Now that comparison was utterly unfair, and Ben thought they both probably knew it. Her fiance had kicked her to the curb at the slightest sign that something was amiss, less than a week before their wedding, while Ben had put his entire life on hold and gone to fucking Paris, essentially exiling himself for several weeks, to try and make things easier for her. Ben had done so much for her, both before their elopement and afterwards — and if he was being cruel now, it was only because she'd pushed him to this by her continued refusal to treat him like her husband, or even like a human being. She'd planned to kill his child without even telling him she was pregnant, and while he was in no hurry to be a father, he couldn't just take something like that in stride and pretend everything was still fine between the two of them.

"If I do, I'll just be playing the role you cast me in," he bit back bitterly. "I've fucking tried, Mel, so don't sit there glaring at me and pretending like this is all my fault."