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“What do you mean, you fucked up?”
“I mean,I fucked up, Charles. Utterly and completely.”
“Okay, um... Do you want a beer or something?”
“No, no, I don't want anything, thanks. I'm leaving tonight. I'm going to South Carolina.” He glanced around Charles’s apartment. “Where's Jane? I have to talk to her. I need to know where Elizabeth is.”
“All right,slow down. Can you sit, at least?”
“No. Is Jane here?”
“Yes, but she's–she's on the phone.”
Will eyed him closely. “With Elizabeth?”
“I don't know.”
“Bullshit.”
“Okay, yes. She’s talking to Elizabeth.”
Will stared down the hallway.
“Don't eventhinkabout leaving this room,” Charles warned. “Stay put.”
“I'm sorry. Look, everything we talked about, all those stupid things I said... I'm so blind. That's not Lizzy, that's not her. She…if she was everwithhim, it had nothing to do with me. The way we met, it was an accident. Fate, serendipity, whatever you want to call it,that'swhat it was.”
“Will—”
“I know what I'm talking about. Those pictures… She must have known him at some point. Maybe something happened between them. I don't know.” He paused and grimaced. “I can't even think about it, it makes me sick to my stomach, but there has to be an explanation.”
Jane walked into the living room then, and he eyed her warily.
“Hi, Jane.”
She tilted her head, her expression stony. “Will.”
Charles sighed and grasped Will’s shoulder. “You need to sit down. We have a lot to talk about.”
Fifteen minutes later, Will sat with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.Where's a bottle of whiskey when you need one?The room was silent as Charles and Jane gave him time to digest everything he’d just been told, but his brain was not cooperating.
He lifted his head. “So all this time, this guy that Elizabeth couldn't stand, who she had a weird feeling about...it was Wickham. He was the creep Charlotte was dating. And now he's...with Lydia.” He paused. “And it was her in those pictures I found.”
Charles nodded. “Jane and I put the pieces together over the past twenty-four hours. I told her everything—about what happened to Georgie, and about the pictures you found at her house and what you thought…”
Will’s eyes widened. “You–you told her about Georgie?”
“I’m sorry, Will, but Ihadto,” Charles went on. “Everything is tied to Wickham and what he did to her. It almost destroyed you, and I couldn’t sit by and watch that happen again. I needed Jane’s help. And if I hadn’t told her, we never would have figured it out. I mentioned Wickham’s name, and when she recognized it…it just snowballed from there.”
“I drove to the Cape yesterday and confronted Lydia,” Jane said. “I had to play hardball, but she finally admitted she’d spent the weekend with that pig at Lizzy’s house, when we were all in Boston for the benefit. He told her Lizzy still had some camera equipment of his or something, so she took Lizzy’s spare key from my parents’ condo and let him in, and he convinced her to stay there with him all weekend.” She paused. “I think Lydia was pissed that Elizabeth sided with Charlotte, and looked at it as a way to get back at her. Who knows what Wickham’s motive was—he’s beyond disturbed, and obviously gets his kicks from doing sick things like that—but Lydia played right into his hands. They decided to commemorate the weekend with some pictures, and left a few for Elizabeth to discover—though Lydia swore she knew nothing about that. I’ll leave it at that; you don’t need to hear the rest of the gory details. But I warned Lydia that this wasn’t going to turn out well for her. Or for Wickham.”
“So all this time, Elizabeth had no idea who he was,” Will said, still stunned by the revelation. “He was right under my nose... How did we not meet?”
“I thought about that,” Jane said. “If George was in Lizzy's house, I'm sure he's seen your picture. God knows you're plastered everywhere in there.” She rolled her eyes, and right then, Will knewexactlywhat Jane thought of him. “Anyway, if he recognized you, I'm sure he made it impossible for your paths to cross.”
“Charlotte tried to make plans with us a few times, but Elizabeth never wanted to do anything with them,” Will recalled. “She got a bad vibe from him. Guess her intuition is pretty good.”
