Laurel smiled faintly at being called brave. Maybe he had a point. A month ago, she wouldn't have dreamed of confessing her most closely-guarded secret to her two long-lost brothers. But here she was and it was out there and the world had not ended. Yet.
"I know I'm not bad," she said to her hands, "I used to. I thought I was broken and diseased." She absebtly tubes at her eye with her knuckle. "But I'm not." Her voice dropped to a mumble and she couldn't look at Toby.
"It doesn't matter who I love or what makes me happy. I have a responsibility." She closed her eyes tight. "I'm supposed to marry a good boy, and no matter how much I don't want to, I'll just have to live with it."
Because there was no best of both. It was one or the other. Her own happiness and her brothers and new friends or a continued place in her family. Wasbt family supposed to come first?