Chapter 7 - THE LEDGER IN MY FLOWER SHOP
My flower shop had belonged to my father.
That suddenly mattered.
He bought the building when I was nineteen.
At the time, I assumed he had saved carefully.
Now Owen pulled the deed.
Cash purchase.
Two hundred eighty thousand dollars.
My father had never earned that kind of money.
“Where did it come from?” I asked.
Owen traced the account.
Parker Development.
Adrian looked at me.
“Your father was paid off.”
“No.”
I hated how quickly I defended him.
Then remembered everyone else I had defended.
“Maybe.”
We drove to my shop after dark.
For the first time, Adrian and I were alone in the same car since his “death.”
It was unbearable.
He finally spoke.
“You look different.”
“Grief is slimming.”
He flinched.
Good.
“I deserved that.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Then:
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“You don’t get to use two words for three months in a cemetery.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
That answer made me angrier because the old Adrian would have argued.
We reached the shop.
Lavender House Florals.
My father named it after my mother’s favorite plant.
We searched his old office.
Nothing.
Desk.
Closets.
Floorboards.
Then I remembered something.
Dad hated artificial flowers.
Called them “lies with stems.”
Yet one fake arrangement had sat in the back office for years.
I pulled it down.
Heavy.
Too heavy.
Inside the ceramic base was a sealed metal tube.
Ledger.
Handwritten.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Parker.
Langley.
Judges.
Police.
And one name circled repeatedly:
COLLEEN PARKER.
Adrian stared.
“No.”
I almost laughed.
Everyone eventually said that word.
I turned the page.
My father had written:
COLLEEN IS COPYING EVERYTHING. SHE WANTS OUT.
Adrian’s shoulders dropped.
His mother had not been receiving bribes.
She had been gathering evidence.
Then we found a second note.
IF I DIE, GIVE LEDGER TO MEREDITH WHEN SHE MARRIES ADRIAN. SHE WILL BE SAFEST INSIDE THE PARKER FAMILY.
My stomach turned.
My father had known we might marry.
“Did he arrange us?”
Adrian shook his head.
“We met at your shop.”
“Did we?”
I thought back.
Adrian had entered looking for funeral flowers for an employee’s mother.
He claimed he chose my shop randomly.
I looked at him.
“Was it random?”
His face changed.
“No.”
Of course.
“My mother recommended your shop.”
I laughed without humor.
“So even our first meeting was manipulated.”
“I didn’t know why.”
“But you knew she sent you.”
“Yes.”
Everything good in my past now felt contaminated by strategy.
Then I found one final page.
My father’s handwriting became shakier.
THOMAS KNOWS I COPIED THE BOOKS.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, IT WAS NOT MY HEART.
I stared at the sentence.
My father had not died naturally.
Another lie.
Then the shop alarm beeped.
Back door.
Adrian turned.
A shadow moved behind the glass.
He pushed me down just as a gunshot shattered the window.
May you like
Someone had come for the ledger.
And whoever it was already knew we had found it.
