by Ruby Cruz
“Hal fixed your laptop for you. He said that the battery just needed to be replaced.” I placed the laptop on the scarred kitchen table. Lydia was making coffee when George wandered into the kitchen while yawning exaggeratedly. “Morning, babe,” he greeted Lydia with a peck on the cheek. “What’s for breakfast?” He sat down as Lydia poured a mug of coffee for him and set it down in front of him.
“I could make some waffles. Or pancakes, if you like.” Her voice was meek and I couldn’t help but notice the dark circles under her eyes. She looked exhausted.
“Could you make those little blueberry muffins? Lydia makes the best blueberry muffins,” he said with a smile and a wink at me.
It was at that moment that I truly realized how evil he was. George Wickham, with all the charm and seduction of a snake, had done more than married Lydia; he had somehow coaxed her into being some sort of pet for him. And for what? His own amusement? Revenge at me for exposing him for what he was? I’d probably never find out.
Seeing Lydia like this, subservient, a shadow of her former, vivacious self, made a part of me die inside. While a very small part of me told me that she was a grown woman, and she’d brought this all on herself by lying to me and getting involved with George even after I’d warned her about him, I couldn’t help but feel guilty for having brought him into our lives in the first place. No one deserved to be treated like this, like some type of kinky lap dog.
George saw the look in my eyes, the hatred that simmered there. He and I understood one another and it was all I could do to prevent myself from punching him square in the face, if only to wipe him of that smug expression.
Lydia set about finding the ingredients for the muffins. There was an uncomfortable silence until she announced, “I’m sorry, sweetie, but we’re out of blueberries.”
“Could you be a darling and go get some? I don’t think my morning would be the same without those precious gems of perfection.” George’s eyes bore into mine the entire time, as if taunting me by the hold he had on Lydia.
“Okay, sweetie.” Her tone was uncertain but she moved to grab her purse. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“I’ll keep our guest company until you get back.” She glanced between the two of us and only hesitated briefly before leaving. George’s mouth spread into a grin. “Alone at last.”
“Save it,” I spat out.
“You wound me,” he mocked. “We are family now, after all.”
I turned away from him and studied the faded and stained wallpaper. I refused to let him rile me but my patience with him was non-existent. Now that the façade was gone, now that he knew I understood what type of man he was, George was intent on baiting me.
He stood from his chair and somehow sneaked around me. He didn’t touch me, but whispered seductively in my ear, “You know, I still remember how it was between you and me. I always had this pull towards you. I never understood why, after all, we never had any real spark between us. Maybe it was because I knew how much Darcy wanted you. It was obvious to the whole world, except for maybe yourself. The brilliant Dr. Darcy, infatuated with poor, lowly Nurse Bennett. He must have been mortified to admit how he felt about you, someone so obviously beneath him. I loved taunting him, you know. Those death stares he’d throw at me while I flirted with you at Riley’s and at the hospital. I haven’t had that much fun in years, not since I banged his sister.” I clenched and unclenched my hands, not trusting myself to have the willpower not to punch him in the face. “Have you met her? Ana, I mean? Feisty little thing, not unlike your stepsister.”
He stepped even more closely to me, laid a hand on my shoulder. I cringed but forced myself to stay still. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing how much his words repulsed me. “We could try again, you and me. Now that I’m with your stepsister, we could sweeten the deal. She’s always willing to be adventurous in bed.”
His suggestion had my stomach churning and I pushed away from him. “Go to hell. There’s nothing between you and me.”
His smile widened even more. He was enjoying this. “It’s just as well. I don’t fancy having Darcy’s leavings. His tastes always ran on the blander side. Plus, I’m having so much fun with your stepsister.”
“God help me, George, if you mistreat one hair on her, I’ll make you pay.” I said the words even though I could hear the hollowness of them. George was already mistreating Lydia, had already ensnared her in his web of emotional manipulation.
He smiled at me, his dimple winking at me from the corner of his mouth. To think I’d once been attracted to him and had fantasized about kissing him. I was nauseated from the memory. “What’ll you do? Lydia and I are legally married. I’m more family to her now than you are.”
My fists clenched with the futility of the situation. There was nothing I could do, no way I could protect Lydia from George now that she was married to him and had no intention of leaving him. She was lost to me and to Hal, and I feared, more than anything, that she would waste away under George’s reign.
Still, I refused to let George know that I was fully aware that he’d won. “Believe me, I’ll find a way, especially since your gambling tendencies tend to attract people I’m sure you don’t want to associate with.”
He narrowed his eyes, the amusement no longer gleaming from their depths. I’d hit a nerve by threatening to expose him to his creditors. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Maybe not, but I’m sure it wouldn’t take much to find out. Hal found you, after all, and he’s not exactly technologically savvy.”
His eyes momentarily flashed with confusion, then cleared as amusement filled them. “Right. Hal is the master tinkerer.” He was toying with me again, laughing at something I’d said.
I was tempted to curse at him but didn’t want to waste my breath. Instead, I said, “Tell Lydia I’ll be by later. I’ve got some errands to run.”
“Leaving so soon? But you just got here,” he taunted in a saccharin tone. “Lydia will be so disappointed. I’m sure you’ll see her again at some point. We are planning a celebration of sorts. After all, we never held a wedding reception, everything was so…rushed. We were thinking of hosting just a small gathering of close family and friends. We need to outfit our new home somehow.”
“Hal isn’t going to stand for this. There’s no way he’s going to support a marriage between you and Lydia, not to mention pay for a reception.”
“Hal doesn’t have to support anything. Lydia is a grown woman, something you seem to forget. If Hal wants to keep involved in his daughter’s life, well, then he has to be a little more tolerant of me, wouldn’t you say?”
At that, I hated George Wickham with all of my being. Gone was the charming and affable man. He was an opportunistic viper, coiled, waiting for the perfect moment to strike his prey. Well, he’d found it, sunk his fangs, and Lydia was now dangling and limp, a shell of her former self.
He sighed and sat down at the table again. “Well, as much as I’d love for you to stay and visit, I have a lot of planning to do. I think I’m going to give your friend Mary a call. She loves planning all those events at the hospital, doesn’t she? She’d know all the contacts for throwing a blowout reception for one of her dearest friends and her new husband.”
Unable to endure his presence any longer, I left, seething. I felt so angry, more at myself than at George. I could have stopped them, I could have tried harder to prevent this fiasco of a marriage, but I’d been so caught up with Aunt Jo’s illness and with encountering Darcy again that, in all honesty, Lydia’s involvement with George had simply slipped my mind. And now she was married to him, for better or worse.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Second Chances
After everything settled down following Lydia’s return, Hal retreated back to his usual monosyllabic self and Mom lamented that her stepdaughter had been married before her actual daughters. She’d asked once again about the “handsome do
ctor” I’d been dancing with at the Nurses Gala, but my terse reply was enough to stop that line of questioning.
I saw very little of Darcy after the Vegas debacle. I liked to think he was giving my aunt extra attention at the rehab center, but a part of me suspected he was keeping his distance from me, not that I blamed him. After everything that had happened, after all the miscues and misunderstandings, I’d become tired of treading lightly around him and I wouldn’t blame him for feeling the same.
On the days I visited my aunt, she appeared happy and well on her way towards a healthier lifestyle. She had begun doing some physical therapy with the horses and that experience in itself brightened her complexion immensely. I’d never seen her so animated and content.
On the days I worked, Darcy rounded early in the morning on his patients and was long gone before I even started my shift. It was just as well, I concluded. That chapter of my life was seemingly over and I could go about starting a new one with a clean slate, with no misconceptions or false steps.
The weather in May warmed so much that I suspected an early summer. Chloe laughed that delicious high pitched squeal as Jane pushed the swing higher and higher. She clung tightly to the chains as she swung, her little legs pumping and an ecstatic grin stretching across her face. I sat on the swing next to hers and slowly drifted back and forth. Even though I really didn’t want to, I glanced at my watch. “We’d better get a move on if we’re going to have an edible meal at Mom’s,” I announced to Jane. “If we don’t get there by five, we both know she’ll overcook the chicken and mangle the potatoes.”
“Okay, sweetie, two more minutes on the swing and we have to go,” Jane told Chloe. My niece said a defiant, “No!” and burst into tears. I looked past her on the swing and saw him. I made sure that Jane was still engrossed in calming Chloe and said nonchalantly, “I’ll go get Chloe’s toys from the sandbox.”
I jumped from the swing and made my way swiftly past the sandbox and to where I’d seen Charlie lurking at the edge of the playground. “Stalk much, Charles? You know you shouldn’t be here.”
Charlie’s gaze swerved from Jane and Chloe to me. “I need to talk to her.”
“Don’t you think you’ve hurt her enough? She doesn’t want to see you, especially not with Chloe here.”
“Lizzy, please, I just…I need to talk with her.”
“No.” I was so angry, so angry with him for his past behavior with Jane that I wasn’t willing to budge. “Jane is finally in a good place in her life. She doesn’t need you messing things up again.”
“I know you’re just trying to protect her, but isn’t that what Will was doing for me? Please, just let me talk with her. If she doesn’t want to talk to me, then at least that’ll be her decision.”
I searched Charlie’s face. I saw resolve and a bit of desperation and, underneath it all, potent love. “Please, Lizzy.”
“Fine.” I moved aside and he rushed past me. I followed cautiously, ready to step in at the slightest hint from Jane.
He stopped not five feet from her, his hands stuffed into his jeans pockets. “Hello, Jane. Hi, Chloe.” Jane, who was cuddling a teary Chloe, froze. Her smile vanished while Chloe hid her head in her mother’s shoulder. Charlie’s head hung in that hang-dog pose that Jane had been so fond of in the past but her response to him was anything but fond.
“What are you doing here?”
Instead of answering directly, he said, “I’ve tried calling you for days but you haven’t been returning my messages. I tried going by your apartment, obviously you weren’t there, so I tried your mom’s. Finally, your mom said you were here.”
Charlie had been calling Jane? I stole at glance at my sister who flushed but did not acknowledge my unspoken question. “I’ve been ignoring your calls because I have nothing to say to you.”
“I know you’re still angry at me…”
“Angry? Angry doesn’t begin to describe how I felt when you broke up with me. Why? I’ll tell you why. Because you’re a scared little boy who didn’t know how to deal when things started getting serious between us.” Chloe, not used to hearing her mother speak so angrily, began to crumple her face again and cry.
Upon seeing Chloe getting upset, Charlie suggested, “Maybe we should talk privately.”
His words made Jane even angrier. “No, we shouldn’t. You involved Chloe the minute you approached me. Chloe is my daughter. She is my life. When you walked out on me you walked out on her also. Did you know that she asked for you for two weeks after you left? How do you think that made me feel to tell her I didn’t know when you would be back, or even if you would be back, that I didn’t even know why you weren’t coming back? After what you put us through, you’re lucky that my daughter is present because if she weren’t I’d seriously kick you in the nuts.”
I hid the smirk that threatened to emerge. I’d been afraid Jane would crumble upon seeing Charlie again, but I could see that my fears had been entirely unfounded.
“Don’t you want to know why I’m here?” The desperation I’d seen in his face was now creeping into his voice.
“Honestly, no. I stopped caring about why you do things the moment you stopped caring about us.”
“Jane, you’re wrong about that. I never stopped caring about you and Chloe.”
Before he could continue, Jane interrupted him. “You have a funny way of showing how you care.”
“I admit, I was scared, terrified even. And I let Will and Caroline convince me that what I was doing was the best for me and my career, but they were wrong. I was wrong. The moment I left, you and Chloe were the only things I could think about. I could barely work, all I could think about was how much I hurt you and how much I missed you and Chloe. My God, she’s gotten so big and she looks so much like you and I regret every moment that I missed in her life since I left.” Tears choked his words but Jane remained steely.
“Charlie, she’s a human being. You can’t just pop in and out of her life every time you feel regret. Look at her. She doesn’t even remember you now. I thank God for that because at least she never had to ask herself what she did to drive you away or what was so wrong with her that you couldn’t even stand to give her the courtesy of a proper good-bye.”
“Jane, I’m so sorry for that.”
“Well, Charlie, it’s too late for sorry. Look, we’ve got to go to my mom’s house for dinner. Have a nice life.”
She made to carry Chloe off the playground but Charlie called to her, “I quit that job.” The words made Jane stop and turn back towards him. She stared at him incredulously. “Well, actually, I’m there for another week and then I’m returning to Meryton for residency. They’re making me repeat my first year since they’d already filled my second-year slot, but I don’t care. I want to be here. I want to be with you and Chloe.”
“Charlie, that’s just not good enough. Even if I did give you a second chance, how would I know that you won’t just take off again the next time you feel unsure about us? I’m sorry, but I just can’t.” Jane’s voice broke.
He removed something from his pocket and Jane’s mouth fell open. The sunlight glinted off the diamond and my mouth fell open also. He dropped to one knee. Oh my God.
“Jane, I picked out this ring last fall when we were still together. I knew we’d only been together for a couple months but I knew then as I know now that I want to be with you more than anything in the world. But when time came and people started to question the decision I made…I got scared. I was scared to make the commitment, to take the leap, but I’m not scared now, not of that. Now the only reason I’m scared is because of the possibility that you’ll say no. I know I don’t deserve a second chance and I understand if you don’t want to give me one, but please, Jane, I love you. With all my heart. I’ve loved you ever since that first time I walked into your mother’s house and I want more than anything in the world to be your husband and to be a father to Chloe. I’d be honored if you would give me a cha
nce to be a part of your lives and to spend the rest of my life proving to you that I’m worthy of you. Jane Marie Bennett, will you marry me?”
Jane stared at the ring. Chloe had even turned to stare at Charlie and the shiny thing he held in his hand.
The playground had gone still. The other children and parents had stopped to watch the man on bended knee propose to the woman carrying the little girl. “What’s he doing, mommy?” I heard one child ask loudly.
When Jane finally spoke her voice was clear but kind. “Charlie, I’m sorry, but I can’t. It’s been more than six months since we last saw each other and I can’t just change my whole life because you had a change of heart. I just can’t.”
Charlie still knelt and I felt a pang for him. The devastation on his face spoke volumes. “But,” she continued, “But I’m willing to give you a second chance. I’m willing to give us a second chance to get to know each other again. I can’t make you any promises and I won’t let you get close to Chloe again, not yet.”
He stood and took one of Jane’s hands. He kissed it gently and said, “I’ll take what I can get.”
Later that night, after dinner at my parents’ house with Charlie as the surprise guest, after putting Chloe to bed, after Jane and I discussed what had happened at length, I lay awake in bed. I had asked Jane why she’d taken Charlie back, how she could even venture to trust him after what he’d done to her, and she simply replied, “Because I still love him. You probably think I’m incredibly stupid to try this after what he did last fall, but…God, Lizzy, I just love him so much, I have to at least give us a shot.”
I admired Jane for knowing herself, for being strong enough to forgive Charlie while not letting herself be sucked into the romance of a proposal. When she had asked him why he’d had a change of heart, what had prompted him to return to Meryton, he’d been reluctant to say. He asserted that his love for Jane and Chloe had been the impetus, but I felt there was something missing from his story.