The Garden Inheritance

Once upon a time, in a small village, there lived a young man named Thomas with his kind father in an old, weathered house. Behind their home grew a small, wild garden that his father tended with great love and care.

In the very center of this garden stood the most unusual rose bush anyone had ever seen. Each flower bloomed a deep, crimson red, but every single rose carried one petal as black as midnight. Visitors would stop and stare in wonder, for they had never seen anything quite so beautiful and strange.

Thomas's father would often sit beside the rose bush in the evenings, whispering to it as if it were an old friend. "This rose is special, my son," he would tell Thomas. "It holds magic within its petals."

Thomas would nod politely, though he didn't believe in magic. Still, he had to admit there was something truly odd about this flower—those black petals were certainly unlike anything he'd ever seen. It was definitely very rare, but magic? That was just his father's imagination. He labored hard in the village, earning just enough coins to buy bread and keep their little house warm. The garden seemed like just another chore to him.

When winter came, his father grew ill and passed away peacefully, leaving Thomas alone with the old house and the mysterious garden he had never truly loved.