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“I’m not surprised you didn’t.”
Shocked, she raised her eyes to his.
“After all, I made no effort to convince you. I should have been more direct. Before sending you that email, I just gave you vague warnings about Wickham, and you had no reason to trust me.” He directed the bitterness in his words toward himself as he stirred his coffee with more vigor than strictly necessary.
“You never lied to me. There was no reason to distrust you.”
His lips twisted into a bitter smile. “You are more forgiving than you should be. I could have stopped Wickham before. I told myself it was enough that my family was safe from the man, but if I had done something earlier, he couldn’t have hurt another family.”
Her heart ached as she listened to him take the blame for Lydia’s bad choices. “It’s not your fault.” Tentatively, she touched her fingertips to his hand where it lay clenched on the counter.
His gaze was fierce. “If it’s not my fault, then it’s not yours either.”
“Okay, I must concede that point.” She barked a laugh. “You have trapped me with your logic.”
A smile played around Will’s mouth, but he still seemed sad. “Perhaps we should hold Wickham accountable for his own actions rather than burdening ourselves with them.”
Elizabeth stared down into her coffee cup. “Easier said than done.”
“As I know all too well.” His hand clasped hers, and she was surprised how much the simple touch affected her. “I just— I am possibly the only other person in the world who knows what it is like to have failed to protect a beloved sister from this man. No one is better positioned to understand your sentiments. I beg you to use me as a resource.”
Tears were threatening again. Elizabeth could only ward them off by staring fixedly at the magnificent view. “I…will. Thank you.” The parallels between their situations had not previously occurred to her; she was immensely grateful that he had pointed them out.
Something had been bothering her since she had first read his email about his sister and Wickham. “I did have one question. You said George Wickham got your sister addicted to drugs. But then in Palm Springs, you were arrested for possession of cocaine.” Will sucked in a breath, but Elizabeth forged ahead. “Did-did Wickham turn you into an addict, too?”
Will released his breath in a sound that was almost a laugh. “Huh, that wasn’t the question I expected.” He firmly intertwined their fingers. “I’ve often wondered what would have happened if I’d been Georgie’s age when I’d known Wickham. If I’d spent as much time with him as she did, I might have fallen under his spell, too. He’s very charming and persuasive. She believed him when he said the pills wouldn’t hurt her and would just make her feel good. I was just luckier than Georgie.”
He stared at their hands for such a long time Elizabeth thought he might be finished, but finally he spoke again. “I’m not an addict. I haven’t used opioids or coke. I did some pot in college, but otherwise I’ve never done drugs.”
“But the coke was in your car when it crashed—”
“Yeah, it was in my car, but it wasn’t in me. The police did bloodwork, and I was clean. Of course, that particular piece of information wasn’t especially sensationalistic, so it didn’t receive a lot of media coverage.”
Elizabeth struggled to make sense of this news. “You hadn’t taken any coke? What, were you saving it for later?” She gave him a lopsided grin.
He laughed. “No, it wasn’t mine.” He took both her hands in his, gazing deep into her eyes. “I don’t want you to worry about that, okay?”
“Am I allowed to worry about your driving skills?” He huffed another laugh. “Or are you going to tell me that you weren’t driving the car either?”
He froze. After a moment he managed a feeble smile, but Elizabeth knew. “You weren’t driving the car.”
He exhaled heavily. “It was Georgiana. It was her coke, and she was high. We were staying at this luxury hotel in Palm Springs for a friend’s wedding. She’d been in rehab, and I thought she was clean, but that night I found out about the cocaine. We had a fight, and she tried to drive away. I didn’t want her to be alone, didn’t want her to drive, so I got into the car as well. But she…she swerved, ran over a fence, and drove straight into the hotel swimming pool. It was 3 a.m., and the car was sinking in the pool. We only had a few minutes before someone found us, so I told Georgie to run back to her hotel room. I slid into the driver’s seat to make it seem as though I was driving the car.”
“Why?”
“Georgiana already had an arrest for drug possession that my father’s lawyer managed to hush up. But another one…? She might have gotten jail time. I was a huge star by that point, which meant that her arrest would have been very public news.
“We didn’t have a lot of time make a decision, and I chose to take the fall rather than let it ruin her life. Actually, it was real wake-up call for her. She agreed to return to rehab, and she’s stayed clean. Maybe it’s been more for my sake than for her own, but I’ll take success any way I can get it.”
Elizabeth mused that Will had been more of a parent to Georgiana than their actual parents had been. “But at what cost to you?”
His hands clenched where they rested on his knees. “I was willing to pay it. I didn’t have any prior arrests on my record, so I just got community service.”
“But your career—”
His gaze was averted as if something outside the window was utterly fascinating. “I’ll get it back on track. Maybe In the Shadows will win a few Oscars.”
God, I hope so. Elizabeth gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. He had taken a terrible risk for his sister’s sake. And this was the man she had believed was arrogant and unfeeling! He had risked his freedom, his reputation, and his career for his sister’s happiness.
