One of the reasons Adelyn didn't think of getting involved in romance was that she knew she was biologically not capable of it.
At first, she hadn't understood it herself. It had only been a vague sense of disconnect … a quiet difference she couldn't quite name. But later, the doctors explained everything to her in clear, clinical terms.
She was one of those rare cases that existed in the world.
The feeling of love, they told her, was driven by a complex interplay of brain chemicals—primarily oxytocin and dopamine.
In her case, she had naturally low receptor sensitivity to oxytocin. That imbalance, in turn, affected her baseline dopamine levels, making it biologically difficult for her brain to register emotions associated with romantic attachment or deep intimacy.
It wasn't that she couldn't understand love.
She simply couldn't feel it the way others did.
And that … explained everything.
