Shopping with Elaine was usually a super fun experience, but it could also be incredibly awkward at times. I was her son’s girlfriend. His live-in girlfriend, at that. So when she pulled an insanely cute bra and panty set off the rack to show it to me, I literally almost died of embarrassment.

“Elaine! You can’t show me stuff like that,” I hissed. “And you certainly can’t buy it for me.”

“But it’s so pretty,” she complained when I yanked it out of her hands and put it back on the shelf.

“You can show me all the pretty clothes you want, as long as it’s stuff I can wear out in public. No lingerie!”

“If I had your figure, I’d seriously consider wearing that in public.”

“You wouldn’t,” I muttered. “You really, really wouldn’t.”

“If you knew me back when I was your age,” she laughed, shaking her head. “Let’s just say, you might be shocked.”

“Okie dokie. I think this shopping trip is over. I shouldn’t have let you get that last glass of wine with lunch.”

“Maybe you’re right,” she sighed as I led her through the store and out the door to the parking lot where we’d left her car about five hours earlier. “I’m terrible at day drinking nowadays. I used to be able to polish off a bottle of wine with my friends over lunch. Easy peasy. But look at me now. I had two glasses with a full meal hours ago, and I’m going to have to give you the keys because there’s no way I can drive home.”

“Lucky for both of us, you don’t have to physically hand them over,” I muttered as I helped her into the car. I was thankful for the technology behind proximity keys after she’d searched her insanely large purse for several minutes without being able to find them. Those two glasses of wine really must have done a number on Elaine, because she fell asleep less than five minutes from the mall. She didn’t wake up when I pulled into the attached garage and turned off the engine.

“C’mon, let’s get you inside so you can get more comfortable for your nap.” I helped her out of the car, into the house, and onto one of the couches in the family room.

“Can you grab the mail for me?” she asked after I spread a throw blanket over her.

“Sure, let me bring the shopping bags in first.”

“Leave your stuff in the trunk and drive the car home. I’ll have Lloyd bring me over later so we can pick it up.” She gave a sleepy yawn and cuddled into the cushions.

Driving back to her house with Elaine in the passenger seat was one thing. Taking her car out by myself was a completely different story. “I can’t, Elaine. It’s worth more than I’ll make in like ten years as a social worker. What if something happened? I’ll just get a rideshare. It’s easier.”

“No.” She reached out and grabbed my hand. “It’s just a car, no matter how much Lloyd and I paid for it. Dillon hates when you use a rideshare. That’s why he talked you into getting your driver’s license. So you wouldn’t have to do that anymore.”

She was right. It did drive Dillon crazy with worry about what could happen to me with strangers driving me around. It was how he’d finally gotten me to agree to go car shopping with him this weekend. He’d insisted I needed my own set of wheels because I was always so weird about driving his since it was also crazy expensive. At least I’d gotten him to agree to letting me set limits on what kind of car he could buy me.

“Fine,” I huffed. “But it’s going to take me forever to get home because I’m going to go about five miles under the speed limit the entire way.”

“As long as you get there safe and sound, that’s all that matters.” I pressed a soft kiss to her cheek, and she gave my hand a squeeze. “Could you check the mail on your way out? If there’s anything in there, just toss it on the passenger seat and I’ll get it when we come pick up the car.”

“Sure thing.” It was the least I could do after she’d treated me to such a fun day.

I grabbed her shopping bags from the trunk of the car and set them on the kitchen counter before driving down to the mailbox. As I pulled the envelopes out and went to toss them on the passenger seat, one dropped onto my lap. When I picked it up, my eyes landed on the return address. The one for the same transplant center where I received care. The same place I’d stopped off at a week and a half ago to drop off the letter they were going to forward to my donor family.

Sitting there frozen, I frantically tried to think of a reason—any reason other than the one which had already popped into my brain—for why they would be getting mail from the transplant center where I’d had my surgery. But I wasn’t able to come up with anything other than the one reason that would tear my whole world apart. Dillon’s identical twin brother, Declan.

“This doesn’t make any sense. The timing was totally off,” I mumbled to myself. “The car accident was an entire month before my transplant, and Dillon said his brother died in the crash.”

As I started the engine, my hands were shaking. I carefully turned onto the street and drove away. Once I’d driven about a mile, I pulled over and lifted the envelope off my lap. Staring at it, I tried to talk myself out of opening it.

“Don’t do this, Faith.” I traced my fingers over the back of the envelope where it was sealed. Opening it would be wrong on so many levels. Whatever was inside wasn’t meant for my eyes. It was sent to Dillon’s parents—not me. But if the contents were what I thought they might be, then I wanted to be the first person who knew.

Not just want. I needed to be.

Before I could think about it too much more, I ripped the envelope open. Unfolding the typed letter on the transplant center’s letterhead, my heart dropped when I recognized the note inside. The one I had written to my donor family.

“No,” I wailed. “It can’t be. Please, no.”

The fear that took hold of me was instantaneous. What if Dillon and his parents hated me because of this? What if that pull we’d felt towards each other was because his identical twin’s kidney was inside my body? Would he still love me when he found out?

I sat there and cried for at least an hour, utterly destroyed by the contents of that envelope. The past was not an old coat that could be easily discarded and quickly forgotten. It was a scent that clung and never let go. Only it wasn’t just my fucked up past that had come back to wrap its stench around me. It was Dillon’s, too. And neither of us had ever seen it coming.

Don’t miss , the second half of the Fortuity Duet! Also, if you enjoyed this story and haven’t read my Blythe College series, you might want to grab (Blythe College #1) while it’s FREE! (As of April 18, 2018.)