This wasn't the appropriate venue for this conversation, for while they had a layer of privacy by being off the floor and in the empty hallway they were still at a well attended party. Any number of people might overhear an argument and come looking, and then what? There were no reasonable explanations they might give for having a heated discussion. No plausible excuses that would allow for it to go unnoticed. Ezra was wrong for approaching her like this.

Still, she couldn't stop the fury that now consumed her, the fire that blazed in her veins. Ezra had destroyed them in a single evening. Perhaps, if he had waited until after the wedding they might've been able to reconcile in time. She would've come to the conclusion of not wanting children sooner and they would have managed to work around it. But, he hadn't, and now everything was ruined.

"I was fulfilling a request made by her mother, Mrs. Reinhart. Nothing more. Besides, you're free to dance with whatever new girl -" child, Rosie might've spat if she had an ounce more courage, "- you please." The waltz, the quadrille, the bloody foxtrot. Ezra could dance until his feet bled for all she cared.

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