Sage could feel their eyes on her, but she couldn't find the courage to lift her head or say much of anything, lest the tears she'd been staving off for the last few hours finally fell.

Tess wasn't saying anything Sage didn't already know. Maggie was adorable and sweet and Sage felt like she already knew her, despite not seeing her for almost four years. The problem was that Maggie had no idea who she was, or what they were to one another, she was just a stranger that now housed her after losing the only parents she had actually known. The poor lamb's entire life had been ripped away from her and turned upside down in a matter of days.

Giving her to Locke would be the easy way out. He already had children he'd taken in, claimed and cared for exceptionally well. That had never been the worry; she knew he was capable, probably more capable than she was to provide Maggie with anything she could ever want. Maggie would have siblings to play with and a room of her own and would want for nothing. But if Sage did that, she would have to admit to Locke what she'd done; she'd have to tell her family who he was and neither of those things were situations Sage thought she was brave enough to handle. But this wasn't just her life or her house, but this was her mess to clean up and she ought to do it herself, without making it anyone else's problem. The real problem was, it wasn't like she could just find somewhere else to live and take Maggie with her.

"She has to stay here," Sage said finally, resolved. Only after another moment of quiet contemplation did she pick her head up, looking directly at Tess. "I'm sorry, there is no other choice." Sage couldn't let her go twice; it would break her completely.