Don't pretend it's for my sake she'd said, but if not hers than whose? The simplest solution for him would have been to turn and walk out the door the moment she'd said she was pregnant. Merlin knew many men in his position did the same all the time. If he cut ties now, and maybe used some of his influence to ensure no one she cared to talk to about this was willing to listen, he could come out of this unscathed. She couldn't — not if she insisted on going down this path.

"You don't have to blow up your life," he argued — his irritation evident in his tone now. "None of this needs to happen. We can just go back to the way things were. You're —" he paused, huffed. "You're not on your own. You're just — willingly choosing to go where I can't follow. And it's bloody stupid."

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