Listening to Lana's side of the story, Adam could sympathise with her, but he wouldn't say she is right to put all the blame on her mother and treat her like shit.

"I can sympathise with your predicament, but I don't think you are in the right here," Adam says, getting Lana's attention.

"You are just saying this to take my mother's side," Lana says.

She is still defensive about her position, even though she realizes that she might not have been a perfect daughter to Clara; she still thinks Clara did her wrong.

"I am not being biased. I am just an observer from the outside. I can see things that you, who are on the inside, can't," Adam says.

Lana just looks at him in return, wanting a more detailed explanation.

"Let me ask you this. Has your father contacted you since the divorce?" Adam asks.

His question catches Lana by surprise. She looks at Adam with teary eyes and shakes her head in denial.

"Have you tried contacting your father?" Adam asks. Lana nods her head in agreement.

"Did you succeed?" Adam asks. She shakes her head in denial again.

"Has Clara ever stopped you from contacting your father?" Adam asks. Lana once again shakes her head in denial.

"Then it's very clear to me. The moment your parents got a divorce, your father left you and never bothered contacting you even once. It's Clara who has been with you all this time.

She didn't stop you from reaching out to your father. So he doesn't have any excuse not to contact you.

And even if she did, if he wanted to be in your life, he would have fought for you in court or at least come to an agreement with Clara to have shared custody over you.

He didn't bother to fight for you at all. The moment he got his chance to leave, he left. He didn't care enough for you to be there for you as you grew up.

From what I can tell. Your father is a selfish man. While your mother stuck with you. She's strict, and I know it can be annoying, but what would you have? A strict but loving mother, or a selfish dad who doesn't love you enough to even be in your life?" Adam asks.

Hearing Adam's question, Lana takes her time before bursting into tears.

It's not like what Adam said is something new. Deep down, she knew that her father had left her without saying a word and never bothered reaching out to her even once. He didn't love her enough to do so.

But instead of thinking that her father doesn't love her and doesn't want anything to do with her, she found hating her mother much easier, by blaming Clara for not having a father, she won't have to deal with the pain of realizing that her dad never loved her.

But now that someone else has told her what she has been holding inside her all this time, she can no longer keep it together.

She started crying.

She lifted her knees up and buried her face into them.

Adam didn't say anything else. He let Lana process her feelings that she had been suppressing for years.

She cried the whole ride.

Adam stops right behind Clara's car as they arrive at her house. Lana has stopped crying, but she is still a sniffling mess. Her nose and eyes are red from all that crying.

"We are here," He says, looking at her.

Lana feels light-headed from all the crying. She looks outside and sees her home.

"Let's go," she says. Adam opens the door and gets out, and so does Lana.

Clara, too, gets out of her car and sees Lana and Adam approaching her. Her worried eyes immediately lock onto Lana and notice that her daughter has been crying.

"Lana, are you okay?" Clara asks, concerned.

"I am fine *sniff* I am tired. I'm going to get some sleep," Lana says and walks past Clara without looking at her.

Seeing this makes Clara feel hurt.

Adam approaches Clara and puts his hand on her shoulder, rubbing it gently as he and Clara watch Lana enter the house.

Clara sighs and turns to look at Adam.

"It's very late. You should stay here tonight," Clara suggests.

Adam looks at his watch, and it's indeed very late at night.

"Sure," He says and follows Clara inside.

"You can take the guest room," Clara suggests as they get in.

"Sure, goodnight," Adam says and heads to the guest room while Clara leaves for her own.

Adam walks into the guest room and finds it good enough for tonight's sleep. At least the bed is big enough, and the mattress looks comfortable.

He walks over to the mirror that's attached to the wardrobe and checks himself.

He did get physical tonight, and there was a lot of blood. He looks at his own reflection and sees there is some blood on his pants and a few splashes of blood on his shirt.

Luckily, they are not his.

Of course, he can't go to sleep in bloodied clothes, so he takes them off. He then takes his watch off and puts it on the nightstand, and is about to go to bed when there is a knock on the door.

Adam walks up to the door and opens it. On the other side sands, Clara with a bottle of wine in her hand and two glasses.

"I couldn't sleep, so I thought we could talk over some wine," she says.

"Sure, get in," Adam says, stepping away.

Clara walks in. She has on a one-piece nightwear made of silk or satin, is has that soft, glossy texture to it. And it also hugs her curves perfectly, making her look very sexy.

Her big breasts really pop out because of the soft fabric, and her cleavage is very visible; Adam can even see her nipples poking out.

Clara turns to look at Adam and sees him in his underwear and nothing else. Her eyes start going up and down his ripped, lean, and muscular physique, while lingering a little bit longer on the bulge that's on his underwear.

She blushes and quickly looks away.

"I am sorry, you also must be tired and heading to sleep. How inconsiderate of me," Clara says and tries to leave.

"It's okay, I can talk. My clothes are a little bloody. I didn't want to keep wearing them," Adam says, pointing at the clothes that are on the floor.

Clara looks at his clothes and nods her head.

"Sit down," Adam says, pointing at the bed. Clara sits down on the bed as he asks, while Adam locks the door and joins her on the bed.

Clara hands him a wine glass while she places hers on the nightstand to uncork the wine bottle. Once it's uncorked, she pours it into Adam's glass, then hers, before putting the bottle aside and picking up the glass.

They sit in silence for a few seconds before Adam decides to speak up. Clara clearly wants him to, as she doesn't know what to say.

"How's Lana? Did you check on her?" Adam asks.

"Yes, I did. She is in deep sleep. She must be very tired..." Clara says.

"I don't doubt it. Tonight was not a good night for her," Adam says and joins Clara in taking a sip of the wine.

"Is Lana going to be okay?" Clara asks. "With what she experienced out there... my poor little girl... why did it have to be her..." Clara says, tearing up a little.

"Don't worry. She will be fine. She is just like you, strong-willed. She managed to hold her own out here. Right now, she is more concerned about what you think than what happened to her," Adam says.

Clara looks at Adam with a confused gaze.

"Drive back home, she didn't talk about what happened tonight. She was more concerned about you being mad about her dating that scum Drake, and then lying about it," Adam says.

"Why would she think that?" Clara asks, genuinely confused.

Adam sighs. For being as intelligent as she is and for all the life experience she should have as a woman over the age of thirty, she really isn't good with human feelings, is she?

"You are partially to blame. You have Lana have never sat down to talk through your feelings and grievances that you have against one another. The only thing you two do is shout at each other, making things worse.

I know you do it out of love, but to Lana, you just come off as a controlling, toxic mother, and in some cases, she might be right to feel so," Adam says.

Hearing Adam's words makes Clara rethink all her interactions with her own daughter and find what Adam said to be true. She really hasn't been a good mother.

She tried to keep Lana safe by controlling her and not explaining to her why she didn't want Lana to do the things she didn't want her to do.

"I am a terrible mother..." Clara says and starts crying.

Adam sighs. He can't believe taking Clara's simple request would turn him into a bodyguard-cum-psychologist.

He had to save Lana's ass and now has to be a medium to dump their psychological trauma onto him. He isn't getting paid to do this. But since he cares for Clara, he will do it anyway.

"Clara, no. You are not a bad mother," He says and begins consoling her.