

Daisy stared at her broken silver charm.

“It isn’t just a locket.”

“No,” said White Rose slowly. “I don’t believe it is.”

The cabinet door opened an inch.

Warm lamplight reached into the gap, catching the edge of a folded lavender ribbon.

Then the voice spoke again.

“Before you go looking behind that panel, Rose…”

Ruby pressed against her sister.

“…ask White Rose whose signature stopped the transfer.”

Rose turned.

White Rose had closed her eyes.

To be continued…

Next: Episode 19 — The Signature at the East Gate

As the Flower Blooms is an original fictional series from Petal Perfection Flower Company—delivering smiles all over Tampa Bay.