Eleven Years Later
It didn't take long for her to know - pretty much from the first moment she met him - that William Darcy was the man she would marry.
He's rich, he's handsome, he's single - he practically met all her standards. And even if he seems to be on the old side and the safe side, and even if 35 really is a little too young to give up her bohemian lifestyle - she figures he's worth it.
With those three annoying leeches - plus Jane Bennet - Charlie's not about to support her forever.
"This house, ma'am?" Her Uber driver slows down cautiously down the row of extravagant houses. It bothers her a little that the gate of the gated community wasn't really closed today.
It bothers her a lot that this is the first time she's visiting his house.
She's practically his girlfriend!
"Didn't I tell you 113? Numbers, idiot." She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms just as she leans back on the posh black leather. Uber Black has its perks.
The driver groans. She figures she'll just give him a one-star review.
Three minutes later, they pull up on the driveway of the most modern-looking mansion on the block. It's all glass and blue and grey. It's amazing he got away with building this in a zip code this historic.
For a moment, she almost salivates.
She knows William did mention a pool - maybe even a hot tub.
She tugs at her bag subconsciously.
"Ma'am?"
He's really annoying, she decides, as she shoves her way out the Lexus. Too bad she can't really choose to pay less.
The California sun beats down harshly the entire way up towards the front door. She's tempted to put a hand up to shield her eyes - but decides against it. Who knows what Darcy sees out of his helicopter-grade tinted windows?
The doorbell doesn't give off a sound the first three times she presses it; so she rings it another six times.
"Caroline." The door opens. Darcy's chest is delectably wide thanks to his chivalrous act.
"Hi." She smiles, now coy. They went through four dates before he let her hold his hand. When she pecked his cheek after the first date, he froze and has kept his face a clear, determined distance away ever since. Last week was date number eight, when he finally let her kiss him on the lips - and only now is he letting her visit.
She's not about to let him get away.
"Am I too early?" She asks, taking care to look apologetic. Her average past boyfriend (2 of which she's told Darcy, 15 by her count) wanted flair, skin, and seductive lip poses.
It only took her 24 hours to notice that this one wants a girl next door.
He checks his watch. Then he smiles a little. "You're fine."
"Oh, I was so worried. Thanks." She sashays in, taking care not to smile too widely. She hears the faint sounds of splashes. She figures the elusive Lili Darcy is in the legendary pool.
She flips around after he shuts the door. It takes great effort not to soak in the beauty of the sprawling, luxurious, chromatic living area. "Should I slip on my swimsuit?"
He looks surprised, like he never had that play up his sleeve. He thinks visibly, then shakes his head.
"It's fine. Lili doesn't like swimming with strangers." He sighs under his breath. The rumors of eccentricity really can be true. "Come on, this way."
Caroline follows obediently, and she only takes his hand after he helps her down the steps towards the backyard.
The place is as impressive as its indoor counterpart. Again, she tries not to stare too much, or too obviously.
"Lili!" Darcy calls across the water. A tween girl - all dark red hair and keen eyes - splatters her way over. She's a regular swimmer. That much is obvious.
"Daddy," the creature greets when she finally pulls up by the side of the pool, treading water all the way. Darcy proves over the next two minutes that he's capable of smiling without looking constipated.
"There's someone I want you to meet," he says, disappointingly casually.
"A new nanny?" The girl grins.
"Lili," Darcy levels. The girl laughs.
Caroline hates that the tiny imp is making her nervous.
She should never have agreed to visit on a Saturday afternoon.
"This is Caroline." Darcy turns to pull her by the elbow, presenting her like a prize.
Caroline beams, feeling exactly like a prize.
"Hi." She extends her tanned, toned arm. The girl glares.
"Lili," Darcy says again.
"Who is she?" Lili Darcy demands, narrowing her eyes.
"Caroline is - " Darcy hesitates.
Caroline holds her breath. She prods him mentally - say 'girlfriend,' please say 'girlfriend.'
"She's Uncle Charlie's sister," Darcy concludes.
She's afterwards rather thankful he doesn't hear her string of hushed curses.
"From Europe? The one who kept spending all his money?" Lili prattles. Her green eyes, wide and childlike, are annoying as hell.
"Lili."
"Just kidding, Dad." She laughs. Then she leans over with such a strong gesture that water lands all over Caroline's outfit before they could finally manage their handshake.
"Lili!" Caroline screeches, losing her cool for twenty horrific seconds.
Then, to her eternal embarrassment, Darcy laughs with his daughter.
Caroline glances downwards, hoping at least that she's chosen to wear white today.
It's a cut to the heart when she finds out a few stray leaves have added themselves to her walking mayhem of an attire.
"I'd lend you clothes, Aunt Caroline, but I'm afraid they won't fit." Lili - the villainous, minuscule witch - has the audacity to say.
"It's fine." Darcy finishes with a few more straggling chuckles. "I'll get some in my room."
Caroline beams, for three seconds.
"I still have Lizzie's three thousand bathrobes, I think," Darcy mutters before running indoors.
Caroline wonders, to the background of splashing water, if it's an honor or an insult to be offered his dead wife's clothes.
How she feels when she stumbles into her Uber two hours later - in a grandma-sized bathrobe, carrying coffee in her hair, and with a comment in tow about her having to dry clean and return this frumpy outfit - is all insult from Darcy and plotted vengeance for his demonic, green-eyed daughter.
A whole bottle of merlot can't wash away the embarrassment tonight, so she hits the bar instead.
"Get me three more," she hollers after her first six shots are gone.
The bartender obliges.
"Another two - four - ten!" She slurs ninety minutes later. She giggles, softly.
The bartender, bless his soul, pours them all in a row for her.
She downs them in rapid succession. If anyone sees her now - except stuck-up Darcy - they'll be impressed.
"More?" The handsome bartender offers when the last empty glass slides off her fingertips and on to the varnished dark wood.
Caroline grins. "On you?"
He doesn't even flinch. "I don't have that right."
"Uh huh." She tries her best to look sultry. The deep-V dress she grabbed before she angry-drove here helps.
Mr. Bartender smirks. "Putting on a show?"
"Only for the handsomest man in the room."
He laughs - a little too tightly for Caroline's tastes - and she wonders if she's starting to be a little drunk.
"What's this about the handsomest man in the room?" A stranger plops down on the bar stool beside her.
She gives him a condescending once-over - that ends with her eyes glued to his really handsome features.
"Hey," she flirts.
"Hey," he flirts back, one elbow on the bar.
In this lighting, in this unbuttoned button-down shirt - he's handsomer than Darcy ever was.
Caroline grins. She leans closer. Her siblings may prefer the settled-down variation of life - all 2.5 five kids in a row. Charlie may like to pretend he only has a submissive wife - and no wild sister.
Sure, a small part of her wants what he and Jane have too.
But, tonight, she wants danger.
It's not like Charlie and Jane even remotely pretend she exists anyway.
"Making friends at high places?" She flits her eyelashes at him.
His charming smile doesn't shift a single inch.
"Looking for strange bedfellows?" His blue eyes burn - sear into her face.
It's been a long time since she's felt this flattered.
"So sure you're a bed-fellow?" She whispers.
"For the likes of you - in a heartbeat." He stops smoldering for a moment and looks away to order and down his own shots. She misses the attention instantly.
"All by yourself?" She asks when he finally looks back at her.
His hand finds her arm. His thumb runs intoxicating circles on her skin. "No."
She tires not to look disappointed.
"I think I was meant to find you," he concludes - and kisses her.
It takes her by surprise. He looked too sober to give her a drunken, indulgent kiss.
It takes her only one second to realize that he is sober - and that this is not a drunken kiss.
"Hey," she gasps when he pulls away, just after she starts kissing him back. Tints of her lipstick stain the middle of his mouth. He's sexy - as hell.
"Hey yourself." He smirks. "Hope you're here alone too because - "
She throws herself at him, her lips cutting him off mid-sentence. He reciprocates right away, hands flying to press her waist closer. The thrill in her spine tells her that she's never, ever been kissed this thoroughly, this determinedly.
The back of her mind - still running on autopilot - has her reaching into her purse for two hundred-dollar bills - and tossing them to the now-unhandsome bartender.
They kiss all the way to her car - and for most of the drive to her place. He drives, though just with one hand. They barely make it into her apartment clothed, her zipper already all the way down. The doorman knows her well enough to stop asking questions.
"Beautiful." He whispers above her when they're both stark naked, his chest pinning her down against her bed.
"Flirt." She pulls him down - without a drop of hesitation.
It doesn't even occur to her Darcy might find out about this until they're done - bare limbs and bare bodies sprawled upon the covers. Then again, it's not the first time anyway - and it's not like her pseudo-boyfriend had figured those out.
"You're awesome." Her bedfellow pants.
She grins and slides against him.
"Shouldn't I have a name for my conquest?" She asks with the cock of a brow.
He laughs - and kisses her.
"George Wickham, at your service."
"And that's when Emily admitted that she actually liked Zach all along, and we all laughed because it took them so long just to figure it out themselves. Then Jenny said that if there wasn't an accident in the cafeteria, then Zach might say he liked her and then Emily would be so heartbroken and, like, crying. Then the teacher'll come in and ruin it - and we don't even know if it was right. I mean, we should have staged the accident, right, Daddy?"
Lili looks up at him, green eyes dancing.
"And that's where all the private school money goes - huh?" Darcy grins. The dining table feels big, especially with just the two of them. He's hasn't fully gotten used to that yet, after all these years.
He grabs her hand. She struggles a little before settling in. She's glowing, as always - a beautiful memento of the marriage that could have been.
It took him ten years to regain the board's trusts - and to assemble a new team that would help him lead the company into the 21st century. During those ten, long years, he's heard all sorts of stuff said about Lili, and about Lizzie. He just agreed to most of them - except when it came to his one and only child.
"Are you being - reflective again?"
He meets her eyes. Then he smiles.
"You always know, don't you?"
"Of course."
He sighs. She's growing up - without a mom, without a feminine influence in her life apart from the fast-shifting housekeepers. The experiment this afternoon may not have worked out too well - but he can't just stop trying.
"Do you ever feel lonely, Lili? Most of your friends have siblings at home." He's trying to be open with her - trying harder than he ever did with her mom.
Lili shrugs. The movement brings light to the hint of red that's weaved into her brown locks. "It's fine here. You're enough."
His heart warms because it's inevitable. How this mischievous, witty, exciting little girl can look up to him with this kind of admiration is an incredibly touching fact - and more than he deserves.
"You don't want any more brothers and sisters?" He asks, just in case he feels like giving some to her.
"No, not really." Lili gestures all around them. "I don't know if I want to share all this, you know."
Darcy laughs. His daughter laughs too. God in his mercy at least left him her.
Thank God for his lawyer's wisdom upon the twins' birth, he supposes.
It takes a few moments for him to recover, to recall why he started this conversation in the first place.
"And a mom?"
"Mom?" She echoes, still playfully.
Then, in three visible, painful seconds, the light in her eyes shuts off - and her spirit tumbles back to earth.
"Dad," she says with a very, very level voice - like an adult's. He tries to listen attentively. "You're not getting married, are you?"
He weighs his words.
He leans over to kiss her brow before pulling back. "Would that be so bad?"
"To Caroline? Yes!" Lili screeches, all while jumping to her feet - a deadly, pouncing tigress.
"Lili, I didn't say - "
"And to think my mommy was so pretty." All of a sudden, the child's lamenting. The crestfallen look she sports when she drops on her chair again is either natural talent or effective drama class.
He doesn't have a clue which one it is.
"Lili, I don't think I've ever shown you - "
"I saw her pictures on your computer," she admits.
Darcy swallows, suddenly doubting every single parenting decision he's ever made.
"Mommy was so pretty - and - and real." She's crying now, for real. "How can you think of getting a plastic woman like that to replace her?"
She asks out loud the question that always been in his heart, and Darcy nearly walks away to shed tears of his own. He's moved on, of course - it's been too long for him not to. He's dated - on and off, here and there - for the better part of the last six years. No one ever made it into his life on a permanent level. No one can replace Lizzie - not even the daughter she had been contractually obligated to leave behind.
"I know Mommy's been dead forever," Lili talks. Darcy feels emotions he's never really felt before. It's a concoction - of regret, of guilt, or sorrow. Lili came up with the lie herself; he only allowed her to believe it by omission. "But maybe we can find someone more like her?"
Darcy looks at her. Fatherly waves of realization roll off him at the recollection of a smart, perceptive, assertive young woman.
He thinks, for the fifth time in recent memory - how much she's just like her mom.
Darcy sighs. He puts a hand on her shoulder.
"I don't think I'll marry Caroline - alright? But," he adds before she can rejoice, "maybe I will marry again - and I can't promise to whom."
The drowsy, late morning light filters prettily into her condo. She catwalks barefoot across the carpet. Heading to her place each time they rendezvous means that she never gets to wear his button-downs or inspect his stuff - but the silk robes she gets to wear here make up for it, somewhat.
"Hey, peach." He greets behind her, simultaneously snaking his arms around her waist. Given that Darcy hasn't agreed a single time she tries to label them as girlfriend and boyfriend - she hasn't exactly been lugging around a load of guilt for these little sessions over the last three weeks.
"Mornin' lark?" She teases, leaning back to take in George Wickham's morning, unshaven, rugged afterglow. "Or did you actually stay the night?"
He laughs - as pretty as his person - and circumvents her to grab a bar stool. She chuckles too before refocusing on her quest for wake-up caffeine.
"Does every Paris graduate wake up as gorgeous as you?" Her bed buddy grins up at her.
Sure, George Wickham doesn't have the height, the wealth, or the repute of her millionaire boyfriend - but, in bed, it's passion and charm that count.
And this boy toy has those in spades.
"Only for the people worth it." She pours in her milk before turning to tap his cheek.
He grins and stands up - and pulls her close.
"George! I don't think - "
"Got anything better to do?" He growls.
Her chest does somersaults. She still feels last night's tingles.
"I have to meet Darcy today," she explains with dramatic sigh. Her fingers make their course up and down, and up and down his wide, bare chest. "Say what you will of his commitment skills - the guy's loaded."
"Darcy - as in William Darcy?" Her lover pulls back.
She hopes she hasn't offended him.
"You got a problem with that?" She coos - and proceeds to start sucking his neck.
George laughs, deliciously breathlessly, and pulls back. "Caroline, wait - you mean to say - this stuck-up boyfriend who refuses to live with you - with a smarty-pants daughter - is William Darcy?"
"Does it matter?" It's her turn to step away, a little annoyed now.
"No, no - I mean." George grins. He quickly walks over and lands two hands on her shoulders. "I just never expected people to be so open about their girlfriends when they're still married."
"They're what?" It's her turn to screech, and she's thankful for the dampening arms containing her. "You mean Darcy is - how did you - "
"I worked with his wife before." George shrugged. "As far as I know, they haven't actually divorced."
The lies, the betrayal - each emotion crashes over her like an overwhelming wave the first time one tries to surf.
"The daughter - "
"Yeah, it's the ex-wife's," George answers. "I'm sorry, Caroline, When you said you had a boyfriend, I didn't think it would've been - "
"She is so dead."
They glare at each other silently for a handful of minutes.
Then, she decides it.
"No divorce means he's not paying alimony - so that's a plus," she speaks harshly, firmly. "We can cut her off and make him remarry, right?"
George caresses her nose with the tip of his. "I think you got the perfect accomplice, as it is."
A/N: Thank you to everyone who is sticking with this despite the lack of realism in some parts. I hope you get to enjoy this story as a fun, casual read! Lizzie finally reappears in the next chapter. I hope her older version will prove less annoying than her chapter-3 embodiment. Hehe.
In other news, I am almost ready to publish the edited versions of "Switched" and "Armed Robbery." I am only struggling with the part of converting my MS Word files to Kindle-compatible files. I would appreciate any suggestions or help! Thank you all for sharing my love of Austen :) I hope you enjoyed this chapter, despite the amount of Caroline in it.