Uncovering You 10: The Finale (2 page)

He spreads his hands. “As you say.”

I follow Jeremy into the woods. There’s no sign of a path. Less than thirty yards in, I feel like, if he left me alone, I’d get hopelessly lost.

Jeremy is surefooted. He does not hesitate once as he leads me through the foliage. Some indeterminable amount of time later, I see sunlight shining, up ahead, onto yet another clearing.

We emerge. My breath is suddenly taken away.

There is a huge, rectangular sort of house constructed entirely of glass and steel. It looks perfect, flawless, newly built. There are young saplings around the edge of the clearing. Other than that, there no evidence of any disruption—the type that comes from building something like this in such a remote location.

“So?” Jeremy asks. It’s the first word he’s said to me in a while. “What do you think?”

“I think you ruined something beautiful for me,” I say. “Knowing who you’re keeping in the basement.”

Jeremy, for some reason, gives me a little smile. “Don’t be so quick to judge.”

Before I can ask why, he’s striding away, toward the front doors. I have to run to catch up.

“First thing we do when we get inside,” I tell him, “is let them go. Right?”

Jeremy sighs. “They’re not dogs to be released from kennels,” he tells me with a touch of impatience. “It has to be done delicately, Lilly. How do you think they’re going to react to seeing me again?”

“Not my problem,” I tell him. “You made your own decision. Now it’s time for you to face the consequences. You have a promise to keep to me, remember?”

“I never forget.”

He opens the door. Cool air greets me as I enter.

The glass door closes and locks itself with a beep.

“Now where?” I ask Jeremy. “Which way to the basement?”

“Now,” he says, pausing in the middle of the floor and taking out his cell phone. “I have to make a phone call.”

I stop cold, disliking surprises, especially from Jeremy Stonehart—especially now. Trepidation starts its slow pound through me.

He brings the phone to his ear. “Hello? We’re here. You can come down.”

The pounding becomes a quickening pulse, racing in time with my heartbeat.

“Jeremy?” I say, taking one step toward him. “Who did you call…”

The words are stolen from my mouth as a procession of three people starts down the stairs.

My jaw drops. I’m speechless.

I stare.

Rose is front and center. To her side is Charles. To the other is Hugh.

She beams at me as she descends the stairs. The two men don’t look particularly happy to be near each other. But they’re there! The three of them are there—not in strait jackets, not with collars around their necks, but in clean, presentable clothes! Hugh’s in a dinner jacket. Charles is wearing a white dress shirt. And Rose is wearing a simple black sheath dress.

All three have some lingering injuries from the fight: A nose splint for Rose, a black eye for Hugh. Scratch marks for Charles.

Jeremy turns back to me and winks, offering a crooked, schoolboy smile. “Surprise,” he says.

“Your CGI program,” I breathe. “You fucking bastard, you tricked me!”

He laughs. A rich, full laugh, filled with confidence, filled with ease.

I don’t know if I should be pissed or not. I mean, I think I should. But seeing Rose, Charles, and even Hugh, here together, unbound and free, with no evidence of abuse at Jeremy’s hands, fills me with such gratifying relief that I…can’t. I can’t be mad at Jeremy.

But I sure as hell can pretend to be.

I huff past him, intending to go straight to Rose. Now that I know who she is, what she did, and her place in all this, I definitely need to talk to her. But he catches my unbroken arm and holds tight.

“Wait,” he says. “I have to explain myself. Certain things I told you at the mansion still hold true. I could
not
have information of events at dinner coming out. So I ushered Rose, Charles, and Hugh here. Look around you before you judge. They’ve had access to everything that you see. I just could not permit them to leave before settling things with you.

“Rose,” he nods at her as she and Hugh and Charles come up beside us, “has taken on the role of peacekeeper. Charles—” Jeremy looks at him, “—has offered a sincere written apology to Hugh for his conduct that night. And Hugh? Well, he understands his place in the world, in relation to you, a whole lot better now.”

“If I may speak…?” Hugh begins.

Jeremy does not even glance his way. “No, father,” he says, “you may not.”

A flicker of rage crosses Hugh’s face. Then it’s replaced by a meek, placid mask.

“The video simulation,” Jeremy continues, “accomplished three things. First, it proved to me your continued capacity for compassion, Lilly. You knew what Hugh had done in his life. I told you what Rose did to me when I was young. She and I have moved past that, long ago—” he looks at Rose, who gives a tight nod, “—but your knowledge of that is fresh. Still, you begged me to let her go.”

Rose’s eyebrows go up. “You did that?” she asks, looking at me.

I glance at my feet, a little uncomfortable. I shrug. “You did it for me, once,”

“Second,” Jeremy continues, “It confirms to me your utter distaste for the collars. And it made me satisfied with the decision I made while you were out.”

“What decision?” I ask.

“To destroy the collars. You showed me, Lilly, that such a device has no place in the world. No,” he corrects himself. He looks at me in full earnestness. “Not ‘the’ world.
Our
world. Yours and mine.”

My heart flutters.

“Lastly,” Jeremy says, “and perhaps of most importance to me: It was a test. The final one, I think, that I will subject you to. I wanted to know if you would stay loyal to me in light of all the new developments. I wanted to know what you would do, how you would treat me, after you saw me guilty of something so absolutely reprehensible. Showing you our three friends locked away in three tiny cells, bound in strait jackets, collars around their necks? Well, Lilly, I do not think I could have offered you anything worse. And you did not begin to hate me for it. At least,” he says with a smirk, “not any more than you already do.”

“You’re maniacal. You know that?” I ask weakly. And yet, for some reason, I cannot help but smile—just a little bit.

Jeremy laughs. “I do,” he says. “Only now, you’ve proven yourself willing to stick by me. Forever.”

Chapter Three

“I don’t understand,” I tell Rose, half an hour later. She and I are alone in the gardens behind the house. “Why didn’t Jeremy tell you he’d integrated his father into his company? He led you to believe Hugh was dead—for how many years now?”

“More than fifteen,” Rose sighs. “I have no idea why he kept me in the dark.” She casts a quick, nervous look at me. “Figuratively.”

“What did he tell you happened?”

“That there was an accident,” Rose says, “on a fishing boat, in the middle of the Atlantic. He told me it happened just months after Stonehart Industries swallowed the company I was working for. Just months after he turned me into… who I am now,” she finished, plucking at her skirt.

“The things you did to Jeremy were awful.”

Rose looks away. “You don’t have to tell me,” she says softly.

“How could you?”

She forces a laugh. “I don’t know. I’ve changed since then. I’m not without my guilt. I thought I’ve gotten past it. I thought that
he
did.” She glances at me, and touches my cheek. “The damage I caused him as a boy has manifested itself in the way he treated you. And, seeing this…” her hand moves down to gently touch my cast, “well, all the guilt comes back. I’m sorry, Miss Ryder.”

“Lilly,” I tell her softly. “Rose. Please. Don’t revert back to that. You know you can call me Lilly.”

“You have a big heart,” she says. “Even if you try to fight it, you still do. You have… integrity, Lilly.” She smiles without meeting my eyes. “That’s what separates you from me.”

“Integrity?”

“Yes. Now that you know my past—and I know yours—you can see the type of woman I was: Power-hungry. Crass. Yet, determined. For twenty years, I worked to position myself as I wanted. Then, in the blink of an eye, Mr. Stonehart swept it all away.”

She looks at me now, a little tentatively. “You see now why I can’t—why I don’t—call him Jeremy, don’t you? Jeremy was the boy he’d been. Jeremy was who I… raped. Stonehart is the man. Jeremy disappeared from my life, and from his father’s, before returning transformed. She clears her throat, “Our
past
connects us in an inextricable way. But it does not define our relationship now. Much like the way I see things with you.”

“Hugh?” I ask. “Did you love him?”

“Oh, most certainly,” Rose admits. There’s not a sliver of hesitation in her voice. “Charles knows it, too. He saw us together in the past. That is why he reacted the way he did, I imagine. I should have been able to foresee it. But I thought—and my conviction was absolute—that Hugh had died a long time ago. When I saw Hugh alive, I lost all self-control.”

“You have to admit” I offer, a little shyly, “that Jeremy orchestrated that night perfectly. The man loves surprises.”

“He thrives on mayhem,” Rose agrees. “It’s simply who he is. You cannot change that.”

“Trust me,” I tell her. “I’m not about to try.”

“What about my father?” I ask Jeremy when he comes outside to find me. Rose left a while ago.

Jeremy sits across from me on a small outcrop of rock. He runs his hands over his thighs. “What about him?” he queries.

“You said you got rid of all the collars. Is his included?”

“Yes and no,” he tells me. “Don’t you think the staff at Cedar Woods would find it odd if the device they assume monitors his condition were suddenly taken away? I had another one sent out without the…electrical capacity.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. “You’re not shitting me? He’s actually safe?”

“Well, safe from me, in any case,” Jeremy smiles. “That’s what you’re asking. Isn’t it? Knowing that I can’t shock him on a whim?”

“No,” I say. “I mean, yes, that’s part of it, but…”

“Lilly.” Jeremy leans over and takes my hand. “I have to tell you two things. Before I do, you have to know that I am telling you in full honesty. There are no deceptions. No lies. Only the absolute truth.”

“Okay,” I say slowly. “What is it?”

“The first is this. I only shocked your father once. The only time I did it was in the limousine with you. I am not sadistic without reason, nor do I take particular pleasure in causing people harm. I know, given everything you’ve seen, that might be a difficult pill to swallow. But everything I’ve done, I’ve done for my own reasons. It’s the lack of the common man’s morality that makes me capable of inflicting pain. It’s because I can remove myself from the equation. Disassociate myself from events.” He pauses. “You look skeptical.”

I shake my head, not knowing whether to believe him or not—despite, deep down, having a strong feeling that he is telling the truth.

“And the second thing?” I ask.

“The second,” he sighs, standing and turning away, “might be more difficult for you to accept. It is this: Your father is, and forever will be, clinically insane.”

Jeremy leans down and plucks a blade of grass. He examines it between his fingers. “What do you think I’m holding?” he asks.

“Grass?” I frown.

“Paul would see it as a caterpillar. Or a writhing snake. Or whatever his mind fancies at the moment.”

Jeremy points at the house. “And that?” he asks.

“Your retreat,” I say.

“Paul would call it an igloo. Glistening in the sun. Standing tall. Not melting despite the ninety degree heat.” Jeremy turns to me, “I know,” he says, “because I brought him here.”

Chapter Four