The Florist Who Delivered to the Wrong Grave

Amara had worked the county's only flower shop for four years, delivering fresh arrangements to the cemetery every Tuesday for a standing order under the name "R. Castellan" always the same instructions, always the same modest grave marker near the cemetery's eastern edge, always paid in cash left in an envelope at the shop each month.

She'd never met the customer. Until the week the envelope contained something different — a note, tucked beneath the usual payment, asking her to deliver instead to a grave three rows over, one she'd never visited before.

The headstone read: Genevieve Castellan, Beloved Wife, 1961–1994.

Curious, and slightly unsettled by the abrupt change after four years of routine, Amara mentioned it to the cemetery's groundskeeper the following week.

"Castellan," he said thoughtfully. "There's actually two graves under that name here. Genevieve, and her husband Roland, buried three rows apart, oddly enough, given they were married."

"Why would they be buried separately?" Amara asked.

The groundskeeper's expression grew careful. "Family dispute, from what I understand. Roland died only two years after Genevieve, but by then his second wife had already claimed the plot beside her own family. Rather sad business, if the old stories are accurate."

Amara felt an unexpected pang of sympathy, glancing toward both graves decades of quiet separation between two people who'd apparently once been genuinely devoted to each other, based on the sheer consistency of the flower deliveries alone.

The following week, another note arrived with the payment: Thank you for switching the delivery. I finally worked up the courage to have both graves properly moved together. The new headstone will be ready within the month. R.C.

Amara frowned at the initials, checking her records. The original standing order had been placed under R. Castellan for four consistent years yet Roland Castellan had died in 1996, according to the groundskeeper's account, nearly three decades earlier.

She sat with the note for a long moment, an uncomfortable chill settling through her chest.

Whoever had been ordering these flowers for four years wasn't Roland at all.

to be continued... 🌸⚰️