Petals on the Wind is a novel written by V. C. Andrews in 1980. It is the second book in the Dollanganger series. The timeline takes place from the siblings' successful escape in November 1960 to the fall of 1975. The book, like the others in the series, was a number one best-seller in North America in the early 1980s. In 2014, it was adapted into a Lifetime original movie.
Plot
Petals on the Wind picks up immediately where Flowers in the Attic left off: with Cathy, Chris, and Carrie traveling to Florida after escaping Foxworth Hall. Still weak from the effects of the poison that killed her twin brother Cory, Carrie gets sick on the bus. Henrietta "Henny" Beech, a mute African-American woman, rescues them and takes them to the home of her employer, 40-year-old widower Dr. Paul Sheffield of Clairmont, South Carolina. At first the children refuse to reveal their identities, but once Cathy is convinced that Paul genuinely cares and might be able to help them, she tells him their story.
During the siblings' first Christmas with Paul, Cathy begins bleeding profusely during a ballet audition and collapses; after waking in the hospital, she is told that they had to perform a D&C and that the bleeding was due to irregular periods (due to her near-starvation in the attic). Cathy suspects that the bleeding was actually a miscarriage, the result of her sexual relationship with her brother, Christopher, in the attic; however, she does not mention this suspicion, telling herself that it is in the past and all that matters is her ability to dance.
Though the children thrive under Paul and Henny's care and start fulfilling their dreams (Chris heads to college and then medical school; Cathy gets into a local ballet school and then one in New York City), Cathy is still bent on revenge against their mother, knowing she is to blame for everything wrong in their lives. Carrie continues to feel anguish over Cory's death and is embarrassed by her failure to grow properly and the problems caused by her lack of height, while Cathy and Chris still struggle with their feelings for each other. Determined to live a "normal" life, Cathy rejects Chris's advances and insists that he must find someone else to love.
Over time, Cathy falls in love with Paul and they plan to marry, to Chris's dismay. Paul tells Cathy the story of his wife, Julia, and how she had drowned herself and their son, Scotty, after Paul confessed to an affair. Cathy and Paul become engaged. Her ballet troupe begins performing in New York City. Cathy finishes a performance to find Paul's sister, Amanda, waiting to meet her. Amanda leads Cathy to believe that Julia is still alive and states that she knows Cathy miscarried Chris' child. Devastated, Cathy runs to a man in her dance troupe, Julian Marquet, who had been pursuing her since the day they met, and agrees to marry him immediately. When she returns to South Carolina, it is as Mrs. Julian Marquet. Only then does Cathy confront Paul about Amanda's message—and learns that Julia had been in a permanent vegetative state from her suicide attempt at the time Paul took them in, but had died around the time Cathy and Paul became intimate. Paul also insists that Cathy did not have a miscarriage. Cathy still is not sure, but realizes that she has now revealed to Paul that Chris assaulted her while they were imprisoned. Paul assures Cathy that he loves her; Cathy knows she has made a mistake in marrying Julian, but she feels she must honor her vows.
Julian is a possessive husband and jealous of Cathy's relationships with Paul and Chris. He abuses Cathy, cheats on her, and forbids her from seeing them. He breaks Cathy's toes so she cannot perform. Chris pleads with Cathy to leave Julian, but Cathy has found out she is pregnant and tells Chris that she loves her husband and wants to make their marriage work, despite Paul's and Chris's insistence that she must leave for her own safety. Julian has a car accident and is paralyzed, at least temporarily. He believes he will never dance again and commits suicide in the hospital.