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“I did not do anything. We raised that disgraceful daughter of hers and gave her a life, but she was as immoral as her mother; she ran away with someone.”

“Enough!” cried Darcy, and his voice was so loud that Mrs. Bennet was certain the entire household heard him.

He walked closer to Mrs. Bennet.

“I warn you not to utter another word about her. You let the world slander your own sister and then have the nerve to do that to Elizabeth as well? You thought she had no one to protect her, didn’t you?”

Mrs. Bennet could not understand how Darcy was aware of Elizabeth, and the very mention of her name in his mouth gave Mrs. Bennet the chills.

“Let me acquaint you with information your husband is already aware of. Elizabeth is to marry me, and I am proud to have her as my wife. She is no longer alone in this world. You are answerable to everything you have done to her mother.”

“Is she still alive? I thought she had ended her life somewhere; we never heard from her all these months. Mr. Bennet, why are you silent? Send these men away from our home.”

Lord Anderson and Darcy tried hard to compose themselves; they were enraged by Mrs. Bennet’s words.

“You assumed wrong, Mrs. Bennet. Unlike Sarah, she did not die and leave this world without exposing you. She was brave enough to live after what you did to her.”

“We did nothing to her; she ran away, and God knows with whom?” Mr. Bennet cried with spite, and the next moment, he was on the floor due to a deadly blow Lord Anderson landed on him.

Mrs. Bennet was beside him immediately, crying.

“Oh! My poor husband is being treated like this for no fault of his. You must leave before I call my servants to remove you; I do not know why you are here. I do not care whether she is alive or not; leave this house,” Mrs. Bennet cried.

“You must care now because I discovered the truth about Sarah—the truth you so maliciously hid from me. I know now that she was pregnant with my child while you forged the letters stating she wanted to marry this man here. I know everything.”

Mrs. Bennet stared at him in horror.

This is impossible; how could he know? No, this cannot be true.

“I do not know what you are accusing me of; I did not know anything about your relationship with her. Sarah was a ruined woman, and we generously raised the child she brought to this world as a disgrace. Elizabeth was born out of wedlock; that is what we knew.”

“Nonsense! You knew very well that she was married. Do not lie,” Lord Anderson cried.

“Why are you both here? I am warning you again, leave my house,”

“We are here for justice,” Darcy said.

“All you seem to have is a tale spun out of thin air,” Mr. Bennet said with sarcasm.

“You have the nerve to think you can still escape your crimes, don’t you?” Darcy asked with rage. He pulled Mr. Bennet up from the floor and pushed him towards the wall; he looked at Mrs. Bennet with a piercing gaze.

“You have one choice before you, Mrs. Bennet, either confess to what you have done or else you leave me no choice but to kill your husband. I cannot tell you how long I have been waiting for this moment.”

Mrs. Bennet froze upon hearing Darcy’s words.

“Leave him alone; who do you think you are? Stepping into our house and threatening us? What do you want to know? Do you want to know how I felt around my sister? She emasculated my existence in my family. And I could not stand Sarah marrying into a fortune; nobody preferred me in my house. My brother, my father, and even the man I married loved only her,” Mrs. Bennet cried.

“Fanny, stop this; do not say a word more,” Mr. Bennet warned her.

“Everyone loved her; she was beautiful and intelligent, and she made me feel worthless. Nobody cared about my feelings or what I wanted. Yes, I did it. I earned her trust and forged the letters. I made her believe the man she loved sent her money to compensate for her ruin. I watched her suffer every day while I was happily married. I watched my father and brother despise her; the love they deprived me of, the love they showered on her, turned into aversion. Yes, I did it,” she said proudly, and the room stared at her in astonishment.

“What have you done?” Mr. Bennet asked in rage.

“You heard it; what can you do now? You cannot prove anything. I burned all the letters she wrote. Leave my husband alone and get out of our house,” his wife cried, looking at Darcy and Lord Anderson.

“How could you confess to this cruelty without any guilt? Wasn’t she your sister, a pregnant woman who trusted you?”

“She deserved everything. She had no one to support her then; what can you do now, after all these years? You have no proof about anything.”

Mr. Bennet freed himself from Darcy’s grasp and hurried towards his wife.

“Be quiet now; why can’t you keep your mouth shut for once?”

“Why are you angry with me? You are also a reason for all of this; you always favored Sarah, and the only inducement you had to marry me was the money I promised to give you. All of you considered me inferior to her, but I proved you all wrong. What can they do? They have no proof of the letters. Ask them to leave, Mr. Bennet.”

Just then, the library door opened, and Mr. Gardiner and Mrs. Lewis walked in.

“Why, my dear sister, we do have proof, and she stands beside me now,” Mr. Gardiner said.

“Mrs. Lewis?” Mrs. Bennet gasped.

“Yes, Fanny, the truth I was already aware of sounded even more bitter hearing it from you,” Mrs. Lewis said.

Mr. Bennet knew now that they were caught.

“I wish you were dead instead of Sarah; you did all this because you were jealous of her? How could you? Maybe you were right, Father, and I could never care for you because deep down, we knew what a monster you could be,” Mr. Gardiner said with spite.

“Edward, how did you… how did you find her? Do not believe anything she says,” Mrs. Bennet screamed.

“I could not do anything for Sarah while she was alive; I wish I had. But now I do this not only for her but for Elizabeth. The daughter you raised as a burden, the one you planned to ruin, has made you pay today.”

“Is she here?” Mr. Bennet asked, well aware of the answer. Darcy left the room, and when he returned, Elizabeth walked in with him, locking arms.

As for Elizabeth, she had anticipated the moment for many weeks now and was surprised at her composure as she entered the room, and Darcy’s presence gave her strength.

The same library she had run out of many months ago, struggling to understand her past, now welcomed her with nothing but the truth.

She witnessed utter disbelief on the faces of the Bennets as they set sight on her.

“Elizabeth!” Mr. Bennet said with a stoic expression.

“I must correct you, Miss Elizabeth Anderson, and the future Mrs. Darcy,” Lord Anderson added. As much as Elizabeth disagreed with his words, she kept silent.

“You thought you could bury the truth, didn’t you? I really pity you both for the sort of lives you have led; how could you look at yourself without disgust? How could you live and lead a life after what you did to my mother? Are you not ashamed?” Elizabeth finally asked.

“Answer her,” Lord Anderson yelled.

“I heard everything you said about my mother. Don’t you feel any sort of guilt for what you have done?” Elizabeth questioned Mrs. Bennet more calmly than she felt.

Mrs. Bennet pursed her lips, and her eyes flickered with anger. She could not stand to see Elizabeth in the flesh after all those months.

“And what about you, Papa?” she paused and corrected herself, “I should never address you that way even by mistake. Did you think for once about the life you both ruined? You helped her write those letters, didn’t you?

The very sight of you both disgusts me; you both would do anything for money.

I doubted it before, but now I am certain you will not care to ruin even your own daughters for money,” Elizabeth cried.

“How dare you?” Mrs. Bennet cried and angrily approached Elizabeth to strike her, but Lord Anderson and Darcy stopped her.

“Enough! Do not dare to touch her. I know you took the liberty to lay a hand on her in the past; don’t you dare to try that again,” Darcy yelled.

Mrs. Bennet trembled at the sight of an enraged Darcy, and Mr. Bennet knew they were caught red-handed.

“Leave this house, all of you; I do not want any of you here. Get out!” Mr. Bennet said, sinking into the chair as his world spun.

“You still think we came here just to confront you and nothing else?” Mr. Gardiner asked sarcastically.

“Edward, what are you saying? What do you plan to do?” Mrs. Bennet asked in despair; she finally realized the seriousness of the situation.

Darcy looked at Elizabeth, and she understood what was about to happen.

She approached the people who raised her and looked them in the eye.

“ Goodbye !” she said and left the room with Mrs. Lewis.