Page 35 of Second Chances (Passion and Perseverance #2)

“Yes, that would be him,” Beth replied with a laugh. Phil could be a little slow on the uptake; she was actually surprised that he even knew who Patrick Dempsey was.

“Oh, fabulous! Well then, I’ll send his information along right away and you can reach out to him.”

“Sounds good. Thanks.”

“Ok, I’ll let you get back to work,” Phil said as he turned and left her office.

For a second, Beth just stood there. As soon as Phil left the room, it felt like he had taken all the air out of it with him. Her breathing became labored, her eyes unable to focus on anything as she cautiously sat back down in her chair.

Fear. Uncertainty. Hopelessness. Hurt. Her emotions rolled over her like waves of a turbulent sea. Her head, her mind, barely able to keep above the water threatening to drown her.

In a fog, she heard her phone buzz, shakily picking up the device and opening the message.

- You are incredible. Can’t wait to see you later.

Darcy’s text sent a rush of oxygen and clarity to her brain, pulling her out of her anxiety-induced paralysis. Beth set her phone back down. She couldn’t respond to him now; she wouldn’t know what to say.

Should she tell him?

The thought came immediately unbidden to her mind.

Of course, she should; he needed to know.

But he’s already so worried about you, what if he doesn’t want you going in to work?

He wouldn’t do that. No? Even if he doesn’t, you know that’s what he would want to do - he would want you to stay in his sight at all times.

Just because that’s what he might want doesn’t mean that he doesn’t understand why that’s not possible.

What kind of stressful torture are you going to put him through by insisting on not having these threats affect your life?

True, but we shouldn’t have to cater to his ex.

What is this woman really going to do? You have bodyguards.

She can’t hurt you. She can’t force you to leave him.

But what about Jane and your parents? What are you going to do, ask Darcy to give the whole family a bodyguard? No .

Beth buried her face in her hands, trying to drown out the internal argument that had begun firing off inside of her brain.

On the one hand, she knew she should be honest with Darcy and tell him about the email and the threats.

It wasn’t like she wasn’t always impressing on him how important honesty and openness were in a relationship if it was going to succeed.

On the other hand, realistically, what else was he going to do?

Aside from locking her in their bedroom and not letting her out of his sight.

Telling him would only serve to make him feel more angry and helpless.

Not to mention, she didn’t even know how he was planning on actually dealing with the problem - dealing with how to get this woman out of his life for good.

Not now, Beth.

God, what do I do?

Hesitantly, she opened back up her computer to the offending email.

Taking a deep breath, she looked over everything once again, more slowly this time.

Her heart still jumped at the casual way the sender wrote - ‘Nice sweater, by the way,’ as if she was some sort of close friend of Beth’s, complimenting her attire, and not a psycho-ex-girlfriend-stalker who was about to threaten her.

It was NYC, and Beth had walked maybe fifteen steps from the car that Darcy had insisted take her to work, into her building.

She had to have been so close to her, to have been able to see what she was wearing, to notice the two men who had gotten out of the car with her and were currently instructed to wait in the lobby of her building until she was ready to leave.

The thought sent shivers up Beth’s spine.

What a crazy bitch; that’s it, that’s how she is going to refer to this woman from now on because that’s what she is - a Crazy Bitch, or CB, for short .

Beth kept reading. ‘…nothing compared to the love that he has for me.’ Darcy must have really loved her, she assumed that, in order to stay with such a person for so long.

Beth bit her lip, what if she was right?

What if Beth could never make him that happy?

Yeah, this past week had been great, but would that keep up in the long-term?

In the past, all they seemed to do was argue or run into problems and even though Darcy’s relationship with Crazy Bitch had been traumatic, he never said that they fought all the time.

Yeah, because she just controlled his every move, because she trained him to respond exactly how she wanted. That’s not a relationship, Beth; it’s glorified servitude.

She finished rereading the rest of the email; the not-so-subtle threats she had expected; however, the reference to Mrs. DeBourgh and allusion to what had happened between them unnerved her even more.

How did she know about all of this? Anne doesn’t know who she is, so that can’t be the connection.

Maybe she knows Mrs. DeBourgh from somewhere else.

That wouldn’t make sense either because Mrs. DeBourgh wants Darcy to marry Anne; if she came after Beth, she definitely would have come after CB.

Ugh. Somehow, this woman was close to someone, someone who knew what had happened not only with Mrs. DeBourgh but also someone who knew that she and Darcy were a couple. Either that or CB was very talented at hacking and/or stalking - which was a definite possibility after this morning.

Beth shook her head - all of the possibilities, the unknowns, the doubts had created a steady pounding in her temples. And after everything, she still couldn’t decide if she should tell Darcy about the email or not.

Picking up her phone, she opened a new message to Jane, asking her if she had a minute to talk.

Just as she hit send, she heard a small knock, and her eyes jolted to the door to her office, her heartbeat picking up the pace.

It was like every moment she was expecting this Crazy- Stalker- Bitch to walk into her office and confront her.

Don’t be ridiculous, Beth. She just emailed you; she's not going to attempt to come into your office to see you .

“Come in,” Beth said, the shakiness in her voice hopefully muffled by the barrier of the door.

The door opened, and one of her assistants, Alaina, peered in. Beth slowly released the deep breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding in.

“Morning, Beth! Sorry to bother you. I just wondered if you would have time to meet this morning to go over my event this past weekend with me. I just want to make sure I have everything in order before I start sending out these press releases.”

“Of course, I can come now if you want,” Beth offered, welcoming the concrete distraction from her dilemma for a few minutes.

“Um, well, that would be fine, but I also wanted to let you know that Caroline Bingley is here to see you. She said if you are busy she can come back another time…” Alaina trailed off.