Page 71 of Stuck

A noise escaped me that I hadn’t intended to make—a mix of shock, sadness, disappointment, and comprehension. “That’s why he assumed we’d stolen something. Because you’ve done it before.”

He nodded sadly.

“What happened?”

He was slower to answer this time, but no less candid. “I didn’t get very far. I’d only reached out anonymously to one competitor to say I might have something of interest to them, and they went straight to Darcy, who involved the police and scared off any would-be buyers. But the breach still spooked everyone. Pending collaborations and research grants were dropped. People lost their jobs. Long story short, it nearly took down Pemberley Holdings.”

“The whole thing?” I exclaimed in horror.

He shook his head, chuckling wryly. “No—not much could threaten the behemoth that’s the Pemberley Group. Pemberley Holdings is one of its subsidiary companies, and a small one at that. It just happens to be the original one. The house, the estate. The one that’s been in their family forever. His dad’s pride and joy.”

My heart nearly broke. George had nearly cost Darcy his foremost connection to his dad. I put my hand over my mouth and swallowed, struggling against a tide of remorse. I couldn’t stop picturing Darcy’s face as he accused me of colluding with George. His vitriol had seemed the cruellest thing in the world at the time; now it seemed the saddest.

“They still have Pemberley,” I mumbled. “How?”

“Oh, I don’t think they’d ever have lost the house. The conglomerate’s big enough to have stepped in to swallow that loss. But once people started losing their jobs, it was like I woke up from a dream and realised what I’d done and who I’d become. All I could think was what my dad would have thought of me. He had a lot of time for the Darcys—and not a lot for me at the end. I knew he’d be spinning in his grave.

“So, I came clean. Handed back the stolen material and my hard drive to prove I hadn’t passed it on to anyone. It didn’t undo all the damage, but it was enough to prevent things getting worse.”

Silence fell between us. George’s hands hung limply between his bent knees; his chin rested on his chest. His shame was palpable. I was ashamed of him.

“So this is what’s kept you so busy for the past few years that you couldn’t keep in touch with me. Why tell me now?”

“You seem really cut up over him. I thought you ought to know he’s not that bad.”

“He still thought little enough of me to assume I’d be capable of doing something like this to him.” I gestured towards George to indicate that I meant what he’d done.

“I never said he was perfect. Actually, he’s notoriously ruthless in business and terrifying to be on the wrong side of. But he’s also the reason I’m not in jail.”

“How so?”

“He made a deal, mostly for my dad’s sake, I think, or maybe because I owned up. He knew I’d been recently bereaved—perhaps he thought that was a good excuse. All I know is that he didn’t feed me to the wolves.”

That was huge. Completely plausible, knowing Darcy, but still incredibly and undeservedly generous.

“That’s not to say he won’t, though,” George added. He was looking directly at me now, the panic from earlier starting to steal back into his eyes. “One of his lawyers contacted me today to inform me they’d be pressing ahead with the historical charges now that I was suspected of doing it again.”

“But you haven’t done it again.”

“No, but it looks bad. Part of the deal was that I’d stay out of his way. I’ve avoided applying for any jobs at companies he has a connection to. I thought Vertex would be safe because it wasn’t part of the Pemberley Group, then I found out Hydro Crops were trying to buy it and Darcy was one of their backers. That’s why I didn’t go to the gala; I discovered he and Bingley were going to be there and found an excuse to skip it.”

He rubbed the back of his neck agitatedly. “I swear to you, Shortie, I’m really trying to be better, but if I can’t convince him I didn’t do this, I could go to jail. I’ll definitely lose my job. Maybe my girlfriend too. Promise me you’ll talk to him?”

I opened my mouth to tell him that if he was so improved in character, he could fight his own battles, but instead of words, a yelp burst out of me, because the lift had given a sudden lurching jolt. We both scrambled to our feet, hands pressing against the doors in anticipation of them opening. They didn’t, but the lift did abruptly drop a few feet before coming to a shuddering halt.

George groaned, holding the back of his hand to his mouth ominously. “It needs to not do that again.”

But it did, the whole car shaking and the lights flickering with it, and George duly emptied the contents of his stomach at his feet. I pressed myself back into the farthest corner of the lift in an attempt not to get vomit on my shoes, but that, I soon realised, had the very unfortunate side effect of making me look as though I was cowering away from him. And that was the pose we found ourselves in when the doors finally opened, revealing, to my complete surprise, Darcy standing on the other side. He took one look at the scene and charged forwards, grabbing George by the front of his shirt and ramming him into the back wall of the lift, snarling in his face.

“If you’ve hurt one hair on her head, I will make it so that jail is the best option you’ve got.”

“Understood,” George croaked. “But I didn’t, and I’ve spent the last half an hour hyping you up, so please don’t hit me. Elizabeth, tell him, will you?”

Darcy looked at me with all kinds of anguish on his face. “Are you all right?”

I didn’t answer either of them. I was confused, angry, mightily surprised—but most of all, busting. I ran before my bladder became the next organ to empty itself onto the floor.

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