Where The Flowers Grow

Chelsea learned over the course of years that silence is often louder than shouting. Much louder.

Her mother had perfected it. No slammed doors, no raised voices, no swearing. Just short sharp replies and empty glances. Meals eaten at opposite ends of the table where the only sound came from the knives and forks scraping against the plate.

Her father spent most of his time working away which always left the house feeling far to quiet and far too small. Chelsea hated him leaving. As she got older she always wished he would take her with him.

So when her Nan and Grandad rang to ask if she fancied spending a week at the cottage, Chelsea started packing before her mother could even say yes.

The moment the car rolled onto the gravelled driveway, the front door swung open. Her Nan hurried across the garden, wiping the flour from her hands on her apron before wrapping Chelsea in for a hug, that she could barely breathe from. "There's my girl" she whispered into Chelsea's hair.

Her grandad followed behind at his usual slower pace, pretending he wasn't as emotional as he was. "You've got thinner" he demanded after pulling away from there hug.

"Grandad I've put on three pounds" Chelsea chuckled.

She hadn't realised how much she needed to these days.

The country cottage tucked beside the old Abbey had always felt more like home than the house she'd grown up in. It was a place where scraped knees had always been kissed better, birthday cakes had been baked from scratch and muddy footprints had always been met with laughter instead of frustration. But more importantly it's where he lived...

Liam Byrne.

Chelsea and Liam had known each other since they were three years old, ever since she'd caught him peeing against the hedge that separated her Nan and Grandad's cottage from the old Abbey. It wasn't exactly the fairy-tale beginning that either of them would of chosen but it had been enough.

After that they were inseparable. You would never see one without the other. If they couldn't be found running around the fields they be running around the Abbey.

They used to joke that they would be 'fruit-pastille-millionaires' if they were given a pack for everything they were told not to do.

As the years went by, visits to Chelsea's Nan and Grandad's cottage grew shorter and longer between each visit.

Still, no matter how much time went by since they saw each other, Liam and Chelsea always remained close, which made going back this time even more special.

Although Chelsea loved being around her grandparents she always felt that there was something they weren't telling her. A secret.

There were moments where Chelsea just wanted to ask outright what they were keeping from her. Everytime she talked herself into asking when the time came to it she'd choke up. A lump would form in her throat. Tears threatened to escape. Subject would change.

At 7pm on the dot the doorbell went. Chelsea knew before the door was even opened it was Liam. The door opened. A huge pair of arms enclosed her into the smell she longed for on lonely nights after she'd had yet another argument with her mum.

Here she felt safe.

Here she felt like nothing in the world could hurt. Not even the secret she knew her grandparents were hiding.

However, sometimes life breaks in mysterious ways.

One Leak. One Explosion. One Night.

Changes everything forever...

"Morning Sleeping Beauty."

Her Grandads voice drifted through her bedroom door, followed by 3 gentle knocks. He always woke her up this way ever since she was a little girl.

Chelsea groaned, pulling the duvet over her head and burying herself deep into the pillows. "Five more minutes Grandad please."

Her Grandad chuckled from her doorway, "You said that ten minutes ago, come on, your Nans made enough breakfast to feed half a village."

Warm bread and fresh bacon scented the air, making her stomach growl.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming, Nan does do the best breakfast."

Chelsea wandered downstairs, still lazily rubbing sleep from her eyes, Liam as usual was already sitting at the kitchen table. A cup of tea nestled between his hands.

"Nice of you to join us" he grinned. The lazy, cheeky grin that's till to this day made her heart beat that little bit more.

Chelsea rolled her eyes, and as quick as the flash she stole the last piece of toast from his plate.

"Snooze, you lose."

Her Nan laughed so hard she nearly dropped the teapot she was carrying. For the first time in months, everything felt normal.

No shouting. No arguments. Just laughter.

After breakfast was over, Grandad disappeared into the hallway before returning with his trusty wooden ladder.

"Actually Chels, while you're here, do you fancy giving your old pops a hand?"

"What with?"

"I need to move some boxes into the loft before your Nan decides they belong in the living room, and starts putting ornaments on them."

"Oh hush your noise you. Ive been asking you to move them up there for weeks. Don't you blame me."

Chelsea smiled to herself. "Come on then."

The loft hatch squeaked and groaned for WD-40 as Grandad lifted the loft hatch open, a dust cloud floated past Chelsea, making her cough.

"I swear this house gets older every year" Grandad muttered.

"You've been saying that since I were 6 years old" Chelsea laughed.

"I've been right every year though haven't I."

One-by-one Grandad passed Chelsea up the boxes. Christmas decorations. Photographs. Baby clothes. Boxes that probably hadn't even been opened in years. Boxes kept coming and as Chelsea crawled further back on the timber beams to make a new jenga stack.

That's when she noticed it.

A dark stain spreading across one corner of the loft.

"Grandad."

"Chels."

"Has the roof always leaked?"

Grandad climbed the ladder with a frown across his face. "No, I've never known it to, but this place never fails to surprise me. I'll be damned."

The timber around the stain looked darker than the rest almost black like the inky night sky in winter, and one floorboard dipped slightly beneath Chelsea's knee.

Forever curious Chelsea pressed down on it.

Creeeeeak.

The sound echo through the loft. "Don't put your weight on that" Grandad warned "it could be rotten."

However, something about it didn't look rotten. It looked loose.

Chelsea ran her fingertips along the edge of the floorboard. Unlike every other floorboard, tiny scratches surrounded the nails, as though someone had lifted it before. More. Than. Once.

Chelsea's heart beat quickens. "That's strange."

Before Grandad could answer, Chelsea hooked her fingers beneath the edge. The floor board lifted with ease, maybe to easily.

Both of them froze.

Hidden beneath the floorboards, sat a small weathered box.

Chelsea lifts the box and turns to face her Grandad. "Pops, what's this?"

His smile disappears as he stares froze at the box. His hands begin to shake. "How is that possible! I thought we'd never see that box again."

Chelsea looks between the box and her grandad. "What do you mean? What's inside?"

Grandads chin falls to his chest, his eyes closed and whispers "Chelsea if you open that box, everything you know changes and nothing will be the same again."

With her hands shaking and heart beating like it's about to break out her chest, Chelsea lifts the lid of the box. Inside Chelsea finds folded up pieces of paper. With trembling hands she lifts the first page and begins unfolding it.

Her eyes fixated on one sentence.

"... I agreed because my husband wanted that baby. I don't think I can love her the way she deserves, each time I look at her face she reminds me of what I lost..."

The paper falls to the floor, along with the burning tears running down Chelsea's face.

She turns to face her Grandad, and softly whispers, "I'm adopted?"

Her Grandad nods. He doesn't look at Chelsea. He cant.

Her Nan's head pops up through the loft hatch after hearing voices, looks between Chelsea, Grandad and the box laying open on the floor with the pieces of paper surrounding it. She instantly knew what has happened, she doesn't even need to ask, seeing her granddaughter torn apart by some stupid words on a piece of paper.

She begins crying.

Her Grandad begins to explain that Chelsea's mum and dad wanted nothing more than to be parents. They tried for so many years, but everything seemed to fail. They decided together that they would try IVF one last time and finally their time had come, however it wasn't to be and Chelsea's mum lost the baby at 20 weeks. They were heartbroken. Chelsea's dad had chose Chelsea they moment he saw her.

Her mother wanted desperately to experience pregnancy and couldn't move past the grief of infertility. Everytime she looked at Chelsea, it reminded her of the family she'd imagined but never had.

"That wasn't your fault sweetheart, please don't think for a second it was" Grandad says, pulling Chelsea in for a hug.

"Why did no one tell me?" Chelsea whispers.

"Because we were cowards darling, also because your dad believed deep down that one day your mother would love you the way he does" Her Nan replies.

Chelsea cries. Heartbroken.

A couple of hours pass, and in that time her Grandad has called both Chelsea's mum and dad and told them everything and they said they would get there as soon as they could. Chelsea remained on the sofa the whole time. Shocked. Numb. Her whole life felt like a lie. Now she felt like she was living a nightmare she couldn't escape from.

Chelsea's parents arrive and the atmosphere is thick and heavy and for the first time since finding the box Chelsea gets up and walks straight to her mother. Looks her straight in the eyes. "Did you ever love me?"

Her mum cries before answering, tears streaming down her face, she looks at Chelsea "I wanted to. But I never dealt with my own heartbreak."

Chelsea felt another stab to her heart and turned to walk away, she didn't recognise these people and certainly didn't want to be around them.

Before she could walk away her father catches her arm, "look at me" he says. Chelsea lifts her eyes to look at him. "You weren't second best. You weren't a replacement. You weren't charity." I smile slowly grows through his tears. "You were my daughter from the moment I first held you. Always have been, always will be."

Chelsea hugs her father, together they stand there and cry.

Meanwhile, as this was all taking place the roof leak Chelsea had discovered in the loft had slowly soaked wiring hidden inside the walls.

A spark. Then. An explosion tips through the cottage.

Windows shatter. The ceiling collapses. Chelsea is thrown backwards and the room fills with smoke. She hears Liam calling her name, she tries to shout "I'm here." She tries to reach out.

Darkness.

Liam survived the explosion. Her Nan and Grandad survived the explosion. Chelsea's mum and dad survive.

Chelsea does not.

One year later.

Liam stands in a wildflower garden where the old cottage once stood before that disastrous night. He places a packet of fruit pastilles besides a simple memorial stone.

He smiles sadly and whispers to the wind, "You owe me a million adventures."

Chelsea's Grandad walks up and stands beside him. Neither of them say anything for a while. They just remember.

Finally he places a hand on Liams shoulder and says "she spent so much of her life wondering who she was."

Liam nods in agreement. "Do you think she ever found out?"

Her grandad smiles through tears "she did". He looks toward the flowers beginning to bloom. "Growth doesn't always come from happiness. Sometimes it grows from the truth, no matter how painful that may be."

Liam looks up at the sky. The little girl who he had met peeing up her grandparents hedge, who laughed through fields, climbed abbey walls and dreamed of becoming a Fruit Pastille millionaire had gone. She had been taken far to soon.

But Chelsea left knowing she had always been wanted. She had always been loved. And although the explosion destroyed the cottage and Chelsea's life, it could never destroy the memories or love that surround it.

The End.