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D arcy held on to Elizabeth’s hand tightly, fearing that she would faint as she stared at Lord Anderson with shock and disbelief.

Lord Anderson’s words echoed in his mind, and he could not understand the revelation. As for Elizabeth, she was stunned beyond measure as she had never expected to see her father in her lifetime, and Lord Anderson’s declaration was beyond reality.

She was unable to doubt him as he still stared at the chain she wore.

“Elizabeth, are you well? Do you need to sit down?” Darcy asked, worried at the way she looked. Both Lord Anderson and she stared at each other in eerie silence.

“Elizabeth?” Darcy shook her, wanting to bring her back to her senses.

She slowly turned towards Darcy.

“Fitzwilliam, ask this man to leave. I do not wish to see him.”

“This is exactly what your mother wrote to me to cut me off,” Lord Anderson angrily cried.

“What?” asked Elizabeth.

“Yes, she did not want to have any relationship with me and cut me off, and she ruined my entire life.”

“How dare you accuse her? You are the one who ruined her, left her with a child, and she died because of your betrayal.”

“I never betrayed anyone as she was the one who wanted to marry Thomas Bennet and settle down with him for his wealth. I do not know what went wrong and why she did not marry him.”

“Do you even realize what you are saying? How could she ever marry someone when she had a child with you? She had morals and was not like you,” Elizabeth cried and continued, “How could you forsake an innocent woman after ruining her? Can you not imagine how she would have suffered? And you married someone else well after having a relationship with her. I cannot bear to look at your face.”

“I did not know that she was pregnant,” he yelled.

“Do not lie. You sent her money for the mistake you committed. It was so easy for you. I have a letter from you stating the same; you cannot go around lying because she is dead. Whatever you are stating is a horrid lie; as far as I know, she had no intention of marrying anyone else.”

Darcy did not know what to make of the situation.

“Lord Anderson, I do not understand. Elizabeth’s mother was in London; as far as I know, you never travel anywhere in England except Derbyshire.”

“I did not want to relive the painful memories of the past, and that is why I never visited London,” Lord Anderson replied.

“Fitzwilliam, ask him to leave. I do not trust a word he says, and he is tarnishing my mother even after she is dead.”

Just then, Georgiana entered the library and was shocked to see Elizabeth in tears. She immediately rushed to her side with worry.

“Elizabeth, what happened? Fitzwilliam, is she unwell?” she cried.

“Could you please bring Lady Martha here? Do not worry; everything is all right. Please bring her now.”

Georgiana understood the seriousness of the situation and hurried to bring Lady Martha.

Lord Anderson looked at Elizabeth with distress as he struggled to compose himself. He understood that Elizabeth was his daughter, and in his reasoning, he had no doubt of this.

“What do you mean when you say you did not know she was pregnant with your child? You ruin an innocent woman and abandon her, then blame her,” Elizabeth asked him, wanting an explanation.

“Yes, I blame her, as she withheld this information from me and never mentioned it in any of her letters. All she wanted from me was money, which I settled her with.”

“What?”

“Yes, I settled enough moneyas she demanded. She wanted nothing to do with me, and I never knew until today that she birthed you, nor did I know that she…she died,” he said with pain, and Darcy could not doubt the emotion in his voice.

Elizabeth looked at him, horrified at the accusation. She replayed everything she remembered from the letter she possessed.

This cannot be true. My mother would have never done that.

“Lord Anderson, I still do not understand your relationship with Elizabeth’s mother. How come no one was aware of your identity?”

Lord Anderson was silent. He pursed his lips, unable to reveal all the details about the relationship he fought to forget every second of his life.

“Will you not answer me? You do not know how much Elizabeth has suffered since she learned the truth. The reason why she is here as Miss Smith is because the people who raised her wanted to ruin her life and force her to marry some scoundrel of their choice. She had to run away from home and employ herself as a governess.”

Lord Anderson stared at him with agony because nothing made sense to him, and he was unable to understand Elizabeth’s situation. With every passing second, Elizabeth felt agonized by his silence.

“I do not expect any sympathy from you. All I need to know is why you abandoned my mother. She is dead, and I can never know her side of the story, but you have the responsibility to convey the reason why you chose the world to disgrace her, and to date, anytime anyone mentions my mother, all I hear is how she had a child out of wedlock. I do not care what anyone says; I will never disgrace her. If there is someone who needs to be disgraced, it is you. You seemed a man of standards with rank and status, but the truth is all that is a disguise.”

She watched his jaw tighten, unable to bear her words.

“How could you ruin a woman in the name of love? For all I knew, she was not even twenty; you took away her life and happiness from her. I have never seen her face because of you, and now you stand here in silence with no sense of guilt? Are you not ashamed of cheating her and ruining her? How could you do this?”

“Enough!” Lord Anderson cried, his voice echoing around the library.

“I did not ruin her, nor were you born out of wedlock. We were married.”

Elizabeth could not bear the shock this time and fainted in Darcy’s arms.

“Elizabeth!” Darcy cried as he carried her to the sofa and frantically tried to wake her up. Lord Anderson took a pitcher of water and handed it over to Darcy. He dabbed her face with water, and within a few seconds, she opened her eyes.

She was in extreme distress and confusion, and tears poured down her eyes. She looked at Lord Anderson and wept in agony.

As much as she could not believe his words, she could not bear the revelation that her mother was married to him.

Why did she hide the truth? Why did she allow people to call her characterless when she was married?

She had many questions, but she could not speak, and Darcy had had enough, and he did not want to cause her any more distress.

“Lord Anderson, she needs to rest. I will take her upstairs now; I suggest you wait here as we need to talk.”

“I am not going anywhere. I need to know what he meant by saying he married my mother. Then why did she live in London, and why did anyone not know about her marriage? I cannot believe…”

She was interrupted by Lady Martha’s arrival along with Georgiana and Mr. Anderson. Darcy left Elizabeth and spoke with Georgiana.

“Have all the guests left?” he asked as it was past midnight.

“Yes, but there are a few tenants in the ballroom.”

“Listen to me, inform Mrs. Reynolds to handle everything, and tell her we are retiring. Elizabeth will sleep in your room tonight, so please wait there for us. We will join you as soon as we can.”

Georgiana did not know what to make of the situation as she looked at Elizabeth, still crying on the couch.

“Is she well?” Georgiana asked with concern.

Inwardly, Darcy knew she was far from being well.

He nodded and asked his sister to leave, and Georgiana left them reluctantly.

Once Lord Anderson saw his brother and sister, he turned around and faced the fireplace.

Elizabeth was livid with anger, seeing his behavior.

“Mr. Darcy, what happened?” Mr. Anderson inquired with worry as he was pretty fond of Elizabeth. Lady Martha sat beside her, assuming she had fallen ill or something had happened after the ball to cause her worry.

“Elizabeth, what happened? Did someone say anything? Trust me, we will not allow anything or anyone to hinder your marriage with Fitzwilliam,” Lady Martha said with worry, not understanding the reality.

Elizabeth looked at Lady Martha with a strange sense of understanding.

If whatever he states is true, then she is my aunt.

The realization shocked her, and she was beyond belief at how fate had brought her to Derbyshire and made her part of the Ashton family. She did not reply to Lady Martha and looked at Lord Anderson, who stood facing away from them.

Lady Martha could not make anything of her silence.

“Will anyone here answer me? What is going on?” Lady Martha demanded. Sensing that neither Lord Anderson nor Elizabeth were willing to relate the details, Darcy went ahead and briefly explained what had transpired between them.

He witnessed Lady Martha’s shock as he declared the connection between Elizabeth and her brother.

“From what we understand, Lord Anderson is Elizabeth’s father, even though he states that Sarah Gardiner had married Mr. Bennet and refused any relationship with him.”

Lady Martha stood in shock. It took her some time to comprehend what she had heard. She slowly walked towards her brother, and turned him to face her.

“Mark, what is the meaning of this? How could this be true? I knew you loved someone before marrying Augusta. But I did not know you married her and left her with a child,” she said, fuming.

Lord Anderson did not reply.

“Maybe he is lying because I accused him of ruining my mother. Why would she not disclose that to the world if she ever married him?” Elizabeth cried.

“He is not lying; I was present for their wedding, and I stand here as the proof,” Mr. Anderson replied, to everyone’s shock.

Lady Martha was devastated to understand that her brothers held such a secret between themselves.

“Francis, what are you saying? When did this happen? This poor girl here has suffered so much in life because of what happened to her mother. Good Lord, I cannot believe our family is capable of such an act.”

“I am telling you all, it was her choice. She did not want to wait for me; all she wanted was money. Martha, I was not even aware that she was pregnant; she wrote to me that she was going to marry Thomas Bennet and just wanted me to send her money to end the relationship,” Lord Anderson said.

“You are lying, and my mother would never do that,” Elizabeth cried in anger.

“I have proof. I have all the letters she sent me from London.”

“Where did you marry her?” Elizabeth demanded.

“In Scotland, none of my family knew except for Francis. He was present for the wedding, and Sa… your mother had a companion, and her name was Mrs. Lewis, she was also present. After that, she returned to London, and I could not leave as planned because of pressing circumstances. I needed time to sort everything out here, as my father still did not approve of the match, and then I received letters stating that she did not want to wait for me anymore and did not care whether we were married. All the while, my father stated that she was behind my wealth and nothing else, and his words proved true.”

His words tortured her, but in her heart, Elizabeth knew that her mother was not at fault. She suddenly got up and walked closer to Lord Anderson.

“Did you love her?” she asked.

“Yes!” he replied without hesitance.

“And you still believed the woman you loved, who married and trusted you, was behind your money?”

“Yes, as she claimed the same in all her letters.”

“So, you did as she asked, sent her money, and stayed in Scotland for the rest of your life?”

Lord Anderson was silent.

“I am sorry to say, sir, you have no idea what love is. If you had truly loved her, you would not have sent her the money if she had demanded it. You would have sought her out, as she was your wife, and understood her situation. You left her to die as a fallen woman. Imagine how she must have felt having the baby in her arms and knowing that she was going to die orphaning the child. She loved you, which is why she never married anyone else, nor did she reveal your identity to anyone, wanting to save your face.”

Lord Anderson clenched his fists as each word she uttered pricked his conscience.

“Look at you standing in front of us, Lord Anderson, a much-respected man in society with status and rank, happily married. Look at me, born in the world as a result of a woman who truly believed in love, passing every moment in agony, not knowing what my mother went through. If you state that she wanted money to end your relationship, she must be well settled in life like you, married to someone or Thomas Bennet, as you state. But where is she? She is dead, and all people have ever told me was that she was a fallen woman. I cannot blame fate for what happened; I can only blame you. I know you do not want anything to do with me and trust me, I feel the same way; that is the only way I can honor my mother.”

Lastly, she asked, “Did you give this to her?” holding the chain on her neck.

Lord Anderson did not reply and looked anguished. Elizabeth pulled the chain from her neck and threw it at him, running out of the room, not wanting to spend another second in his presence. Darcy hurried after her. Meanwhile, the three siblings stared at each other in the library in torment.

Lord Anderson and his brother knew they owed Lady Martha an explanation and the details of which, neither wanted to revisit.