Page 39 of First Impressions (Passion and Perseverance #1)

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Wait, what? Why?” Beth asked in shock, darting her eyes to Jane to see if she had heard her.

“I don’t know! He didn’t say anything more than that to your father; trust me, I asked. Did he say anything to Jane?” Beth looked back at her sister again, just in time to see Jane’s face fall and her eyes glaze over with tears and she knew that Charles had said something.

“Are you positive that’s all Charles said?”

“Yes! Well, no, it wasn’t Charles! It was Mr. Darcy who called and spoke to your father. Charles was supposed to meet your dad and then a half an hour before the meeting, Mr. Darcy called him. That’s why I asked if Charles said anything to Jane?”

Beth felt like she’d been punched in the stomach. She watched as the tears began to roll down Jane’s cheeks. Darcy did this. She couldn’t breathe. After everything that had happened last night, he woke up and left her to go out and destroy her sister and Charles’ chance for happiness. How could he?

“Mom, I have to go.” Beth hung up before her mom could interject any more questions. She had to be strong for Jane. She took a deep breath and focused on her sweet, kind, loving sister whose heart had just been shattered.

“Jane,” she said softly, reaching out her hand to touch Jane’s arm. Jane looked over at her with a blank stare in her eyes, tears trickling down her face. “Oh, honey. What happened? What did he say?”

Jane’s mouth started to move as though she wanted to answer, but couldn’t. Instead, her head ducked down as she swallowed hard and handed her phone to Beth for her to read.

Hey, Jane. Sorry for the last-minute notice but I won’t be able to make dinner tonight. Have to head back to Boston for a while. I’m not sure when I’ll be back.

Take care of yourself .

No reason. No explanation. No mention of Darcy.

Beth would have expected this from Darcy; it was basically his trademark move - get close and then run.

Charles was a completely different person though, or so she thought; she could never have imagined him doing this to Jane especially without any sort of justification.

It had to be Darcy’s doing. Pulling herself from the anger she felt starting to build inside her, she set Jane’s phone down and pulled her sister in for a hug.

“I’m fine, Beth.” A complete lie as Beth could hear the words getting choked up in her throat while her tears began to fall on Beth’s shoulder.

“I’m so sorry, Jane. I don’t know why he would leave so suddenly. Maybe there was a family emergency?” She was grasping at straws, but she had to give her sister some sort of hope.

“Maybe, but he would have told me.” Jane shook her head. “Maybe he just didn’t like me enough. Or maybe all the talk about marriage was too much, too fast. Or maybe it’s because I didn’t sleep with him last night.”

“I don’t know, Jane. I do know that whatever the reason, it’s a shitty one and he doesn’t know what he is walking away from.” Beth felt her own tears start to collect and fall, not just for her sister, but for herself.

She knew, even though she wouldn’t get the courtesy of a text, that Darcy had gone with Charles.

He’d left her this morning to meet with Charles and convince his friend to leave her sister broken-hearted.

How could she have been so stupid? She felt like it was her fault, that she had done something last night that made Darcy feel like he had to sever the bond between Jane and Charles.

Maybe because they had invited Wickham? She shook her head, unable to imagine an excuse good enough to separate two people who were clearly in love.

How could he have done this to Jane? Sweet, loving, perfect Jane. She didn’t deserve this.

“Maybe I wasn’t encouraging enough,” Jane whispered through her tears.

“No, honey. I know you were; I saw it for myself. I’m sure that none of this is your fault and I have a feeling that Mr. Darcy is to blame for his leaving because this isn’t like Charles at all.

I saw him and I saw you. You are both in love with each other and whatever I must have done to Darcy has spurred him to try to break that.

I know how Charles feels about you and whatever Darcy said to him won’t last and he will be back,” Beth tried desperately to console her sister who wept silently on her shoulder.

She sat them both down on the couch and held Jane until she was too tired to cry anymore.

While Jane dozed from her emotionally induced exhaustion, Beth extricated herself from her sister and, grabbing her phone, walked back to her bedroom to call her mom back.

“How could you hang up on me like that? I’ve been worried sick. I was about to come over there. How is she? Has she heard from him?”

“She’s resting now, mom. She’s upset. He texted her that he was leaving but he didn’t really say anything else.”

“It has to be that horrible Mr. Darcy. Charles would never do something to hurt Jane like this. And to think that he considers that man a friend,” her mother huffed.

“I know. I told her the same thing, but what are we going to do? Charles loves her. He will be back.”

“I just still can’t believe it. I wish your father would have pressed him further on the phone, but that Mr. Darcy is so intimidating.

What are we going to do about the firm now?

Your father is adamant that it can’t go to Bill.

Whom I saw, by the way, dancing with Charlotte Lucas.

” And just like that, her mother was on to the next tidbit of gossip.

“What is going on there? Are they dating? How did we not know about it?”

“Yes, they’re dating, Mom. It’s not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal? What if he is planning to leave the firm to go work for her father? What if he tries to take our clients?”

“Seriously, Mom, stop. That’s not happening and not going to happen.

Char is my friend, our dads are friends, Mr. Lucas would never offer something like that to Bill,” Beth said exasperatedly.

When she finished, she heard some commotion coming from her mom’s end of the phone, like one of her other sisters was talking .

‘ Who is that? Is that Beth? Ask her what she did to George! And tell her that I can’t believe her, dancing with my date. He. Is. Mine!’

“Beth, dear, sorry that was Lydia. She’s all upset about George. What happened to him? He was here this morning asking for you but he seemed very out of sorts and his left eye was almost swollen shut. Do you know anything about that? He says he doesn’t remember.”

“I, uh, think he was really drunk before I left and picked a fight with another guest.” Not a complete lie. Good job, Beth.

“That doesn’t sound like George at all, are you sure? But then why was he here asking for you? It made Lydia very upset.” Her mother was started to sound suspicious and Beth was not in the mood to deal with that right now.

“Sorry, mom, Char is calling. Tell dad to give Jane the day off tomorrow. I’ll either stay home or have Char come over and check on her. Thanks, bye!” Click.

Beth laid back on her bed, grabbed a pillow and curled around it.

Feeling safe in her own space, she let the tears she’d been holding back, fall.

It was just a dream; if only saying that a thousand times could make it true.

She didn’t want the images of her and Darcy that replayed in her head to be memories; she wanted them to be fantasies.

She didn’t want to feel hurt and betrayed again, and at her sister’s expense.

When she woke, it was almost eight o’clock at night and her pillow was still wet from her tears.

Immediately worried about Jane, she got up and went out into the living room.

Her sister was no longer on the couch, but in the kitchen portioning out Chinese food from the travel containers onto two plates.

“Hey,” Jane said weakly. Her eyes were red and swollen; she looked like a part of her had died and it broke Beth’s heart. “I ordered us some Chinese. I figured neither of us wanted to go anywhere tonight.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Beth walked over to her sister and gave her a small hug. They both would have begun to cry again if their tear ducts hadn’t been exhausted already.

Taking their plates back onto the couch, they sat down as Beth flipped through the channels trying to find something for them to watch.

When she came across a rerun of ‘ The Notebook ,’ she stopped and let it play while they ate.

If anything could give them the emotional catharsis of losing and then finding love again, this movie would be it.

When they finished eating, Beth cleaned up their plates as Jane just stared blankly out their living room window into the night.

“I have to go to work tomorrow morning, but I already told dad you wouldn’t be in, ok?” Jane just blinked and nodded to acknowledge her. She got up and came over to Beth, giving her a hug.

“Thanks for everything, B. I love you. I’ll be ok.”

“I know. I love you too.”

“Ok, good night. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

They each rose and got ready for bed, not needing to say anything more about their heartbreak.

They knew intrinsically what each other was going through and knew that they both just needed time alone to recover.

Beth tried not to think about how Jane didn’t know the full story of what transpired between her and Darcy.

It hurt so much to keep it all in but she couldn’t bear to burden her sister with it now.