Lol, the problem is that this isn't actually an Harlequin. Sarah's Child is one of Linda Howard's most beloved novels and this manga REAAAAAAALLLY does the FL dirty here. In the novel she's a much more thoughtful and introspective person and her personality and background really gets explored in a way that really lets you understand where she's coming from. She's a very lonely person with a very low self-esteem who comes from a dysfunctional household and has only ever been loved by her best friend (who died) and has only ever loved Rome (who went and married said best friend, even though Sarah was in love with him even before Rome and his wife even met each other). She saw Rome and her friend's family as an idealism of the perfect family unit that she never had and measured her emotional stability by their happiness (she filtered her own emotions through them, since she was unable to connect to anybody else in her life. They were everything to her). Then her friend and her children died and her perfect family unit shattered. Rome, the man she loved and admired for how he protected, supported and loved his family (things she never got from her own family), is now as broken as she is, and the only thing in the world she cares about is to fix him and give him back at least a little bit of the happiness he had (and the one that sustained her own emotional stronghold), regardless of whether that means destroying herself in the process. She enters into a relationship with Rome fully prepared never to be loved, never to be happy or even appreciated, fully prepared to perhaps be even abused, just in order to relieve his pain even if just a smidge, because he is the only anchor, the only human connection she has left. The original book reads as a heartbreaking story, and its impossible not to admire her determination and want to root for her to be even a little bit happy. This manga really does her dirty.
Am I the only person disliking FL more than ML? He is garbage and terrible but he is traumatized, he lost his family and he still misses his wife. FL preyed on him even if it’s not portrayed that way FL saw an opportunity to get ML all to herself and she took it. She preyed on a grieving man and has the nerve to feel sorry for herself. She got what she deserved, I feel bad for the baby but FL is the bad guy here. ML is an asshole, he’s a bad guy and the loss of his family doesn’t excuse him but he was put in a position he didn’t deserve to be put in and he’s all messed up and grasping for straws anything the reminds and connects him to his wife and kids ergo the FL who took advantage of him. FL is the villain here and I don’t understand how anyone can like her. Had this been written more typical of harlequin and the sexes were reversed there would be fire and brimstone stone. ML has issues and deserved a friend but he got FL instead. What would have been appropriate was FL being his friend, helping him heal and move on and eventually slow burning their way into a relationship. But that didn’t happen.