"Some things bloom best in the dark."
Everyone in the village whispered about Mrs. Blackwood.
She wasn't just a widow, she was the widow.
Rumors swirled like perfume around her estate. That she'd buried three husbands and never shed a tear. That her garden grew better than any other because she watered it with secrets. That anyone who entered her greenhouse came out different. Changed.
Lena was warned. Repeatedly.
But warnings had always sounded like invitations to her.
Lena was twenty-three, fresh out of university and full of soft rebellion. She came to the countryside to escape her mother's expectations and a fiancé she didn't love. She took a summer job cataloging rare plants and when she heard that the infamous widow was hiring, she applied immediately.
Mrs. Blackwood answered
