Matters of Chance

Chapter 19

The flight back to Washington pushed Lizzie back into her thoughts about the letter. This changed her opinion of George, but he was out of her life now. She wouldn't see him again. The other person she contemplated was Darcy. She learned so much about him that she wished she could go back where the biggest shock was that Darcy was actually his last name.

Elizabeth didn't hate him as much as before, but she still disliked him. After all, he insulted her the first day they had met, and she hadn't even done anything. He also separated Jane and Charles, which was the biggest offense. However, despite her wanting to hate him just as much as she did before, after hearing his reasoning, she couldn't help but think some of it made sense. The points he made about her family's behavior hit a little too hard. She knew that her mom often lacked social awareness and loved to brag, and she realized now that her sisters' shameless misbehavior didn't reflect in the best way on Jane.

Elizabeth looked out the window of the plane. The vast blue of the sky stretched out before her and she forced her jumbled thoughts of her mind to get lost in the clouds. The rest of her flight was spent staring out at the sky, time disappearing around her.

Elizabeth's arrival back at home hardly caused a reaction. Kitty and Lydia were out somewhere, Mary was hiding in her room, and both of her parents gave her a "welcome back." She was relieved that, for once, her family decided not to be nosy. She was also relieved that Jane wasn't home, so that she didn't have to look into her sister's eyes as she told her that Darcy was the one who took Charles away. Lizzie stared at her phone. Her and Jane had texted occasionally while Elizabeth was in LA, but both of them had been so busy being in a new place that it didn't get over a few texts a day.

Lizzie took a deep breath. It was about 4:00 PM in Washington, which meant it was around 7:00 PM in New York. She typed her text.

Lizzie, 7:14 PM: Hey, do you have time to talk?

Lizzie, 7:14 PM: Something crazy happened while I was in LA.

Jane, 7:15 PM: Of course!

A couple seconds after Jane's response, Elizabeth's phone started ringing. Lit up on her screen was her sister's contact photo. She pressed the green answer button and held the phone up to her ear.

Jane's voice, despite being a bit distorted through the phone, was as gentle as always. "Are you okay, Lizzie?"

Elizabeth assured her sister that she was fine, before explaining what she had learned about Darcy convincing Charles to leave. She didn't give Jane much time to respond while she was explaining, instead, Lizzie strung out what she had learned in as little breaths as possible, as if talking faster would make it hurt less. When she finished talking, a long silence stretched over the phone, and for a moment, Lizzie thought that her sister had hung up. Right as Elizabeth was about to say something, Jane spoke.

"Well, even if that's what happened," she said, "I still blame Charles."

Lizzie was shocked at the steadiness of her sister's voice. She didn't respond.

"Even if Darcy did play a role, Charles could have stuck up for himself," Jane continued, "Charles makes his own decisions. He could have been a man and broken up with me in person instead of having his sister text me."

Elizabeth couldn't argue with that logic. "So you're okay?"

Jane's breathy laugh sounded through the phone. "Of course I'm okay, Lizzie," she said, "Don't worry about me."

For the rest of the phone call, they talked about other things. Lizzie spoke of her time in LA, Jane talked about how her first week of teaching went. Together they laughed, and Elizabeth was reminded of how much she missed her sister. When their phone call finally ended, Lizzie collapsed back onto her bed. Jane didn't react the way Lizzie expected her to. Jane was mature and calm. For the first time, Elizabeth didn't think she knew her sister as well as she thought she did.

Elizabeth spent the rest of her evening in bed, winding down from her trip to LA. She only got up to grab a snack before snuggling back into the covers. Her trip to LA was fun, but everything she had learned had taken a toll on her mentally. She found that under her bedsheets, in the comfort of her room, was the best way to heal. She didn't know when sleep took over, but when she woke up, it was near noon the next day, and she was still in the jeans she wore the day before. Light poured through the blinds and illuminated Jane's empty bed across the room. Elizabeth forced her way out of bed.

From then, the days seemed to blend together. The monotony of summer took over Elizabeth's brain and for the following couple of weeks, she worked. She threw herself into articles, churning out more than she had ever done before, and leaving no time for herself. She was stuck in the slow Meryton summer without her two best friends, so there didn't seem like there was much for her to do. Her days consisted of typing, editing and researching. She'd get the occasional text from Jane or Charlotte which she was always thankful for, though it reminded her of how stagnant she felt.

It was when Lydia came into Lizzie's room begging for cash that she finally realized that she needed a change. Her intense work schedule had been efficient, but the amount of time she spent alone in her bedroom had put her in a bad state. She had no semblance of time passing, she didn't even know what day of the week it was half of the time. Her eating and sleeping schedule had fallen apart. Despite taking her medication, Elizabeth had spiraled into a depressive episode.

Meryton wasn't doing anything good for her, so Elizabeth looked for ways to get out. The sudden increase in articles that she wrote left her with some more money than she usually had, and maybe, once again, she could travel. She'd still travel somewhere that she could get a new article. She had never been the type to stop working, even on vacation.

Elizabeth spent a couple hours searching for potential leads. If she found one that required a press pass, she'd email the event coordinator, then keep looking. She was driven by the madness of being stuck in the confines of Meryton to apply for every opportunity possible. The following days were more or less the same. She emailed some people about events and sometimes got a response. From there, she'd weigh the potential costs of taking a trip, and carry on with her other leads. Nothing seemed promising until four days into her search, she got an email from one of the companies confirming that she could get a press pass.

The email was from a car company called Pemberley, headquartered in San Francisco. It was a luxury car company that had been established less than 10 years ago, and released its first car 5 years ago. The next big press event would be the announcement of Pemberley's plan to release its first electric car in the following year. Elizabeth had been stoked once she stumbled upon the opportunity, however, there was one major problem. Pemberley was Darcy's company. The only reason Elizabeth took the risk of applying is because she had dug into Pemberley's previous press conferences and found that Darcy was never the person to speak at them. Instead, the role was taken on by Darcy's second in command, Winnie Reynolds, an older woman who had previous experience in the car industry.

Elizabeth turned over all of the information in her head. There was little to no chance she'd see Darcy, it was a great lead, and Meryton was driving her crazy. The combination of these things made it a no brainer in her head that she'd grab this opportunity. Besides, it wasn't every day that an independent journalist got a press pass to such an exclusive event. She emailed the company back, and she was soon given all of the relevant information for the press conference. Then, before she could talk herself out of it, she bought a plane ticket to San Francisco