Uncovering You 8: Redemption (13 page)

“I don’t know why you awoke at that moment, Lilly. But you did. Somehow, you did. When the machines you were hooked up to showed that you were conscious, my brother relented.”

“Relented?”

“You were in a coma, before, more or less.”

“I was not!” I surge up and stab a finger at him. “I was not, Jeremy, and you know it! I awoke in the room. A nurse checked my vitals. Then the doctor came in—your brother came in. He put something in my IV that knocked me out. It was
not
a coma. I was drugged!”

A horrifying realization comes to me. “No, he didn’t,” I gasp. “
You
drugged me! He wanted to talk to me and
you
couldn’t allow that!
You
put me to sleep! You put me to sleep until you could sort things out with him! Didn’t you?”

I’m starting to hyperventilate. “It happened the first time. The first time we first met at the restaurant. And now… now nothing’s changed, has it?” I’m shaking. “You’re still the same man you always were. You still treat me the same way. You…”

“No,” Jeremy cuts me off. “I am not the same man I was before.”

“Lies, Jeremy,” I say, shaking my head and covering my ears. “Lies! All of them! Everything you say is one glorious lie after another!”

“No.”

“YES!” I scream.

I look around the room wildly. There is nowhere to run. Nowhere to escape. I’m trapped. Boxed in, in this remote place with nobody and nothing but Jeremy Stonehart.

“What day is it?” I demand. I’m border-line frantic, close to a full on panic attack. Jeremy Stonehart kept me in a vegetative state on purpose. “What day is it, Jeremy? And don’t you dare tell another lie!”

“It’s March 26
th
,” he says. He’s calm and distant. “Wednesday.”

“March,” I mutter. I can barely believe it. “It’s the end of March?” I’m not quite sure where my hysteria is coming from or how to stop it. “We’re in the middle of the
week
?”

“Yes,” Jeremy says smoothly. He steps forward. “Lilly…”

“Don’t!” I warn. I spin on him. “
Don’t
come any closer. Stay away, Jeremy!”

He holds his hand wide and settles back. “As you wish.”

I start pacing the room. Back and forth I go. I can feel Jeremy’s eyes on me. He’s watching me, intent and serious. But he’s letting me have my space.

“Okay,” I say finally. I blow out my cheeks, stop, face him, and run a hand through my hair. “Okay, it’s March. I can…” I suppress a shudder. “…I can deal with that.”

“You don’t know how hard it’s been to keep you with me.”

“Oh no!” I warn. “You don’t get to play that card. You won’t get any sympathy from me.”

“It’s not sympathy I’m after, but understanding,” he says. “You’re not alone in having failed this.”

“Failed what?” I scream. “You’re fucking with my mind!”

“Isn’t that what I
just
told you? It was hard to keep you with me. You’re just spinning my words back at me.”

I shake my head in disbelief. There’s a lot of new information to cope with. Too much, in fact.

“Talk to me,” I beg. “Tell me. How is it we’re here in the middle of the week? How is it that
you’re
here? Don’t you need to be at work?”

“I can work remotely.”

“Since when?” I question. “Every other day you’ve had to be at your San Jose office. To keep a pulse on things.”

“Yes,” he says.

He starts to approach me again. My glare stops him in place.

“But I make time for the things that are important to me.
You
are important to me.”

“We’ve established that,” I say thinly. “I want to know all I’ve missed. My diagnosis- What is it? The brain damage? Is it permanent? Will it manifest itself again? I want to see your brother!” I demand.

Oh, God!

I bring a hand to my head. “Oh God, this is all really real, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Jeremy says. “But you are here, with me. I have access to the best doctors in the world.”

“You don’t get it! Do you?” I ask. “I don’t want any of your doctors, Jeremy. I just want…” I shake my head. “I just want to understand. Let me talk to your brother.
My
doctor. Give me access to him. Let me see him.”

“No.” Jeremy’s voice is stern. “I said I will take care of you.” He moves to my side. “And only
I
will.”

With that, he embraces me.

I don’t fight him. I’m too exhausted to fight. Nothing is ever clear or certain when Jeremy is involved. Things are always a roller coaster between us.

I don’t melt into him, though. I just sort of stand there, like a statue, like a…

Like an empty vessel for Stonehart to do with as he wants.

I stiffen. That thought is a remnant of a time long passed. A memory of my time in the dark.

Things have changed since then. And yet, have they? Have they really?

Jeremy might treat me differently. But are any of those differences truly representative of any change? Can he free Paul now? Or, does he still view me in the same light, as a revenge tool, with the only change being how he approaches things?

That possibility does not frighten me half as much as it should.

So I try to change the path of my thoughts. I breathe in deeply, taking comfort in the feeling of Jeremy’s arms around me.

“I just want…” I shake my head. “I just want to be whole again.”

“You are whole,” Jeremy whispers. “You’re whole and unbroken. You’re here with me. We’re together.”

He holds me back and stares deeply into my eyes. “You are mine. You are the single most important element in my life, Lilly Ryder. Stonehart Industries has been let go. The IPO is over and done with.”

I gasp. “The IPO! How did that go?”

“It was,” he smiles,” a spectacular success. My wealth…” he touches my cheek, “…has nearly doubled. But all I care about—all that concerns me—is you.”

The sincerity in his voice gives me goosebumps.

“You do mean that,” I whisper, still reeling, still not quite sure how to react.

“I do,” he says. “And I know now what I have to do.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“I have to spend every waking moment I have left proving it to you. I have to do it until there’s not a sliver of doubt left in your mind.”

“Oh, Jeremy,” I whisper.

Sadness fills me. Sadness for the boy I hear behind the words. “Can’t you see that things will never be that way? Can’t you see that I can never forgive? That I can never forget?”

“I know that.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop fighting. Not for your love or for your understanding. I’ll never stop fighting. I’ll never give up.” He smiles a little. “You know how I can be when I’m determined to get something.”

“Very single-minded,” I murmur.

I break away, gently, from his arms. The panic, the paranoia, has passed. I feel more secure. More sure of myself.

I won’t accomplish anything giving into despair. In fact, now that the shock has worn off, I feel strangely numb.

I was passed out for weeks. I missed the IPO. I missed the phone launch. I have no clue of what to make of my alleged spot within Stonehart Industries.

And yet, here I am, mere inches away from the man I promised myself I would get close to. I missed so much. And yet, my position has hardly changed.

I believe Jeremy when he says I will have the best doctors looking out for me. There is an established precedent - his mother.

He couldn’t care for her. In some strange way, I’m almost starting to believe that he will try to make up for that, with me.

Jesus Christ
.

It’s astounding to think how much his mother influenced his life. She was, and has been, at the heart of everything he’s ever done. Of everything he’s accomplished. She was the reason he sought me out. Every cruelty he subjected me to, every malicious action, was prompted by his wanting to avenge her death. Wanting to harm the family who had broken his.

She was the only woman he’d ever loved…until me. She was the only one to love him back…

Until me.

There is no changing that. It’s who I am. I am a woman in love with Jeremy Stonehart. It’s fucked up to the highest degree. But I can’t help it. I am not about to go out and try to change things.

“I’m not going to ever stop fighting for you,” he whispers.

“Then don’t.” I melt into him, letting the last of my defenses down, accepting that I am fully and completely his. Don’t stop fighting. It’s not going to be easy, Jeremy, the road we have ahead of us. But, I think, in the end…” I peek up at him. “…it will be worth it.”

Chapter Twelve

I find out, over breakfast, the exact chain of events that conspired to bring me here.

Apparently, the damage I’d suffered from the collar shocks was extensive, but not debilitating. The worst effect is emotional instability. No shit. I’ve experienced that first-hand too many times to count. And I have a new propensity to blackout, given the right reactionary stimulus. No doubt about that, either.

I’m relieved, in a way, that it is not anything worse. When Jeremy first said, “brain damage,” I imagined all sorts of terrifying possibilities. But now, at least, some things make more sense. The ease with which I’ve found myself giving into emotions, for example. I knew it was a marked shift in my behavior. Now, I know the reason why.

Of course, not everything makes sense.

“Jeremy?” I ask. “Tell me about the coma I fell into. Did the tests confirm it?”

He looks disgruntled for a second. “It was… unexpected,” he admits.

I wait for him to say more. He does not.

“I can’t help but feel that you’re hiding something,” I chide gently.

“No.” He smiles. “Nothing important. I told you how I was called in. Once I arrived, you awoke, in part, to hear the argument with my brother. I wanted to take you home with me.”

“He didn’t let you?”

“He wanted to talk to you. Like I said. I promised him he would have his chance later. In the end, he relented. That let me bring you here.”

Jeremy goes quiet. I
know
he’s withholding information. Concealment is Jeremy’s second nature.

For the moment, I let it pass. At least now I understand how I ended up here, with him, at this deserted mountainside retreat.

So what if I was passed out for weeks? Or missed the IPO? Or the phone launch? I have no clue of what to make of my alleged position with Stonehart Industries anyway. And I don’t give a damn.

The most important thing is that I got close to Stonehart. I got so close to him that I view him as Jeremy now.

So close, in fact, that I have fallen in love.

I feel content. Content and surprisingly satisfied that—despite all the curve balls—I have managed to achieve what I set my mind to in those awful, lonely days by the pillar.

They say love and hate are two sides of the same coin. I don’t know about that. All I know is that, when I’m around Jeremy, the strongest feelings I have ever known come to life inside of me. If love stirs the deepest passions, then I am helpless in its throes.

But that same passion steadies me. It strengthens my resolve. I have not forgotten. And, like Jeremy said, I can never be expected to forget.

There are so many questions left in my mind. With Jeremy, and with us, there can never be a happy ending. I’m aware of that. All I can do is enjoy the good moments, and savor the previous few I stumble upon unexpectedly with him.

If I don’t, I will go crazy. I don’t know where our future will lead. I don’t know what sort of twists and turns remain in our path. I don’t know a thing about Rose, or Hugh, or their connection. I don’t know what’s happened to my mother, or what will happen to Paul. Can I convince Jeremy to let him out of the facility? Or is his mind too far gone for freedom?

Those are the concerns brewing somewhere in the depths of my mind. I don’t let them touch me now. I bring the last piece of toast to my mouth, and look across the table to meet Jeremy’s eyes. I am treated to the sight of a beautiful, unrestrained, and loving smile. And all I feel is…

Peace.

The End.

Uncovering You 9
is coming early February, 2015.

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