Not 101.

One hundred.

The florist’s tag listed the exact count.

I picked it up between two fingers and read it again, as if the number might change if I looked long enough.

One hundred yellow roses.

A round number should have felt romantic. Grand. Intentional in the sweet way people planned things for anniversaries or birthdays. But my birthday was months away. Our anniversary had already passed.

And Daniel, for all his good qualities, was not a “one hundred roses for no reason” kind of man.

He was thoughtful, yes.

Extravagant, no.

I stood there staring at them.

Yellow roses have never had a single meaning. Some people associate them with friendship. Others with jealousy.

And in some cultures, they symbolize farewell.

A final goodbye.

The thought came so clearly that I stepped back from the table.

“Stop it,” I whispered to myself.

But unease had already slipped into the room.

I reached for my phone and called my husband.

It rang.

And rang.

Then went to voicemail.

I frowned. Daniel was busy during work trips, but he usually answered if he could. If not, he called back quickly.

I sent a text.

“Did you send me flowers?”

I waited, staring at the screen.

Nothing.

A minute passed.

Then five.

Then ten.

No answer.

I called again.

No answer.

By then, the roses no longer looked beautiful to me. They looked too bright. Too arranged. Too present.

I walked around the dining table slowly, studying them from every angle. Maybe I was being ridiculous. Maybe Daniel was in a meeting. Maybe he had chosen yellow because the florist suggested it. Maybe 100 was some package deal.

Still, my fingers felt cold.

Then I noticed something strange.

The bouquet was not arranged randomly.

Several roses in the center were arranged differently.

Almost like someone had intentionally placed them there.

I leaned closer.

The outer flowers were full and open, angled outward in a neat, circular pattern. But near the middle, a few stems sat lower, their heads tilted just slightly inward. Not enough for most people to notice. Enough for me.

Curious, I started counting.

Ten rows of ten.

I counted once, then again, touching each bloom lightly as I moved through them.

Ten rows of ten.

Except one row was not entirely yellow.

One rose near the middle had a tiny red mark hidden beneath a petal.

At first, I thought it was a flaw.

Maybe a bruise. Maybe dye from another flower. I gently lifted the petal with my fingertip.

The red mark was small but deliberate.

My breath caught.

Then I found another.

And another.

There were exactly three.

Three marked roses.

My stomach dropped.

I forgot about the unanswered calls. I forgot about the sunlight on the table and the coffee mug still sitting by the sink. For a moment, all I could hear was my own breathing.

Three marked roses.

I had seen that pattern before.

Years ago.

A memory stirred, old and unwelcome, like something buried under floorboards suddenly scratching to be let out.

My hands started shaking.

“No,” I said aloud, but my voice had no strength in it.

I grabbed my phone again. This time, I did not call Daniel.

I called the police.

The dispatcher asked for my name, my address, and what had happened. I tried to explain without sounding insane.

“A bouquet was delivered to my house,” I said, gripping the edge of the table. “One hundred yellow roses. No card. No signature. Just my name.”

There was a pause. “Ma’am, are you in immediate danger?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But three of the roses are marked. Exactly three.”

Saying it out loud made my throat tighten.

“Marked how?”

“Red,” I said. “Tiny red marks hidden under the petals.”

Another pause.

“And you believe this is threatening?”

I looked at the bouquet again, at those three hidden marks staring back at me like old wounds.

“Yes,” I said. “I do.”

The officer on the line told me to stay inside, lock my doors, and not touch anything else until someone arrived.

I did exactly what she said.

I locked the front door.

Then the back.

Then I stood in the middle of my dining room, staring at the flowers that had arrived while my husband was away, waiting for the police and waiting for Daniel to call me back.

But he did not.

And the worst part came an hour later.

By then, two uniformed officers had arrived and were standing in my dining room, looking at the bouquet with the careful politeness people use when they think you may be frightened over nothing.

One of them, Officer Voss, asked, “You said your husband usually sends white roses?”

“Yes,” I replied. “Always white. Never yellow.”

“And he is away for work?”

“That’s what he told me.”

The younger officer glanced at the flowers. “Ms. Amber, I understand this feels unsettling, but sometimes florists make mistakes.”

I wanted to believe him. I truly did.

Then a dark sedan pulled up outside.

A man in his late 60s stepped through my front door a few minutes later. He had silver hair, tired eyes, and the kind of face that looked as if it had carried too many secrets for too long.

“I’m Detective Kellan,” he said.

The name stirred something in me.

“My father knew a Kellan,” I whispered.

His eyes shifted to mine. “Your father was Detective Ron.”

I nodded, surprised by the pain that still came with hearing Dad’s name. He had been a homicide detective for most of his life. Before he died, he occasionally shared stories from old investigations, never the worst details, but enough that I knew some cases stayed with him.

Detective Kellan moved toward the roses.

At first, his expression was calm.

Then he saw the three marked flowers.

The color drained from his face.

“Where did these come from?” he asked, his voice low.

“I told them. A florist delivered them. No card. No sender. Just my name.”

He turned to the officers. “Secure the house. Call it in.”

Officer Voss straightened. “Sir?”

“Now.”

My legs weakened. “You recognize this.”

Detective Kellan looked at me, and for the first time since the bouquet arrived, someone believed me.

“Twenty-two years ago,” he began, “three women disappeared. Each one received one hundred yellow roses before she vanished.”

My throat tightened.

“One hundred,” I said.

He nodded. “Not 99. Not 101. Exactly 100. Your father believed the number meant the end. A complete cycle. A final goodbye.”

I gripped the back of a chair.

“And the red dots?”

“Three marked flowers,” he confirmed. “Every time.”

The room seemed to tilt.

I remembered sitting with Dad on our old porch years earlier. He had been staring into the dark, rolling a cold cup of coffee between his hands.

“Some monsters don’t leave fingerprints,” he had said. “They leave symbols.”

I had thought he was just tired.

I had not known he was warning me.

The police tried calling Daniel again. I called too. Each attempt went unanswered.

Then Detective Kellan contacted Daniel’s company.

I watched his face while he listened.

“What is it?” I asked when he hung up.

He did not answer right away.

“Please tell me.”

“Daniel was never on a business trip.”

My mouth went dry.

“That’s not possible.”

“The hotel reservation was fake. The flight was never taken. Nobody at his company has seen him in four days.”

Four days.

My husband had kissed my forehead on Monday morning, told me he would call from Chicago, and walked out with his suitcase.

Now I did not know where he was.

Or who he was.

The police searched the house that evening. I sat in the living room with a blanket around my shoulders, listening to drawers open and close upstairs.

Then Detective Kellan returned, holding a small metal lockbox from Daniel’s home office.

“Amber,” he said carefully, “do you know what this is?”

I shook my head.

Inside were newspaper clippings.

Dozens of them.

Some were old and yellowed. Some looked newer. All of them were about the disappearances from 22 years earlier.

My hand flew to my mouth.

“No,” I breathed.

There were photos of the victims. Articles about the roses. Notes in Daniel’s handwriting along the margins.

Officer Voss looked grim. “We need to issue a warrant.”

I stared at the clippings until the words blurred.

My Daniel.

The man who made terrible pancakes every Sunday because he insisted mine were “too pretty to eat.” The man who held me when my father died. The man who had slept beside me for 18 years.

Had he been hiding this?

Had I been loving a stranger?

By midnight, Daniel was named a prime suspect.

By morning, I felt hollowed out.

Then the forensic report came in.

Detective Kellan arrived just after breakfast, his jaw tight.

“The fingerprints on the florist order came back,” he said.

I braced myself.

“They are not Daniel’s.”

I blinked. “Then whose are they?”

His face changed.

For a moment, he looked older.

“They belong to Amos.”

The name meant nothing to me.

Kellan swallowed. “He was a retired detective. He worked the original case with your father.”

My father’s old partner.

The room went silent.

Kellan sat across from me and spoke more softly. “Your father suspected him before he died. He never had enough proof.”

A shiver moved through me. “Why would he send roses to me?”

“He didn’t,” Kellan answered. “We think the bouquet was bait.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We found evidence that Daniel had your father’s old notes. Your husband must have discovered something recently. Amos believed Daniel was getting close to the truth.”

My heart stumbled. “Daniel knew?”

“He may have been trying to protect you.”

That broke me.

I had spent the night imagining my husband as a monster, when he might have been fighting one.

Police tracked Amos to an abandoned hunting cabin outside the city. I was not allowed to go, but every second felt like a year. I sat at the station, holding Daniel’s wedding ring between my fingers because he had left it on his dresser before his “trip.”

When Detective Kellan finally returned, his eyes were wet.

“He’s alive,” he said.

I stood too fast. “Daniel?”

“Yes.”

A sound left me that was half sob, half prayer.

Daniel came home two days later with bruises on his face, a bandage around his wrist, and guilt in his eyes.

The moment he stepped through the door, I ran to him.

“I thought you were dead,” I cried.

He held me so tightly I could barely breathe.

“I’m sorry, Amber. I found your dad’s notes in an old box. I thought I could figure it out before anyone got hurt.”

“You should have told me.”

“I know,” he whispered. “I was scared.”

“For me?”

“For you.”

Amos was arrested. Evidence found in his cabin finally linked him to the three original disappearances. After 22 years, three families received answers they had almost stopped hoping for.

The bouquet remained in police custody.

I never wanted to see another yellow rose again.

Weeks later, Daniel and I sat together on the porch, quiet beneath the evening sky.

“The flowers were not meant for me,” I said.

Daniel laced his fingers through mine. “No.”

“They were meant for you.”

He nodded, his eyes filled with regret.

For the first time, I understood the truth. The bouquet had not been a romantic gesture or a threat meant to break me.

It had been meant for the one person the killer feared.

My husband.

And somehow, after all those years, my father had still found a way to lead us home.

But here is the real question: If something strange arrived at your door while the person you trusted most was gone, would you ignore the fear in your gut, or would you risk uncovering a truth that could change everything?