I'd Give Up The World For You

Daisy managed to prevent herself from panicking right up until she made it back to her room at the boarding house. She had been nervous enough about becoming a mother anyway but knowing what she did now…

Leo was undeniably up to something. Something dangerous. She had no way of knowing if he would be successful or not and someone as damaged as her with no experience with happy families should NOT be raising a child alone!

She had already wanted to live peacefully with the one she loved before this and had questioned whether it was even possible. That worry had been amplified tenfold since the doctor gave her the news. Children needed safety, stability, and love in order to grow up happily and healthily. She wasn't sure she and Leo would be able to give this baby that with the uncertainty surrounding their situation. 

Oh, why did Juliet have to go and tell her things she didn't want to hear? She wouldn't be nearly as freaked out right now if her former friend hadn't been such a busybody. 

Daisy didn't feel equipped to handle this. Her husband was keeping secrets from her and now she was pregnant with his child. She knew he wasn't a villain but was still worried about whatever it was he was planning and how it might affect their family. 

It wasn't only about the two of them anymore. They had a baby on the way who would be relying on them for everything. That was an awful lot of responsibility and the timing was terrible!

Why did this have to happen now when she was so confused and worried already? Why couldn't it have waited until whatever Leo was up to was over and done with? 

She didn't want to deal with this right now! Not when she had so many other things going on in her head. She couldn't even talk to anyone about this. She had to deal with it all on her own like always. 

Daisy had thought she could rely on Leo since he cared for her so much and was generally a responsible person but plotting behind her back had proved otherwise. He hadn't trusted her enough to let her in on it and now she was suffering in silence. 

That idiot. Why hadn't he told her? Did he think she would try to stop him? 

If he managed to accomplish his goal she would find out anyway so what was the point of keeping it a secret? He knew everything there was to know about her and he couldn't even trust her with his name.

Juliet had been about to say it—she could tell—which was why she cut her off during that last conversation they had. She hadn't wanted to hear it from an outsider. She wanted to hear it from her husband as promised when he didn't have to hide his identity anymore. 

Who was he, really? He wasn't the monster Juliet painted him to be but he wasn't the simple military man she had believed either. 

Daisy didn't know much. He was a fire mage and had watched his entire family get killed in front of him before witnessing the destruction of his country. That didn't give her any clues about who he had been wherever he came from. 

She knew that magic was rare and often restricted to nobles or royalty but hadn't thought he was one because of how easily he adapted to life on the farm. But what if he was? Wouldn't taking revenge on an entire country make more sense if you were someone high up than if you were a random commoner? 

Honestly, she didn't know what to think. She didn't even know what country Leo was from. 

It wouldn't be too hard to research if she had a map. She knew he had come from the west. How many countries on this continent could be in that direction? It would be a simple process of elimination from there. 

Daisy didn't want to look into this on her own though. She felt like doing that would be a betrayal of her husband's trust, which was stupid since he had already betrayed hers by keeping such important secrets when they were married. Doing it when they hardly knew each other was one thing but when they were in an intimate relationship it was different!

She wanted to cry. It was so stupid that she couldn't even ask him about all of this until he was ready to tell her. 

If not for the fact that she would have to reveal her source she would have confronted him about it. She didn't want Leo to feel violated or question his existence knowing he was a villain in a book. 

Or was supposed to be. He had already taken a vastly different path from the one the original Leo had since Juliet claimed Daisy changed things by arriving in this world. 

It wasn't as if she had asked for it. She hadn't asked to get into that accident either. She hadn't wanted to die after living such an unfulfilling life but she hadn't wanted to be reborn as someone else in a fantasy world either. 

Yet she adapted as she always had. It had gotten her through some very dark days and it would get her through this too but that didn't mean she had to be happy about it. Because she wasn't. At all. 

Daisy hated the secrecy, the lies, and Juliet's slander of her husband. She didn't even know him! She had only met him a couple of times even if she had supposedly written him. 

She didn't write Daisy though. Leo had made different choices because he knew her and that proved he had free will. He wasn't destined for such a terrible end. He couldn't be! He was better than that and she knew it but couldn't convince that snooty author otherwise.

Juliet was too fatalistic. So what if this was originally the world of a novel? She couldn't account for everything. There were so many people that lived here without even being mentioned in the novel. The world had taken on a life of its own involving real people and real decision making that had absolutely nothing to do with her. 

Maybe things would have progressed the way they did in the book if Daisy hadn't come here but maybe they wouldn't have. All she knew was that right now Leo was not a villain. 

He was far too good natured to destroy the world. Someone so sappy and lovesick couldn't possibly want to burn everything to the ground. The very thought was ridiculous! Anyone who actually knew him would say the same. 

Leo was kind, loyal, and cared about the well-being of others. No one like that could be so callous. Juliet didn't know what she was talking about. 

Daisy knew this but she was still frustrated. Why did Leo have to leave her out of the loop? Didn't he realize that she loved him enough to hear him out? If something was truly important to him she wouldn't shame him for it. 

She may not know all the secrets he was keeping but she knew her husband at his core. He was a good person who wouldn't hurt innocent bystanders whatever he was planning. She was positive of that much. 

"Baby, I really wish your dad would tell me things," she lamented as she placed a hand on her stomach. 

She hated that she was bringing a child into the world under such uncertain circumstances. She knew Leo would be thrilled but also knew he wouldn't stop whatever he was doing just because she was pregnant. He had been working on it for too long. 

He was going to be insufferably overprotective once he found out, wasn't he? The doctor had already told her she was supposed to lie down as much as possible but that wasn't going to happen. She was not a Regency era noblewoman who was on bedrest the whole pregnancy. She would go insane without having books or movies. 

It was perfectly normal back in her world for people to keep working right up until they went into labor. People still participated in regular exercise while pregnant. She should be fine doing a little gardening. 

Leo wasn't likely to see things that way though. She was willing to bet his mother hadn't lifted a finger the whole time she was pregnant with any of her children and that was what he would expect her to do. That absolutely would not be happening!

Daisy sighed. She could almost imagine his reaction now. 

He was going to be excited but also paranoid because he had lost his entire family before. She was going to have to fight him on this, wasn't she? 

They had never really fought about anything. The most conflict they ever had was when he had told her about his feelings and tried to convince her to marry him…then after as she tried figuring out exactly what that would mean for them. 

She had to dig her heels in this time though. It was important to her that she continue on as a normal person while pregnant.. Maybe she could convince him by telling him how things worked back in her world.