Chapter 3: Confrontation
Lizzie Bennet stared at the quivering notice in her unsteady hands. This one piece of paper could ruin her entire life. She couldn't even afford to consult a lawyer about this, let alone go toe to toe with Darcy in a legal battle. She would have to comply or push her family off of the cliff of bankruptcy they'd been teetering on for a while now.
But complying with this demand would mean stopping the diaries and explaining why in the nicest possible way that wouldn't get her sued – which meant publicly recanting what she'd said about Darcy. The diaries were her thesis project for God's sake! This would probably mean failing her freaking thesis! She'd crossed an ethical line by uploading footage of Bing without his knowledge, but this ... Dr. Gardner couldn't accept this, even if she did include a chapter of her thesis on the legal and moral repercussions of the diaries. And what about Charlotte and Jane! If Lizzie was sued over the videos, the repercussions would impact Charlotte's career as well since she edited, uploaded, and promoted them. And how could Jane and Bing's relationship not be affected by his best friend suing her sister, there would be no hiding the videos from him then.
How did she not see this coming? She wasn't some dumb high school kid uploading videos for fun, she was a well-educated graduate student applying the skills she'd learned about Communications in an interactive form of story telling for web content. She'd read case studies of blocked content on YouTube and similar cease and desist orders in her journalism ethics class. How could she be so stupid to put her degree, her reputation, and her whole future on the line by showcasing such unguarded opinions on the internet without even considering the consequences?
She crumpled the paper in one hand while covering her eyes with the other as she sunk onto the couch in the lounge and cried. She wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting there wallowing before she felt the couch dip and a gentle hand on her shoulder. She assumed it was Jane and was about to lean into her for comfort when she heard his voice ask "Lizzie are you alright?"
She dropped her hand from her face and reared back, glaring at him. "How dare you ask me that?"
"What happened?"
He actually managed to sound confused, which infuriated Lizzie even more. The man was ten days away from suing her and he was acting like they were friends? "As if you didn't know!" Lizzie scoffed disdainfully.
"Lizzie, let me help you," he said with more emotion than she'd ever heard from him before.
Was this some kind of cruel joke? Lizzie shook her head fiercely, "I don't think I should talk to you without a lawyer."
"What?" He said, with a close approximation of shock.
He was still looming uncomfortably close to her in whatever this sick pantomime of concern was, so Lizzie forcefully pushed the letter into his chest, managing to push him out of her space long enough for her to get off of the couch. "You can stop playing dumb, it doesn't suit you or the situation. If you're going to be a shark, just admit that you're a shark and drop the act."
Darcy was looking down at the paper with a furrowed brow, somehow still playing innocent in all of this and suddenly Lizzie couldn't hold it in anymore. "Who are you to ruin my life and the lives of the people I love? You don't care who you hurt or what damage you cause, if you don't like someone, if you think someone is somehow less than you, you will just toss them aside! You are a slimy, unfeeling, sociopathic robot and if I never see you again it'll be too soon!"
Her words stung, but considering the letter in his hands he couldn't fault her for being angry. Once she realized that this was all some mistake and he'd cleared it all up surely she would take back those hasty accusations. "Lizzie, I didn't do this. I have no idea what this is about."
"Right, your lawyers just decided to sue me without even mentioning it to you?"
The image of Lizzie's body silhouetted in the sunset flashed before his eyes and he remembered the email from his legal team. He'd had no idea that Lizzie Bennet was the person they were talking about. "They informed me that someone was impugning my character and I told them to follow the usual protocol for such matters, but you must believe me that I had no idea it was you."
"Do you really just hate other humans as a species so much that you can ruin someone's life without a second thought without even knowing who they were or what they said in the first place? Is that supposed to make me hate you less?" Lizzie fumed as she paced in front of him, "I can understand you hating me ..."
"Lizzie!" He interrupted her, unable to take more of her diatribe. "I don't hate you, I ... I am in love with you." He watched her gape and flounder for a response – at least she'd stopped spewing insults at him – and he felt the situation merited further explanation, "I can't believe it either, that my heart could completely overwhelm my judgment ... Two parts of me have been at war. Your odd family, your financial troubles. You're in a different world from me. People expect me to travel in certain circles, and I do respect the wishes of my family, but not today ..."
"I hope that your judgment can be some solace in your rejection because those feelings are not mutual."
He thought back over his impromptu admission and realize that it lacked tact, but he hadn't thought Lizzie the kind of woman who would punish him for his frank manner. "Are you rejecting me?"
"Does that surprise you?"
If she was going to be petty about this he was going to make her admit it. Perhaps if forced to say her reasons out loud she would realize how trivial they were. "May I ask why?"
"May I ask why you're even here, in spite of your social class, the wishes of your family, and your own better judgment?"
So she was upset for his awkward phrasing. He hadn't intended to confess his feelings for her, but her tears had broken down his walls and her anger had pierced his resolve. "That was badly put, but that's the world we live in. You can't deny it, social classes are a real thing. People who think otherwise live in a fantasy." She glared at him but he hoped she would see his point.
"That's just the beginning of a long list of reasons why I'm rejecting you."
"Such as?"
Her next words would haunt him over countless sleepless nights. "Such as, the nicest thing you've ever said about me was that I was decent enough. You act like you'd rather have a hernia repaired than be around me. You have a checklist for what makes an accomplished woman. And oh yeah, you're suing me!"
Darcy set his jaw and snapped back, "So this is what you think of me? Thank you for explaining it all to me so eloquently."
"And thank you for proving time and time again that your arrogance, pride, and selfishness make you the last man in the world I could ever fall in love with."
Darcy swallowed his feelings as best he could in the face of such brutal rejection and responded, "I'm sorry to have caused you so much pain. I should've acted differently. I was unaware of your feelings towards me."
"You were unaware? Then why don't you watch my videos?!"
Lizzie immediately realized what the impact of those words would be and the reality of her situation crashed back down on her. He may not have intentionally sent that cease and desist, or even known of her videos before, but now he was certain to watch them and to follow through on that legal threat. She barely heard his response of, "so there actually are videos?"
She grabbed for the letter that he had laid beside him on the couch and said quietly, "if you'll excuse me, I believe I need to contact my lawyer," and ran out of the room. Darcy was calling after her but she just sprinted until she reached her room. She slammed the door, then collapsed back into it and sunk to the ground where she again dissolved into tears. After she'd cried herself out and was somewhat confident in the steadiness of her voice she took a deep breath, grabbed her cell phone, and called her Uncle Phil. Typically he was an agricultural attorney, but she couldn't afford to hire anyone else and he could at least tell her where to start.