I wasn't able to get away scot-free.

Clara cut off my escape and dragged me to the bathroom. The wide, brightly lit mirrors showed the damage decorating my flesh.

My long mane of hair was out of control. During the heavy petting, Leo managed to take down my hair. At a glance, I could see kiss marks all over my neck. Undoubtedly, I would see more once my dress was taken off.

It was obvious what I had been up to.

Clara looked as curious as a cat inspecting a new toy.

"Dolyn." She said in a hushed tone that carried disbelief.

"I can explain," I said. I looked away from her to stare at the reflection of myself. I had no idea how I was going to explain this.

And I would have to do it more than once, so I needed to get my story straight.

I broke my vow with Mordecai...I made out with a stranger. But as I took in my swollen lips and red cheeks, I hesitated on that last thought. What if he wasn't a stranger?

What if Leo was Adam?

That was the only natural conclusion I could draw. The man smelled, felt, and acted like Adam. He might not have looked like my Adam, but here I was, wearing the shell of someone else. There was a possibility that he was doing the same.

"You didn't tell me you knew Leo Lone," Clara said as she fussed over my hair. Her firm fingers brushed the mess to pin it back on my head.

"Leo Lone?" I said, making a face. The name sounded familiar for some reason, but each time my brain attempted to pin down why, it eluded me. Maybe I felt this way because his last name was as ludicrous as Tuffin.

"He's known as the new David Savage," Clara said. "His company is already going toe-to-toe with Graham and causing him problems."

Clara said a lot more, but I tuned her out as my mind drifted to Adam.

"So, how do you know him?" Clara said.

Our eyes met in the mirror, and I grew a darker red. "Today was the first time I met him," I said.

Clara snorted in disbelief before saying, "Dolyn, I've known you for years, and I've never seen you look at a man like that before. Have you ever even kissed Graham?"

"You saw us kiss!" I said, pulling away to inch towards the door.

"Nice try, trying to change the subject," Clara said with a smirk. She gestured at me for the universal tell-all sign.

"Of course, I've never kissed Graham; it was never like that between us. We were friends..." I said.

"Poor Graham," Clara said with an expression that said she felt the opposite way.

I rolled my eyes and inched even closer to the door.

Clara's hands snaked out to grab my wrist. "You're not going anywhere," she said with a wicked grin. "Not until you tell me how you know him."

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"I don't know Leo...I did know someone before him, and Leo reminds me of him."

"Is that man the reason why Graham never stood a chance?" Clara said.

It was annoying how set she was on this whole Graham thing, but I probably deserved it. I had never seen the true Graham for years, so there was no telling how deep his feelings ran.

"That man is why no other has ever crossed my radar," I said with a firm voice.

Clara's beautiful smile lit up as her grip tightened on me. "Thank you for being open, Dolyn. You're not one to open up, and I know you were closer to Regina," she said.

I recalled my conversation with Mordecai and felt shame. It wasn't right for me to dismiss all of Clara's hard work. She was a good friend and someone I should be kinder to.

"I'm not closer to Regina than you. I care for you two equally. It's not easy to get close to people," I said. "When I was little, my father would hire people who had a grudge against him or would try to hurt me. Those people were lessons that taught me not to trust...."

Everything I said was the truth, but not the whole truth. My father did hire those people to teach me a lesson, but my trust issues started long before those incidents. If anything, they merely deepened my lack of faith in people.

I pulled away from Clara's slackened grasp to hug her tight. "I'm sorry that I haven't been a good friend. I get stuck in my head a lot."

Clara said nothing, but I felt her shake as I held her close.

By the time I got back, Darius had fallen back to sleep, but I chose to hide away in my bed. My moment with Clara couldn't hide the rest of the evening from my mind. I needed to put it to bed and hide from any thoughts of Adam.

By the time I woke up the next day, I managed to convince myself it was just a dream. I kept up that self-talk until I went to the bathroom.

Yet again, the mirror showed me Leo's handiwork. I had marks on my neck, and I saw more when I lifted my shirt. I sniffed my skin and found his musk strongly coating me. How did I still carry his scent? Why did the combination make my chest feel tight?

It really happened, and the proof grounded me in reality.

In the following days, I buried myself in studies and did whatever I could to forget the name Leo. The strange facts stacked up, but it was just a coincidence. There was no way he was really Adam. We were just two lonely people connecting, and it was a freaky fluke.

No matter how many times I coached myself, I had difficulty convincing myself of this.

It was made worse when I saw Leo on my college campus.

My feet stopped working as I froze. My stupid heart started pounding in my chest as happiness bloomed in it, and my breath caught in my throat. Like last time, everything Leo did made me see Adam instead.

My feet moved towards him before I had a chance to think of a plan.

"Now what do you think you're doing."

A cold, familiar voice was the only warning I received before Mordecai cut off my viewing of Leo. He was wearing the facade of the all-too-familiar man. His outfit this time was very unusual. He usually wore sparkly suits that looked expensive, but he was in beach attire for some reason. He wore a floral-printed shirt and swimming trunks. There was even a pair of sunglasses propped up in his messy crop of curls.

I tried to adopt a nonchalant expression, but Mordecai's hard eyes told me I wasn't fooling him. It didn't help that I licked my lips nervously as I tried to wet my mouth.

"Let me rephrase that: what were you up to last night?" Mordecai said.

"I went to Clara's engagement party," I said when there was finally enough moisture in my mouth to speak.

"And during that party," Mordecai said.

"Well, clearly, you already know!" I said, dropping all pretenses of the verbal dance. It was always better to choose fight over flight with Mordecai. Neither ever really served me well, but at least the fight reflex entertained him enough to leave me mostly unscathed.

"You vowed to never fall in love again," Mordecai said. His dark eyes were burning.

"I haven't fallen in love," I said, mustering all my outrage as I crossed my arms to square off.

"Good. Because if I have to drop by again to remind you, there will be trouble."

"Unless he's Adam," I said, locking eyes with my rude ancestor. "If he's Adam, I haven't broken my vow."

"That's a rather bold thing to claim," Mordecai said. "Need I remind you of how you left that world and what your cowardly act triggered? Don't forget what your family magic does to abandoned worlds. Do you really want to risk everything on the ghost of a chance?"

I faltered and looked away from Mordecai's probing eyes. Sadly, my gaze fell on Leo, who was chatting with a group of men and women. The tiny bit of confidence I had pieced together was falling apart.

I was more often than not wrong on everything. I lost track of the number of times things I assumed to be true were proven false.

I didn't know what the answer I needed to reach was, but I could hear Mordecai's laughter as I tucked my tail between my legs and ran away.