Uncovering You 7: Resurrection by Scarlett Edwards

dream or a programmed simulation.
    Something sketchy…something deeply suspicious…is going on inside Stonehart Industries. Jeremy is at the heart of it. But, somehow, I’ve become involved as well. It’s something past his vendetta for me. Hugh was real. These photographs are proof! They have to be. But Jeremy wanted me to believe otherwise.
    Oh, my God. I nearly smack my head as I realize how stupid I’ve been. Jeremy did not fly me off to find my mother from the goodness of his heart. He did it to get me away from the company! Away from Stonehart Industries, while he did…whatever it is he’s been meaning to do.
    Unless…oh, Jesus, unless Jeremy leaked those photographs to the press. I refuse to believe that a man as obsessed with privacy would be careless enough to let a photographer this close to his island. There is no way it could have happened. Not without his knowledge. No way.
    I feel more lost right now than I’ve ever been. I’m tangled in something much greater than myself. How deep does Jeremy’s thirst for vengeance truly run? Has everything that’s happened to me based only on the discovery that Robin made…or is there more, much more, here at work?
    I know one thing. I won’t get answers from afar. I need to get back to California, back to Jeremy Stonehart, as soon as possible. The time for diplomacy is over. The time for demands is now.
    I need to go to Jeremy and demand answers. He claims he loves me? He can prove it then. And if sending me away was his misguided attempt at protecting me, at shielding me from whatever is going on inside Stonehart Industries—
    No. I stop short. I can’t forget myself. Neither can I forget the man I’m dealing with. He’s Jeremy Stonehart , and Jeremy Stonehart never makes mistakes. He does not miscalculate. He does nothing that can ever be called ‘misguided’.
    Maybe…maybe starting to think of him as ‘Jeremy’ was the biggest mistake I’ve yet made. It personified a monster. It made me forget. It made me underestimate.
    I cannot be dumb enough to give Jeremy—or Stonehart—that advantage.
    “Lilly?” My mom calls out. She emerges from the bedroom holding a pile of clothes. “I wasn’t sure what you’d like, or what would fit—”
    “Mom,” I cut her off, closing the magazine, and stand up. If I’m to leave tomorrow, there’s no more time to waste. “We need to talk about Paul.”
     

Chapter Fourteen
     
    For as long as I can remember, Renee was not one to handle uncomfortable topics well.
    She feigns ignorance. “Paul?” she asks, scrunching up her forehead. “Who’s Paul? You don’t mean Paul Paul, do you?” She gives a forced chuckle. “I don’t even know how you remember him, Lilly. The last time you saw him, it was so long ago…”
    “I know he’s my father,” I say softly.
    Mom stops short. For a second, she looks on the verge of tipping over.
    Instead, she just takes a step to the side and sags against the wall. “Oh, God,” she breathes.
    A rush of excitement runs through me. I know it’s probably wrong, but her reaction confirms my father’s identity. The lingering shadow of doubt is cast from my mind.
    She meets my eyes, then, and suddenly looks more helpless than I’ve ever seen her. It makes me want to rush over and comfort her. But…I can’t.
    We’re both adults. We need to treat each other as such. More than that, more than being adults, we’re practically strangers. Both of us have changed so much that we might as well be starting from scratch. And with this revelation, that’s exactly where we stand.
    She pushes off against the wall and walks away.
    “Wait,” I say. “Where are you going?”
    “I need a cigarette,” she mutters. She bends beneath the kitchen sink, and resurfaces with a box of smokes, a lighter…and an unopened bottle of Johnny Walker.
    “I promised myself that I wouldn’t,” she says under her breath. “This was the last bottle I ever bought. I swore that if I could keep