“Did you get a name?” I asked.
“Not the girl’s,” Fritz replied. He glanced back over at Mr. Darcy.
“The friend, was it Charles Bingley?” I asked. The words tasted sour and slimy in my mouth.
“I shouldn’t say,” Fritz replied, but the look on his face was plain as day. It was Charles, and the only person that could be considered a “gold-digger” was Jane.
“It was him. It was Charles Bingley,” I confirmed. Fritz didn’t deny it.
I looked over at the bar where Jane was smiling and helping Mr. Darcy pick up the drinks. She was smiling at the man who had decided she wasn’t worthy of the love of her life.
Red hot fury filled me. I could barely see straight I was so angry. Wrath seethed and boiled in my stomach and I felt like I might hurl it all up if I even ope
ned my mouth.
Mr. Darcy was a monster. Not only did he screw me and not care, but he also cheated Wickham out of his inheritance, and now he’d destroyed my best friend’s love and happiness. Any good points he might have once had with me were completely and utterly demolished.
I couldn’t stay in the restaurant with him. I didn’t want to be on the same planet, let alone the same continent with him after what he’d done. If he came back to the table, I was likely to stab him with my fork. I knew I was out of control and I needed to get myself away from him.
I grabbed my phone and pretended to check the screen.
“I’m so sorry, Fritz,” I said, managing to keep my voice light and even, despite the fact that I wanted to scream like a demon. “There’s an emergency and Jane and I need to get home right away.”
“Oh dear, I hope everything is okay.” Fritz’s kind face filled with worry. I felt sorry for him. He didn’t know that his boss was a monster.
“I’m sure it will be,” I told him, standing up and gathering my things. I grabbed Jane’s things too. “Please excuse us.”
I walked away from the table, not caring if I was being rude or not. All I could see was red.
I grabbed the drinks from Jane and set them down on the bar, spilling most of them. Mr. Darcy could afford it. “We’re leaving.”
Jane looked at me completely confused as she looked back and forth between me and the drinks. “What? Why?”
“We aren’t staying,” I growled, grabbing her arm and manhandling her toward the exit.
“Elizabeth? What’s going on?” Mr. Darcy asked, confusion twisting his handsome features. He held a martini in each hand.
“Screw you,” I hissed at him. I hated that white-hot tears stung at my eyes. I was so angry I could barely see. I ran into a bar stool and just kicked it away, not caring about the fact that it was going to leave a bruise or that we were in a fancy restaurant.
I just wanted out.
I ran for the door, pulling Jane behind me as she shouted an apology to a man who didn’t deserve one.
Chapter 13
“Okay, seriously Lizzie?” Jane followed me into our apartment, finally getting frustrated with my lack of words on the subway. “If you aren’t going to tell me what’s going on, then I have no idea what to do to help.”
I slammed the front door hard enough to make the walls shake. “I don’t want to talk about it right now,” I told her. I vibrated with an uncontrolled fury that I was afraid I was going to unleash on her. “Go to your yoga class.”
Frustration filled Jane’s face at not being able to help me. “You pull us out of a fancy restaurant and fume the whole way home,” she said, putting her hands on my shoulders. “Come on, talk to me. Maybe I can help.”
I shrugged her hands away. “You can’t help,” I told her, doing my best not to sound cruel. “And I don’t want to tell you because it will just make things worse.”
“That’s exactly why you should tell me,” Jane reasoned.
“Go to the gym. You have your yoga class that you love,” I replied. She didn’t move, so I sighed. “I’ll tell you when you get home, okay? I just need to cool down a little bit first.”
“Are you mad at me?” Jane asked, her big eyes concerned.