Prologue

Andrew Mikaelson was, to the public eye, the perfect student – the perfect guy. He was majoring in biology and minoring in English, and with each class he had near perfect marks. He was athletic, on both the swim and track team.

At 6'2", with auburn hair and forest green eyes, he was the epitome of handsome. He was well built, lean but defined. And on top of that, he was known to be a perfect gentleman, raised by wealthy parents to always show a good personality to the whole of the world.

Despite his good looks, charm, and enough money to have almost anyone bending to his every whim, Andrew never used it to his advantage – as far as the world knew. Even as far as his friends knew, he was never anything less than society's definition of perfect.

But that shining example hid the shadows that lurk within the young man. Shadows that, if known, would ruin him for life. He certainly didn't want that to come to pass, but sometimes, you make mistakes. And sometimes, those mistakes come back to bite you.