Chapter 1
Once upon a time in the town of Oakland there was a little girl named Marigold. Her parents were bakers and had been baking ever since Marigold was born. James, her father, used to work as a cook. He was the assistant of a chef in a restaurant. One day he met her mother, Rose, and she completely changed his life. She was the one who encouraged Marigold's father to open his own bakery, The Bakers.
Everyone loved their baking; even the president would order baked goods from their bakery. Everyday people would come to the famous bakery. Behind the bakery was their house. You could smell the aroma of chocolate chip cookies to fudge brownies and croissants. Marigold loved to help her parents bake and sell the food. Years passed by and the bakery was known over the country.
18-year- old Marigold was a strong and beautiful girl. She had many admirers but she never looked at them. She was hard on the outside and soft in the inside. Everyone in town said that she was a kind and caring person, even if she didn't show it. Marigold would do anything, but marry. She loved her parents a lot and she couldn't think about leaving them. She would only marry when her parents died.
They were the perfect family, but nowadays, her parents were in tension. They were always in deep thought and this is what Marigold found strange. Whenever she would ask them what's wrong they always said nothing and told her to mind her business. She found it strange.
"Good morning Marigold darling!" Mr. Winfred exclaimed as he entered the bakery. Mr. Winfred was a short and plump man. Every day he would come to their bakery to buy a batch of chocolate chip cookies. He was a lonely man and never married.
"Good morning Mr. Winfred," she said breaking out of her thoughts, “how may I help you?"Just then her mother entered the bakery with heavy grocery bags. She set the bags on the table and sat down to drink a glass of water. She soon noticed Mr. Winfred.
"Oh! Mr. Winfred, Good morning! Lovely seeing you!"Rose said. Her mother saw her and told her to go home and bake some fudge brownies
Marigold was stirring the batter, still thinking about the strange things happening in her family, when she heard screaming coming from the bakery. Marigold rushed out of the house to see what happened. There, lying on the floor, were two dead bodies. These dead bodies were her parents. It was a terrible sight. They were constantly stabbed in the stomach. Rose had bruises on her cheeks and hands. James had blood coming out of his mouth and looked as if he had gotten in a fight. There was a pool of blood around his head and his eyes were open. Rose's eyes were open because of shock.
There were two men with masks on, one was shouting at the people to stay back and the other one was filling their bags with money. The man shouting had a bloody knife in his hand. The man pointed the blood knife at whoever tried to stopped them. Both men saw Marigold and started threatening her. The man filing the bags saw her and stopped. He kept staring at her. Marigold was looking at him with frightened blue eyes. That man's green eyes, where had she seen them? Marigold thought.
"Help! Someone help!" Marigold screamed as she attacked the man. All were frozen with fear. Their eyes fixed on the knife. The man with the knife grabbed her by the hair and pulled her. But Marigold used a shampoo that made her hair stronger and shinier and tangle-free. His fingers slipped through her hair.
"What the heck?!" The thief said. Marigold saw his guard down and tried to punch him, but he was much faster than her and grabbed her wrist and twisted her hand back. Pain. She could feel the pain. He was holding her hand so tightly that she couldn't feel the blood circulating in her hand. Her hand felt as if it were a cloth be twisted to get all the water out. The more she struggled to get out the more pain it caused her. The man laughed when he realized that he had her captured. He was standing so close to her."Not so smart are you?" He forcefully dragged her into the storage room and locked her it.
"Quiet you!" the man hollered. Marigold screamed for help and started banging on the door. She heard the man screaming, "Grab the loot and lets go!" She felt dizzy all of a sudden and then suddenly everything went black.
All of a sudden, police cars came in, and the thieves ran. Marigold was found unconscious on the floor by one of the officers. The thieves got away somehow, but they didn't take the money. One she gained conscious she remembered everything that happened. Tears running down her eyes. Why us? We were a happy family. We never hurt anyone, so why did my parents die? She thought. All the memories came back.
"Calm down ma'am. We will find the murderers. Were they your parents?"The officers asked. Marigold cried even more. Just thinking about what happened today made her sick. The officer could understand what she was going through. His parents died in a car crash when he was just a boy. He made her sit down and got her a glass of water."Okay I want all the witnesses lined up so we can ask them questions."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dedicated to gloriouskau for making such an awesome cover!!!!
