“Oh no,” I growl. “There’s no mistake. What does this lowlife tell you he does? He’s a taxi driver, isn’t he?”
Mom makes a surprised sound in her throat. “How did you know?”
“I told you! He robbed me!” I jab my finger past her, right at him. “He took me to a motel where he and his buddy probably bring all their victims. He distracted me into coming out of my room. While I was gone, his friend wiped the place clean. They even took my rental car!”
“Lilly, honey, I’m sure there’s got to be some explanation.” Mom pushes her hair back. It had fallen out of place in her struggle with me. “Maybe—maybe it was some other driver who took you there. Maybe you’re mistaken.”
“Mom, I can see his face!” I practically scream at her. “This is him. He’s the guy who robbed me! And will you let go of me?” I jerk back, out of her grip.
“Look, ladies–” Conner takes a cautious step toward us, holding up both hands. He looks at my mom. “Renee, baby, you know I wouldn’t do that.” He has the nerve to nod at me. “I’m sensing a lot of mother-daughter tension between the two of you. Maybe it’s just best if I come back another time.”
“You stay right there, Conner Partame,” mom says, whipping around and fixing him with a stare. “You stay there. We’re going to work this out like adults.”
The irony of the situation is not lost on me. Mom, trying to play peacekeeper? That had always been my role growing up.
I snort.
“Lilly!” Mom hisses. “Behave!”
“Ask your boyfriend to give my wallet back,” I retort. “And my purse, and my cell phone, and my car keys—”
“Enough!” She breaks me off. “Conner,” she looks at him. “Did you , or did you not, rob my daughter?”
“No, babe,” he says, giving her a slimy smile. “You know me better than that.”
“Have you ever robbed anyone in your life?”
“I mean, I might’ve stolen some lunch money from a few kids when I was in high school,” he shrugs. “But nah, I’m not a crook.”
“There, Lilly. See?” mom says, turning back to me. “He didn’t do it.”
My mouth drops open in disbelief. “You’re taking his side?” I sputter.
“I’m not taking anyone’s side,” she says crossly. “But if Conner says he didn’t do it, I believe him. He’s a good man. An honest man, Lilly.”
“Thanks, babe.”
“Not now!” she hisses, and addresses me once more. “He wouldn’t take advantage of you like that.”
I bark a crude laugh. “Mom, are you even listening to yourself right now? I recognize his face. He’s the man who drove me to the motel. He’s the one I saw sneaking around in front of my door.”
“And did you see him take your stuff, Lilly? Did you physically witness him walk into your room and emerge with your wallet and purse and car keys?”
“No! But that’s not the point!” I begin.
“There.” Mom cuts me off. “Right there. Do you see? You always had it out for me and the men I’m with. Why, Lilly? Why must you do this, again? Conner’s a good guy. He takes care of me. He makes enough money that he even helps me out with rent—”
“By stealing from defenseless woman!” I explode at her. “Explain to me: How else would I know that he’s a taxi driver? You never mentioned it once!”
“Oh yeah,” Conner interrupts. We both turn to him. “Yeah, you know, I thought you looked familiar.” He shrugs at my mom. “The faces, they all blur together, you know? But I do think I remember bringing you to a motel a few miles from here.”
“There! See? He admits it!” I scream at my mom.
Conner tilts his head one way. “But I haven’t seen her since. Hell, if I had known you were my darling Renee’s daughter, I would’ve never have let you stay at that dump. I would have brought you straight to Mommy.”
“Don’t call her that!” I say disgusted. “What is that, like a sex pet name?”
He ignores me. “I warned her against staying there, babe,” he tells my mom. “It’s all coming back to me, yeah. I told her it was a bad place. I don’t usually do that sort of thing for my customers—not wanting to, uh, infry on their privacy…”
“Infringe,” I correct.
He looks at me. “Huh?”
I can’t stand this fucking lying, predatory, sleazy moron. “The word you tried to use?” I say, lifting my chin, “You meant ‘infringe’.”
“Whatever.” He shakes his head. “Renee, babe, I warned her, because I had a bad feeling. You know my instincts are never wrong. I offered to take her to a nicer place, a few exits up the freeway. But she was stubborn. She didn’t want to go.”
“That’s my Lilly,” mom says. “She’s always been so headstrong…”
“Mom, I can’t believe you’re buying this bullshit! He never offered to take me anywhere else. He knew he’d be taking me off his pay dirt!”
“Now, calm down there Lilly. That’s not true…” he begins.
“No!” I say, making another attempt to go at him, and being blocked once more by my mother. “No, you do not get to call me by my first name!”
He holds his hands up again. “My apologies.” He addresses my mom. “My, but she’s a feisty little one, isn’t she?”
“Conner, I’m so sorry,” Renee says. “I don’t know what’s gotten into her. Maybe you were right. Maybe you should give us a little bit of space.”
“Whatever my lady wants, I obey,” he says, dipping his head low. “I’ll wait outside in the car.”
“Whatever my lady wants, I obey,” I mouth after him, then flip him the bird.
He closes the door, and it’s just me and my mom inside.
She turns on me right away. “Really, Lilly,” she condemns. “Really? I mean, really?”
“Really what, mom?” I challenge, taking deep breathes to keep from lashing out.
“Really, we’re back to this? To all these juvenile games again? God, it feels like you’re in high school.”
“Are you completely blind to the fact,” I begin levelly, “that the man you’re dating is a two-bit, low-life criminal?”
Mom throws her hands up. “And there you go once more,” she says. “Always accusing me of doing something wrong. Are you jealous, Lilly? Is that it? Because you saw one picture of me and your father?”
“Jealous?” I sputter in complete disbelief. “Jealous of what?”
“Jealous that Conner’s not him,” mom finishes. “Why do you always have to do this, Lilly? Why do you always have to try to screw up the good things in my life?”
“Conner is not a good thing, mother,” I say flatly. “Even if you don’t believe he robbed me–which he fucking did—you should be able to pick that up by yourself. What do your instincts tell you about him?”
“My instincts,” Renee emphasizes, “tell me that Conner is the first man in a long time to treat me right. Maybe he’s not perfect.” She sneers at me. “I’m sorry we can’t all have Jeremy Stonehart in our lives. Conner’s the best thing to happen to me for a long time. Before you showed up, he was the only light in my existence. Think of that what you will. Call me pathetic, weak, whatever. But I warn you, Lilly, do not screw things up for me!”
“So you’d rather take the word of a man you’ve known for what, a few months, over that of your own daughter?” I can hardly hide my disdain.
“No!” she screams. “No, don’t you dare go there, Lilly Ryder. Less than forty-eight hours ago I had no daughter to speak of. Those were the words that came from her own lips, when she left me. You think I don’t remember? I remember all too well. ‘You’re better off just pretending I’d never been born,’ she said to me. Those were her parting words. Your parting words! So no, you have no right to play that card. No right at all! Conner is the only thing real and solid in my life. God! Why do you always have to butt heads with my boyfriends? So I know they’re not good enough for you. No one is, apparently, unless he’s a mega billionaire corporat
e mogul. Am I right? Well, I’ve got news for you, honey. Not everyone can just dazzle a man like that off his feet. Not everyone is twenty years old anymore!”
And then it hits me. Mom’s afraid. Afraid of aging. Afraid of growing old alone.
That’s why she’s blind to what’s staring her straight in the face. Not because she’s not intelligent enough to see it. But because she chooses not to.
It’s almost enough to make me forget my growing anger with her—almost…almost…
But then I snap back right into my previous mindset.
“Mom, he robbed me,” I emphasize. “Don’t you get it? The man you’re dating robbed your daughter. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
Renee starts pacing the room. “Maybe if she was careless enough to get robbed,” she spits, “she deserved it.”
I take a sharp intake of breath. “What did you just say?”
“Exactly what your damn ears told you!” Mom yells. “You can’t reappear in my life and act like things are just perfect. You can’t expect me to throw everything I have away because of you. Am I glad to see you? God, yes! Have I dreamed for some sign that you’re still alive, that you still remember me? Every damn night. But you can’t come strolling in and assume you can tell me what to do. This is my life, Lilly. Mine! I’m not responsible for you anymore. So thank you for your judgment. But no thanks. I’ll stick to what I have. To what I know. To what’s safe.”
“So that’s it, then?” I ask softly. My emotions are winding down. All I feel is a vague emptiness growing inside. “You’ll take Conner’s word over mine? You’ll choose him over me?”
Renee turns back from the window. “He’s still out there,” she says softly. “He’s out there, waiting for me. Conner’s a good man, Lilly. I only wish you’d give him a chance.”
“HE ROBBED ME!” I explode.
Renee shakes her head. “Maybe he did. Maybe he didn’t. I’ll never know.”
She sounds sad.
“Mom, look,” I say gently, walking up to her and taking her hand. I can feel all the progress we’ve made the previous night slipping away. And I don’t want that. I don’t want to lose her over something as relatively miniscule—as petty—as this.
“I know you don’t want to believe it. But why would I lie? You saw how I looked when I turned up at your diner. You think I walked ten hours in the rain, in the snow, in the sleet, in the dark, just for fun?”
I shake my head. “I did it because I was determined to see you. That was the only purpose of my trip. I should be in California right now, working for Stonehart Industries. I’ll be going back tomorrow. Please, please. Don’t make this a choice for yourself between him and me. I know I’m not in your shoes. I know I have no idea what your life with Conner has been like. Maybe it’s been great. If it has, I’m happy for you. But, mom…” I take her by the shoulders and look her straight in the eyes, “You have to be honest with yourself. Keep Conner if you will. I’m not telling you to dump him. You can make your own choices. All I’m saying—all I’m begging you to do—is believe me when I say that he was the one who robbed me.”
Mom looks at me for a long, heartfelt moment. She puts one of her hands over mine. “Oh, honey,” she says softly. “You must really think I’m an idiot, don’t you?”
I shake my head. “What?”
“I know you met your father,” she says. “Why else would you come and see me? He’s the only one in the whole world—other than me—to know you’re his daughter.” She pauses as if waiting for me to agree.
“I know you avoided mentioning it. I didn’t ask. How you found out, how you found him. I didn’t ask because those things don’t matter to me. And yet… yet, you seem to want them to.”
I open my mouth to protest…and close it again.
“I’m not blind, no, not like you think. I know what you came here to do. I know you want me and Paul to get back together. I know you want the family that you think you lost.”
“What?” I sputter, taken aback. “No, mom, it’s nothing like that…”
She shakes her head. “You can’t lie to me, Lilly. I’m the same woman who changed your diapers, remember. I can see into your eyes. I know when you’re telling me the truth. I know the real reasons—your ultimate motives—for trying to show me that Conner is a bad guy.”
“There is no ulterior motive!” I spin away, disgusted by her, by me–by where this whole situation has ended up. I stalk across the room, in utter disbelief of what my mom is trying to feed me. I spin back and face her.
“Fine,” I announce. “Fine, if that’s what you really think.”
She nods her head sadly. “I do.”
“Then I won’t burden you with my presence anymore. I’ll leave, and you can go back to your fairy tale in la-la land where the men you date aren’t capable of robbing your daughter and she makes up lies just to deceive you.”
I look for my coat, find it, and grab it from the hanger.
“Nice reconnecting with you, mom,” I say, bustling past her. I open the door, letting the frigid air blow into the room. I stop and turn back. “Oh, and there’s something I didn’t tell you about, either. Something I was waiting for the right moment to do. But since I’m going, I don’t think I’ll get another chance.
“Dad? Paul? Yeah, he’s in a mental hospital. He’s insane. Just thought you should know.”
And with that, I close the door on my mother, ending a chapter that had barely begun.
Chapter Eighteen
“A c-c-collect call to Jeremy Stonehart,” I stammer, huddling into myself at the phone booth.
It’s freezing cold. The white, puffy snow is deceptive. It might look like a winter wonderland from inside. Outside it’s a killer.
It took me half an hour of wandering around to find this phone. Maybe more. I have no way of judging time, aside from how close my nose feels to freezing off.
“I’m sorry, miss,” the operator informs me, “That name’s not in the phone book. Do you have a number?”
I rattle off the digits to Jeremy’s cellphone from memory, tell the woman my name for the recording, and wait.
The seconds that pass before the phone starts ringing are the longest of my life. Calling Jeremy is admitting defeat. Admitting that he was right. But it’s my only option at this point.
The line barely has a chance to ring before I hear a click, and his voice.
“Lilly,” he growls. “Where the hell have you been?”
“I need help. I’m cold, lost, and alone,” I stammer.
“Good,” he barks. The venom in his voice makes me flinch. “You deserve that. It’s what you get for trying to test your limits. That’s what you were doing when you switched cars, isn’t it?”
I don’t want to fight. “Yes,” I admit in a small voice.
“And how did that work out for you?” he demands.
“Not… well,” I say. “Jeremy, please. I need your help. I’m alone by the side of a highway. It can’t be more than fifteen degrees. I’ve been robbed. I don’t have my credit card, my cell phone, my purse, anything! Please. Please, don’t be cruel. Not when I need you. Not now.”
“You admit that you made a mistake?” He sounds cold. Detached. Passionless.
“Yes!” I almost scream into the phone. “Yes, Jeremy, I do!”
“And you’re coming to me to mend things. Am I right?”
“Yes!” I say again. “Please, Jeremy, just get me out of here. Wire me some money. There’s a Western Union in a gas station nearby. I passed it earlier. I can get a cab to a hotel, room there for the night—”
“No,” he says.
My heart stops cold. “No?” I whisper.
“No, Lilly, that is not how I fix things. A black Bentley will arrive to pick you up three minutes from now. You will get in. You’ll be driven to the airfield, where my jet will be waiting for you. We will talk when you come home. And, Lilly?” he adds, conveying none of the satisfaction I’m sure he feels, “No detours t
his time. All right?”
***
As I touch down in California, I still don’t know whether to be furious, annoyed, thankful, or relieved… at Jeremy, or myself.
I should have known better than to think he’d just let me go. The speed with which the black Bentley arrived—less than five minutes—means that it’d been following me the entire time.
I checked and rechecked every seam in my jacket for a tracking device, and found none. It was the only thing to do on the six-hour flight, so I know I’d been thorough.
No, Jeremy didn’t slip another one of his little gadgets onto my person when I wasn’t looking. He’d just paid someone to keep tabs on me.
That means that when I called him, he already knew about everything that had happened. The burglary. My misguided wandering in the night. The fact that I did find my mother, and that she took me back to her home.
Damn, but thinking about that now, when I’m warm, safe, and returning to a place that I know, makes me very irritated—even though I probably have no right to be. It just feels…after the incident at the Greek restaurant, the surveillance cameras in Jeremy’s home, all the constant monitoring, anywhere I go…that I’m just bouncing around from under one microscope to another.
Maybe I should just come to grips with it. The only place I’m truly safe from monitoring now is inside Jeremy’s home. It’s ironic that that’s where things began. Now, that home–Jeremy’s mansion–is my one true sanctuary.
I climb out of the plane, half-expecting—half-hoping?—to find Jeremy waiting for me. But he’s not there. It’s Simon, Jeremy’s driver. He is leaning against the side of the limousine.
He tips his hat toward me and gives a totally inappropriate wink, then gets in. I mumble under my breath and sit in the back.
There’s a package waiting for me on the seat. I push it aside, knowing that it’s one of those double-meaning gifts from Jeremy. I’ll deal with it after I deal with him.
I can hear the engine running, but we’re not moving. I knock on the glass separating us. “Um, hello? Aren’t you supposed to drive me home?”
Uncovering You: The Complete Series (Mega Box Set) Page 69