Page 70 of Second Chances
Her heart stopped and Beth felt the wind go completely out of her, blood draining rapidly from her face.
It was Darcy.
IT. WAS. DARCY.
In a daze, she stepped closer to the drawing, her hand raised as if to touch his face, before recoiling to cover her gaping mouth. It was a younger Darcy, but it was still Darcy; his gaze at the artist, at Caroline, was unmistakable. Time stood still as the room became a blur collapsing around her and the canvas, maybe because her eyes were hyper-focused on the man that she loved, staring back at her from another woman’s bedroom, or maybe because she was about to faint. The only thing that kept her standing was the profusion of thoughts, realizations, connections that bombarded her from every angle.
Suddenly, all of the dots began to connect. Caro’s return, her questions to Beth, why she was at Renée’s party – it was all to figure out about Darcy and her. The emails, all of the information that the CB…oh, God…the CB; only in her life would the Crazy Bitch turn out to be Caroline Bingley.Now Darcy’s reaction to her nickname made complete sense; now, his reaction to everything made sense.
That’s why he freaked out when she went to meet Janeand Carolineat the bridal salon; not only had she left him when he was overwhelmed and stressed and concerned for her, but she left him to deliberately put herself in the presence of the person he was afraid of.
It was like there had been a layer of fog over every conversation, every action, every interaction over the past few weeks and now the fog had precipitously cleared, leaving only the harsh reality for Beth to confront.
Caroline was going to be Jane’s sister-in-law; what would happen if she pursued a restraining order against her? Who wouldn’t be able to go to the wedding? Jane was her sister, but Charles was Caro’s brother. How would that even work? And what kind of disarray and stress would it put on them?That’s why Darcy said it was complicated;not because he cares about Caro, but because he cares aboutme.How would Jane feel, knowing that it was Caroline who was doing this to her? How would it affect her relationship with Charles?
It was complicated?! No, it was suffocating.
“Beth! What are you doing! I need you downstairs with the favors! Jane is going to be here any minute!” her mom screeched, standing at the doorway, forcing Beth back to the present.
In a moment of lucid thought that Beth didn’t know that she possessed, a mask of normalcy came over her, covering all trace of the shock she’d just experienced.
“I know! I just didn’t know which room was which, but I figured it must be the last room since I’ve barged into all the others.” Beth’s words conveyed the perfect amount of exasperation at the lack of detail in her mother’s instructions, as she ushered her mom back into the hall, shutting the door behind her.
If Irene had thought something suspicious was going on when she came upon her daughter staring blankly at a piece of artwork on the wall, the thought was quickly trumped by the immediacy of the party going on below them and her need to return to it.
Focusing on only the task at hand, Beth walked purposefully to the last door, opening it to reveal the favor bags sitting neatly along the floor. Her mother and she gathered the small gifts and made their way back downstairs. Beth made a show of arranging the gift bags neatly on the entryway table, insisting that her mom get back to the guests needing a moment to process everything that had just come to light.
Once alone, she still couldn’t manage to hold onto a single train of thought. All she could see was Darcy’s face on the canvas over and over again, looking at her with that hunger in his eyes; except, he wasn’t looking at her, he’d been looking at Caro. Her phone buzzed, it washer,letting Beth know that she and Jane were on their way.
She’s going to be here any minute. What are you going to do?
What could she do? She couldn’t leave. She couldn’t confront her, especially without talking to Darcy first.
What was she even going to say to him? How could he not tell her?
Pain bloomed in her chest. She was trapped. All that she could do was pretend like nothing had happened, like there was no problem between them, like Caro hadn’t stalked and threatened her, like Caro wasn’t trying to ruin her relationship with Darcy so that she could have him all to herself.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Her heart was racing, but she had no choice. Caro had no clue that she had seen the drawing. It was her only saving grace that, for Caro, nothing had actually changed.
Now, how she going to be able to pretend that nothing had changed, that was the issue.
Her stomach turned at the thought of talking to Caroline now, knowing that it was she who had hurt Darcy the way that she had. If Caro had just been a normal ex-girlfriend, who hadn’t traumatized the love of Beth’s life, who hadn’t played with his emotions, who hadn’t threatened her and her family, this wouldn’t be an issue.
Except maybe there would be a little bit of jealousy because Caroline is drop-dead gorgeous, and Darcy had ‘loved’ her.
Ok, fine.
All of these thoughts were playing across Beth’s mind when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Hey! Where have you been hiding?” The playful warmth of Charlotte Lucas’ voice melted through the cold anxiety that intensified as every minute brought Beth closer to facing Caroline.
“Hey, sorry! It’s been a crazy morning trying to get everything ready for this,” Beth explained with a forced laugh. “I literally just changed and brought the favors down and Jane’s about to walk in any minute. Nothing like cutting it close!”
Char looked at her suspiciously. If Char had been Jane, she would have known something was off, but she wasn’t; she and Beth hadn’t seen too much of each other recently which meant that Char took Beth at her word and didn’t press her concerns further.
“Caroline just texted me that they are on their way, so we should get everyone ready for the surprise,” Beth continued, Caroline’s name leaving a bitter taste in her mouth as she ushered Char over to the rest of the group of guests.
