His expression was too earnest, his question too pointed, for Rosalie to answer quickly. Her reaction that day was extreme (she was far enough removed from the situation now to realize she should have had more of a conversation with him) but she'd been little more than a child crippled by grief back then. She wasn't even twenty that first summer together, how was she to know the appropriate reaction to such a devastating reveal? How could he have approached the conversation in such a deceptive way?

The seconds ticked by as Rosalie sat deep in thought beneath the weight of Ezra's (and the diviner's) stares. Ezra had seemed shocked by her confession last Halloween, as though the thought of his son dying hadn't once occurred to him. Rosalie didn't understand how he could avoid thinking of it regardless of who he intended to marry. A child's death was devastating, expected or not. None of it made sense.

"No, I suppose not." Rosalie answered. Their separation would have occurred no matter when he told her, though her reaction might not have been so dramatic had he spoken of it sooner. "I don't understand why you would have chosen me to pursue, knowing what you did about Ambrose's death. Did you think I could survive such a loss?"

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