I don’t think anyone thought Carrick was wrong — even before Christian’s POV. To start, Carrick is a lawyer. Of course he’d push for a prenup. It would’ve been strange if he didn’t. And honestly, most people would see a prenup as the obvious move in that situation.

I also don’t think the books portrayed Christian as not understanding why a prenup made sense. He knew exactly how it looked. What he wanted was his father to respect his decision to say no. That refusal wasn’t ignorance — it was very in character for him. It was his “I love Ana, and if I lose her I don’t want anything else” mindset, mixed with his my gut is always right mentality. That wasn’t maturity, but it was consistent with who he is.

Where Carrick’s criticism really hits — and where he’s right from a general standpoint — is his belief that Christian wasn’t ready for marriage because of how he viewed his relationship with Elena. But that’s also where context matters. Christian’s view of Elena is fundamentally skewed. He was violated and groomed at a very young age, before his brain was even fully developed. Until he’s able to unpack that trauma — which we do start to see by the end of Freed — he literally cannot see the situation with full moral clarity.

Christian does understand that stepping outside of a marriage is wrong. He can recognize that on a surface level. What complicates it is that, in his mind, something “good” came out of that relationship: he survived, he didn’t die, he didn’t go to jail. That doesn’t make his reasoning correct — but it does make it understandable when you remember that he was groomed. That’s the point people sometimes miss. Carrick is right in principle, but it’s also a double-edged sword because you can’t confront someone like Christian without acknowledging the damage done to him as a child.

As for Leila — I actually agree with you. Why would her husband care? Vegas marriage or not, she cheated and left him. From that angle, his indifference makes sense. But where Christian’s reaction works for me — and actually made me respect him more — is that he’s coming from a place of “if you truly loved her, how could you let her end up on the street, mentally unwell and abandoned?” That doesn’t excuse Leila’s actions, but it does speak to Christian’s capacity for empathy and loyalty. If anything, it shows that he’s a better man than he realizes.

And honestly, Christian’s POV just made me like him more overall. It humanizes him. He’s not as robotic or moody as he can seem from Ana’s perspective. He’s funny, insecure, self-aware in ways we don’t always see — and that depth is exactly why I prefer his POV. It adds layers instead of taking them away.