WILD FLOWER: CATLEYA OF SAN NICHOLAS

The Flower That Cannot Be Tamed

PROLOGUE

The Flower That Cannot Be Tamed

San Nicholas is a town that is too quiet. Everyone thinks it's peaceful. Everyone thinks it's safe.

But Dr. Damien Varela knows better.

As a psychiatrist, he knows that the most silent places hide the loudest screams. And for the past three months, he has been hearing one scream over and over again in his dreams.

A woman in a red lace dress. Long wavy black hair. Standing in the middle of a wild flower garden that shouldn't exist. Above her, a giant purple Cattleya orchid blooms — beautiful, rare, and poisonous.

He has never met her. But he knows her name.

Leah Catleya Marquez. 24. The hardinera. The woman the whole town whispers about. The woman who disappeared for two years and came back different.

"Doc, may panaginip ka na naman?" his nurse asks.

Damien doesn't answer. Because in his dream last night, the woman in red finally looked at him. And she smiled. Not an innocent smile. A wild one. The smile of a flower that knows it cannot be tamed.

In San Nicholas, everyone has secrets. But Leah Catleya Marquez — she IS the secret.

And Dr. Damien Varela is about to make the worst mistake of his life. He is going to try to save her.