An Excerpt from “The Glass Orchard”

The following is an excerpt from “The Glass Orchard” by Kyle Bailey, available on MixCache.com.

Introduction

Every family has a story, but in the Dunning family, legend bleeds seamlessly into lived experience, and secrets grow as wild as the ivy that blankets their ancestral estate. In the heart of Edenvale—a town named for beginnings, but haunted by unforgotten endings—the Dunnings carved out their legacy among orchard rows and glass walls, nurturing fruit and family within the same tense boundaries. The estate’s ornamental greenhouse, known to all as the Glass Orchard, stands as both crowning jewel and silent witness. It is a labyrinth of overgrown vines, shattered panes, and memories pressed between moss-stained bricks—a monument to ambition, isolation, and, most of all, to Viola Dunning herself.

Viola’s life was marked by contradiction: generosity tightly wound with secrecy, warmth curdled by sudden distance. Neighbors might recount her sharp wit over local fairs or her triumphant roses at the annual flower show, yet even longtime residents of Edenvale admit they hardly knew the woman behind those violet eyes. Reclusive after a youthful scandal and withdrawn further with age, Viola’s only true confidant seemed to be the greenhouse—her sanctuary, her laboratory, her treasure chest of enigma.

For her estranged grandchildren, the Dunning siblings, Viola’s passing is not simply a loss but an unsettling summons. Grown apart by years of distance, misunderstanding, and the fractures that only families can inflict, they return to Edenvale as both mourners and strangers. The estate beckons with old comforts and new tensions—a tapestry of childhood games, hushed arguments, and the metallic tang of unresolved grief. The weathered perfection of the orchard vines belies the bitter disputes and private regrets that follow them down the lantern-lit corridors of the manor.

But this is no ordinary homecoming. Viola, in death as in life, has devised her own peculiar test: only by piecing together the truth behind her legacy can her heirs hope to inherit. Her last message—delivered in a tone at once affectionate and imperious—invites the siblings into a labyrinth far more perilous than the one of glass and green. Beneath the deliberate enigmas and sentimental clues lies something more dangerous still: an inheritance not just of property, but of secrets long buried and grievances long ignored.

As summer ripens over Edenvale, the Glass Orchard draws its new caretakers into a game in which the past is never truly past, and redemption—like any fruit worth savoring—must be earned. It is a place where light refracts through fractured panes, illuminating sins, truths, and the possibility for healing in equal measure. To cross its threshold is to confront the tangled roots of family, the perils of secrets, and the all-too-human desire for second chances.

Within these pages, you are invited into the Dunning family’s world—where mystery and memory wind together, and the fate of an inheritance is nothing compared to the fate of their hearts. Welcome to Edenvale. Welcome to The Glass Orchard.

Read “The Glass Orchard” on MixCache.com →