Uncovering You 10: The Finale Page 16

  “So what happened next?” I prompt. “When I didn’t return to the Stonehart Industries Building?”

  “I lost my shit,” Jeremy confesses. “The first night you were gone, I prowled the streets looking for you. I was a man lost. I thought you had left me, at first, of your own will.”

  “I would never!” I say

  “I know,” Jeremy agrees. “That’s why I knew something was very wrong—especially when I returned home and discovered Rose missing. Then I found out that Hugh had left, too. Well, I knew who had taken you from right under my nose!” Jeremy’s voice takes on a maddened zeal. “Rose orchestrated it all. Did you know? She used Simon to fly out and pick Hugh up. The idiot man did not think to check with me. From there, they met Esteban at a rendezvous point and smuggled you out of the country.

  “Well,” Jeremy pauses. “All this I found out only after the fact. And only when those demands were made of me, and I received the video footage of you…” Jeremy growls, deep in his throat. “…did I finally have enough of an understanding of the situation to create a plan.

  “But you have to understand, Lilly. That type of knowledge took me weeks. All that time, in every spare minute of my time, I obsessed over how I had failed you. How I allowed you to be taken from me. I hated myself for failing you so spectacularly. I hated that I could do nothing to influence things. Every day without communication from your captors was agony. I could only focus on you; on finding you, on rescuing you, on seeing you home safe.

  “Well,” he gives a sour chuckle. “despite all that, there was still a company that needed to be run. Stonehart Industries cannot operate without me at the helm. I told you about the contingencies I’ve made in case of my death: The proper chain of command and so on? The only way that would be initiated was through my death. Even in a public company, I held ultimate control.

  “But with you missing, I could not concentrate on the regular day-to-day running of the company.” He barks a laugh. “How could I? However, continuing to run Stonehart Industries kept me grounded. It gave me enough of a distraction to at least get through the day without succumbing to a blind rage. I had no idea what was being done to you. Hell! I had no idea whether you were still alive or not. I hoped, of course. Dear God, how I hoped. Yet everything around me was simply noise.

  “So I lost control. I was still in control. But, I was failing all my responsibilities. I made grievous errors in judgment with only half an understanding of the facts. The board members you know called me out on it. I did not deny anything. I knew I had lost my nerve, had lost everything, because I lost…you.”

  “So what happened?”

  “I evoked those contingency plans. The moment I got my first communication from Esteban, I finally had an ‘in’. I knew what I had to do. The plan was vague, at first. But Esteban revealed his king. He made himself vulnerable. And I played my role, showing him the papers acknowledging transfer of the company shares to my father, the release of Dextran from Stonehart Industries’ grip, the gift of my wealth to Rose…”

  “You did all that?” I wonder. “For me? In truth?”

  “Of course in truth,” Jeremy tells me. “You are the most important, most vital part of my life, Lilly. For you, I would do anything.”

  “But that’s not what happened,” I point out.

  “No,” Jeremy agrees. “It is not. Do you know why? It’s because I could not trust my father, or Esteban, with your life. If there had been a guarantee, made by an arbitrator, a judge, some type of third party, under binding terms, that if I gave in to their demands I would have you back, alive, unharmed, completely safe, I would have done it in a heartbeat.

  “But their compliance could not be guaranteed. If I signed the legal papers—which would have been binding, by the way—who could say if they would have released you? It would be me putting your fate into somebody else’s hands. And that, I could not do. Not ever.

  “So I demanded a meeting. I said I would give them everything they wanted if only I could see you.

  “My father suspected something. Shrewd mind that he has, of course he did. But he could not put his finger on what. He disliked uncertainty as much as I. He advised Esteban to reject my condition.

  “Esteban did. Yet I could feel his desperation. I knew he was as close to caving as I had been.

  “That’s when I suggested the collars.”

  I gasp. “You did that?”

  Jeremy nods solemnly. ‘Yes. I did. I told you I alone controlled their distribution. Esteban, Hugh, and Rose could not have gotten access to them without me.”

  “You put one on your neck…for me?” I marvel.

  “That was the only way I could have arranged the meeting. And your subsequent rescue. The biggest risk through it all, Lilly, of course, was you.”

  “How so?” I ask.

  “I had to believe you were strong enough to return to me,” Jeremy says. “I went to my brother beforehand. He was the only one I could trust. He cared for you before. He knew of your condition. I told him everything—about the collar, about how I treated you, about how you’d been starved and shocked and nearly killed while under my control.”

  This is getting too intense. “What did he say?”

  “He was disgusted. Repulsed. And he had every right to be. He threatened to have me arrested, before I told him what had become of you. Before I told him where you were.”

  “And?”

  “And, he still wanted to have me locked up. The jury on that, by the way,” Jeremy winks. “is still out.”

  “Huh? What do you mean?”

  “The only way he agreed to help me was if I gave my word that, once you’ve been rescued, and have had a sufficient recuperation period, I would allow you to press charges against me.”

  “I’d never…”

  “Wait,” Jeremy says. “Wait until you’ve recovered before making your choice. My brother will ask you when he deems you ready. Not before. And not with me present. Whatever you decide, I will accept without protest.”

  “You know what I’m going to say!” I hiss across the table at him. “To even hear you voice thoughts to anything to the contrary is insulting!”

  “I know,” Jeremy smiles. “But I gave your doctor my word. He will have his chance. As will you.”

  “Well I don’t want you to worry,” I flash my ring finger at him, “I’m yours for life. Don’t you forget! What good would a husband do me if he’s behind bars?”

  “A husband,” Jeremy repeats. He smiles at me. “You know, I really like it when you call me that.”

  “Well we’re not married just yet,” I tell him. “’And I, by the way, expect a ceremony, that rivals your purported proposal scheme.”

  “It will be magnificent,” Jeremy promises. “Have you ever known me to do anything without fanfare?”

  “No,” I hedge. I give him a small smile. “Carry on.”

  “With what?”

  “You were telling me how you recruited your brother…”

  “Right, Yes. I showed him the collar. I gave it to him to study. We…tested it. On me.”

  My eyes widen. “What?”

  “The plan depended on your being able to withstand one more, final shock. Esteban—or maybe Hugh—insisted that the power be lethal. So that if I reneged on my word…” Jeremy exhales, “…you would have been killed.

  “You mean the world to me, Lilly. It was your word that made it possible. I asked if you trusted me. You said, ‘Yes’.

  “And that was the signal. You would be shocked again. That was inevitable. But you had to be capable of being brought back. I would not leave it to chance. I had to know for sure—for certain—if it would work.

  “There could never be a guarantee. But I needed to reach a point as close as possible to that. So, when I went to see my brother, we devised the plan. He helped me refine it. Seeing how there would never be any ready volunteers, I became the test subject.

  “So we doubled the collar’s output. I put it on my
neck. And we turned the power on.

  “I remember the sensation that first time, Lilly. The current went through my body and I felt a certain… heaviness. My brain went numb. My head started to feel like it was swelling. Lights flashed and danced in my vision. And then? Nothing.

  “Nothing, at least, until my brother resurrected me. He performed CPR, hands pumping my chest, nostrils pinched, breathing air into my lungs. He brought me back. That was the most terrible, most painful sensation I remember having. It was like being ripped from a deep and heavy sleep and plunged in a pool of icy water.

  “Different people react differently to such things. That first time confirmed that the plan could work—in theory. We had to do it again,”

  I bring one hand over my mouth. “How many times did you go through it?”

  “As many as was necessary to ensure your survival,” Jeremy says. “I prefer not to think about the exact number. You see, the difference between our tests, in a controlled environment, and what could happen to you on the field is cataclysm. You’d likely be starved when I found you. Feeble. Weak. And you’re a woman. You’re much smaller than I. The things my body can withstand do not necessarily translate to what you would be able to withstand.

  “So, for weeks, I starved myself. That’s why,” he gestures at his still-sunken cheeks, “I came to you the way you saw me then.”

  “There wasn’t a single thing wrong about you,” I tell him in earnest.

  Jeremy chuckles. “So you say. But I can see past those beautiful eyes of yours. I know how I appeared.”

  “As a vision,” I say, suddenly transfixed and finding myself going back to that very moment. “My knight in shining armor. My love, come to rescue me.”

  “Yet still half of who you know me as,” Jeremy says.

  I shake my head. “And me? If that’s your assessment of yourself, how do you think I feel?” I brush a hand through the fake fibers of my wig to make my point.

  Jeremy holds both hands up. “Understood,” he says. “But your worries are misguided. You could never be anything less than perfect to me.”

  “What a hard standard to live up to,” I mumble in jest. “Every day, I have to look at myself in the mirror, and wonder: ‘Am I good enough for Jeremy today?’”

  “You could dress in rags and still be perfect. You could be caked in filth and I wouldn’t look away. You could be dressed in nothing at all and…” He chuckles. “Well, we wouldn’t be abiding by my brother’s rules very well in that case. Would we?”

  “No,” I agree. I immediately feel a powerful yearning for Jeremy’s hands on me. Touching, teasing, squeezing, caressing…

  I close my eyes and shiver in an attempt to dispel the image.

  “So you did all that?” I ask again, steering the subject toward safer waters. “You suffered all that, for me?”

  “I did not suffer a thing, my sweet Lilly-Flower—except the throes of loss when I did not have you. Nothing that I did to myself, willingly, can ever compare to what was done to you.”

  “It doesn’t have to,” I tell him. “You came for me. You rescued me from that horrible hell. You risked everything to get to me.” I purse my lips in thought. “But you still managed to avoid telling me what happened to your company.”

  “Really?” Jeremy chuckles. “It seems so trivial in importance when compared to you.”

  I give him a hard look. “Jeremy. Come on. Don’t tease. Tell me what happened. I’m serious.”

  “And curious?”

  I roll my eyes. “And curious. Come on. Don’t play coy. Tell me what you did.”

  “Fine.” Jeremy gives me a mischievous, up-to-no-good schoolboy look. “I had myself pronounced dead.”

  I sputter. “What?”

  “Remember how I told you I faked my two older brother’s criminal records?” He asks. “Death certificates can be created in much the same manner.”

  I stare at him in disbelief. “So the whole world…”

  “Thinks that Jeremy Stonehart is now deceased,” Jeremy says. “At Stonehart Industries those contingency plans I had made have already been implemented. But…” Now he gives me a sly wink. “…it only happened after I transferred half of my held stock to an account under your name.”

  I sputter again. “You did what?”

  “You have me completely, Lilly,” he says. “It only makes sense that you have my wealth completely, too. After all…” He taps his lips. “…legally, you cannot marry a dead man.”

  “You couldn’t have…”

  “I want you to have everything that I ever possessed,” he tells me. “Everything, Lilly.”

  “And what about the other half?” I ask.

  “To my twin brother,” Jeremy says. “About whom the media have been meticulously made aware. So if anybody snaps a picture of me in public, with you…”

  “You can just say it’s him.” I finish on a whisper. “Jeremy, that’s brilliant!”

  He sits tall and proud. “I told you I can make the proper contingency plans.”

  “But this is quite the feat, Jeremy.” I marvel. “You’ve successfully removed yourself from the company and from the public eye in one go.”

  “I know that privacy is important to you, Lilly. That is another reason I did what I did. I want to live a life with you—only you—that is unrestrained and unfiltered. I want us to have a life where our every appearance in a crowded street does not warrant cameras and flashing lights. I doubt we can return to America in the next few months. But, afterwards, once the excitement has wound down?” He reaches out and takes my hand. “You and I can go anywhere in the world.”

  “I don’t want to go anywhere, Jeremy,” I tell him sweetly. “I only want to go where you are.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Jeremy’s assurances the other night have me giddy and excited about our future. It’s enough to make me forget—for the few precious moments I find myself daydreaming—all the hurdles that we will have to overcome to get there.

  Or, more precisely, that I will have to overcome. I’m under no illusions that, just because I’m out of Esteban’s grasp, I’m home free.

  Dr. Telfair continues to conduct his tests and monitor me. I ask him how long until he can reach a conclusion. He says he can’t make promises, but hopes to have a fuller understanding within the month.

  After the first week passes, when Jeremy and I are barred from physical intimacy, we try again. After receiving the doctor’s permission, of course. At first I’m super excited, super needy, super turned on…but just a few minutes into foreplay all my energy drains. I more or less collapse, instantly exhausted, unable to continue.

  Jeremy stops. I tell him to keep going. He should not deprive himself on account of me. But, he doesn’t listen. Instead, he simply takes me by the shoulders and brings me close, then holds me tight as I drift off against his shoulder.

  The moment I close my eyes, I get a terrifying vision of the sterile white cell in which I was kept prisoner. I gasp and jerk out of his grip, bolting upright and staring wide-eyed, yet unseeing, and taking short, panicked breaths.

  “Lilly. Lilly…” Jeremy’s voice pulls me back. I look over my shoulder at his concerned face. “What is it?”

  “I thought…” I shake my head, and shudder. “It’s nothing. I was being stupid.”

  Jeremy pushes himself up, the muscles of his shoulders and chest contracting as he does. “Tell me,” he insists.

  The firmness in his voice lets me know I won’t get away with dissembling. I cast my eyes downward. “I thought I was back underground,” I whisper.

  “Oh, Lilly,” Jeremy says. Sadness fills his tone. “You don’t need to hide from me. You can tell me everything that you feel. Was it something I did? Did I pressure you into this…” He looks around at the tangled white sheets. “..too soon?”

  “You were perfect,” I tell him. “As you always are. It’s nothing about you, Jeremy. It’s all about me.” I bring a hand to my forehead. “I wish I wasn�
��t so goddamned weak.”

  “You’re not weak,” Jeremy insists. He scooches closer to me and takes my hands. He strokes my fingers with his thumb. “You are, truly, the strongest person I know.”

  “Then why did I just feel so scared?” I whisper.

  “You’ve gone through an immense amount of adversity. It’s astounding how quickly you’ve been able to recover, and to function fully, as an ordinary human being.”

  “Except for episodes like this,” I murmur.

  Jeremy tightens his grip on my hands. “Episodes like this prove you’re human. Don’t regret them or shut them out, Lilly. You can’t repress it. My brother tells me it’s dangerous to try.”

  “But I hate it,” I say. “I love being here, with you, on this gorgeous piece of land, in this magnificent place where I’m not a prisoner anymore. Why should my present, now, be tainted by what happened in the past?”

  “It’s not being tainted,” Jeremy stresses. “If anything, it’s being enriched. I know you like being practical. So think of it this way. The moments you have with me, the moments we share, are made more precious because of how close they came to never being. That is why I savor every moment with you. That’s why every hour spent together is another miracle. We don’t have to have sex, Lilly. Not until you’re ready. I’m happy—content even—to be near you.”

  He is being so overly sweet that I’m about ready to cry. “Thank you,” I whisper.

  “Now get back here,” he says. “Cuddle with me.”

  I wipe away my tear, sniff, give him a shy smile, and crawl under his arm. He traces circles over my shoulder.

  Slowly, little by little, I feel myself drifting off.

  This time, no nightmares come.

  The next day, I see Dr. Telfair for my injection.

  “Thigh, or shoulder?” he asks me.

  I pull my skirt up. “Thigh.”

  He sterilizes the spot with an alcohol swab, and then uses a thin insulin needle to inject. I barely feel it at all.

  “Not squeamish,” he observes.

  I nearly laugh. “I’ve dealt with much worse,” I cover my leg. “What happens if I miss a dose, doctor? Do I go back to…” I trail off, unable to say the word. ‘…to insanity.’ “To being…unstable?”