Uncovering You 10

Chapter One





I stare at the three screens, completely aghast. There’s Charles. And Rose. And Hugh.

“You have to let them go!” I plead.

Jeremy looks at me. He smiles. “I don’t have to do anything. Yet you hold unparalleled influence over me. Would you like them released?”

“Yes!” I exclaim. “A thousand times, yes!”

“Knowing now who they are? Knowing what they’re guilty of?”

“Charles isn’t guilty of anything!”

“Charles was an unfortunate casualty. You saw how he attacked my father at dinner. That sort of behavior cannot be tolerated.”

“Then fire him! Cast him out! But please, for the love of God, Jeremy. Don’t use the collar. Nobody deserves that. Nobody can survive that!”

He looks at me. “You did,” he says quietly.

I shake my head. I’m trembling. Fear, revulsion, and utter helplessness create a vile concoction that consumes my insides.

“Not without scars,” I say. “Not without emotional damage. You said it. You told me. It’s abuse, Jeremy, it’s almost torture! And, and what you just did—shocking them, for no reason at all—Jeremy, that is torture! You have to let them go. Please. Please! I beg of you!”

His chest rises and falls on a deep exhale. “You know why I put them there, don’t you?” he asks.

“No!” I say. “No, Jeremy. I have no idea. But if you let them go, I won’t even ask. Let them go, and we can forget this. We can…”

“No.” Jeremy interrupts me mid-sentence. “No, Lilly, we won’t be forgetting anything. You and I…we’re not going to lie to ourselves anymore. We won’t delude each other. So, you ask me to let them go? I’ll do it. But you claimed you want to understand me? This is the first step. You cannot shy away from unpleasantness. I will let them go… after I tell you why they’re there in the first place.”

“Is that a promise?” I ask. I’ll indulge him by listening to his reasons, but I have to know that afterwards he’ll do as he says. “Do you swear you’ll let all three of them go? Do I have your word, Jeremy?”

“Yes,” he tells me, without hesitation, and with utmost conviction. “You do, Lilly. My life is yours now. Just as you asked.”

“I didn’t,” I start, then cut myself off and shake my head. “Just tell me why, and get those vile collars off their necks!”

He raises both hands and steps away from me. “I cannot from here,” he says. “We will have to fly to them. But don’t you worry, Lilly. They’re safe. The collars can only be switched on from this computer.”

“’Safe,’” I mutter, under my breath. I can almost laugh. “How long have they been there, Jeremy? Who’s been feeding them?”

“Ah,” he says. “That might be another technicality you take issue with.”

I don’t need him to say anymore. “You let them starve?” Fuelled by frustration, my shout comes out louder than I intended.

“You make it sound so awful,” he muses. “The truth is, the human body is extremely resilient. Even in times of extreme stress. They’ll survive, and emerge more or less the same as before.”

Just like me? I think. I hold my tongue.

Instead, I step between Jeremy and the computer. It makes me feel more secure, somehow, knowing that I’m in his way. Even though he can easily force through me, I don’t think he will. Not because it’d be unlike him, but because of the condition he let himself fall into after breaking my arm. Abstaining from further violence was part of his remorse. Maybe, as time passes, he’ll be more prone to doing it again…but he wouldn’t now. Not this soon.

“Tell me then,” I say. “Tell me, and we can go to them and let them go. Why are they there?”

“My father? Well, he did many things to me that would warrant his position there. Rose? It could be argued that she did, too.

“But that is not the reason why, Lilly. The truth is simply that I could not have knowledge of events that transpired at dinner Friday night get out. Not until I knew where I stood with you. Not until I offered you…the gun.”

A horrible thought occurs to me. “If I had pulled the trigger,” I gasp, “and you died… what would have happened to them?”

Jeremy settles his gaze onto me. “What do you think?” he asks softly.

I swallow. “They would have… starved.”

“But you would be free,” he whispers. “There would be no loose ends. Do you understand now, Lilly? I put them in that trap…