Merlina sucked in a breath like he'd struck her. Not because of the harshness of the words, but because of the truth in them.
Craig wasn't Conor. And that was the problem. She knew it too well. Too intimately.
They were brothers, but that truth had never stopped her from slipping. From letting Craig in. From dropping her guard too soon, too easily.
She kept forgetting.
Forgetting who his brother was. Forgetting why she came to Belford in the first place.
Since day one, Craig had been a distraction, quiet and consuming. And not once, not when she found out he had a girlfriend, not when the darkest truths clawed their way to the surface, not even when she found about the affair—did her feelings stop.
They didn't run. They didn't retreat. Nothing was strong enough to shake him out of her heart.
And that terrified her.
