He could, yes. She wasn't wrong and Dorian knew that to be true more than anything else. If they spent time with one another, it was possible, perhaps, but he found it unlikely. It wasn't fair of him to offer what he had without fully explaining, though some of it he was just beginning to understand, himself. He didn't say anything for a moment as he pondered precisely how to explain, sipping at his refilled glass and looking down at his hands.

"He chose to leave. He was given a chance and he took it." He took a breath, and continued. "Back home, time passed, and he remembered a life he'd previously forgotten, and father-in-law with whom he'd founded a business, and the woman he'd lost to war." He looked up then, and his eyes were sad. "How could I compete with that?"