Then we go through a series of exercises. He asks me questions that he knows will trigger an emotional response. I answer however I want. He instructs me to lie in response to certain ones, and to tell the truth for others. All the while, he monitors my galvanic skin response, my brain activity, and my vitals.
When he’s done, he folds up the laptop and stands up.
“Wait,” I tell him. “Aren’t you going to explain what all that was about?”
“Do I need to?” he asks. “Not yet. You will see later. In essence, all I’m doing is establishing baselines, seeing how they deviate from expected values, trying to understand the full extent of your injuries.”
“And your verdict?”
He chuckles. “That, you definitely have to wait for. Data collection has just begun. It will take weeks, months perhaps, to form a clear picture.” He smiles. “Lucky for us, we have that time.”
My eyebrows go up. “So, you’re staying?”
“Of course. Even with last night’s transgression, you’ve convinced me. I can work with you. I will work with you, Lilly. I will see you better. If for nothing more,” He sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. “Than to make up for the sins of my biological father.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
LILLY
The remainder of the week proceeds in a similar fashion.
Jeremy and I are still barred from physical intimacy. It’s rough. But I promised Dr. Telfair I would listen to him. And Jeremy is true to his word, as well.
After the immense high of my rescue, and the morning of Jeremy’s proposal, my energy levels plummet. I spend more than twelve hours each day in a deep and completely undisturbed sleep. But when I wake, I feel like I’ve been up for days.
The sun makes things a little better. After being held underground for so long, its rays are invigorating.
It’s unfortunate that I’m allowed to soak it up for no longer than five minutes at a time.
“The injections make you extremely photosensitive,” Dr. Telfair tells me. “It’s a restriction that will be with you for the rest of your life. Stay out in the midday sun longer than ten minutes and you’ll burn to a crisp.”
So, to keep me safe, we cap it at five.
The second day after my promise to Dr. Telfair, I finally learn what Jeremy meant when he said that he left Stonehart Industries behind.
“In the days after you went missing, Lilly, I lost it. I poured everything I had, all my energy, and all my resources into finding you. Every potential trail we hit turned up dry. Your capture was perfectly executed. It could only have been so with inside information. Well, Rose provided that. Hugh provided that. It was the perfect storm of events that had been brewing. Rose knew my habits—and yours—at home. Hugh knew everything there was to know about Stonehart Industries and what it’s like at work. Together with Esteban’s relative wealth, and his crazed zeal to see justice done, it was possible. My glaring omission of oversight notwithstanding, there could not have been a more perfect trifecta of opportunity.
“All three had been done wrong by me. All three had long-standing issues with transgression that I’d committed. I thought Hugh cowered. I thought Rose had moved past who she was in the past. I did not think—I never expected—that their hatred for me would be so intense and long-standing.”
“You said you sent me away, to Maine, that one time, because you were shielding me from danger. What danger? What was that about?” I ask.
Jeremy exhales. “I did it on a whim, Lilly. I felt something brewing. I could not put my finger on exactly what it was. Call it a gut feeling. It frightened me. I dislike uncertainties. I loathe things I cannot control. I sent you away, and blocked your cell phone because of a suspicion I had.”
“What sort of suspicion?” I pry. “About what?”
“Alas,” Jeremy sighs, “I do not know. I just knew, at the moment, that I had to get you away. Get you out of California lest something manifest itself. While you were gone, I committed myself to discovering what it was. I found nothing. But still that feeling nagged at me. I had a faint warning that something dire could happen to you. It never went away…not until you returned. Not even after Fey and Robin found you in San Jose.”
“That’s why you blocked her calls?” I ask. “I don’t really care now, Jeremy. All that is so long past that it seems like it happened in a different lifetime, to another person. But I’m still curious, even if somewhat…detached.”
Jeremy smiles. “An interesting perspective. Yes, in answer to your question. That is why I blocked her calls. I did not know what the source of the danger was. I thought, if I could keep you as close to me as possible, if I could keep you securely guarded, I was minimizing risk.”
I feel a spontaneous smile coming on. An empowering sort of joy blooms in my chest.
“You know what?” I ask. “That is probably what I love most about you.”
“Oh?” Jeremy raises an eyebrow. “And what would that be?”
“How much you want to protect me… in your own misguided way.”
Jeremy chuckles. “You do force me into bad decision, at times,” he admits.
“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 vulnerab
le. 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.”
Uncovering You: The Complete Series (Mega Box Set) Page 110