Uncovering You 9: Liberation by Scarlett Edwards

“Goodnight, Lilly. Until the morning.”
    “Goodnight,” I whisper, and watch him go.

Chapter Eleven
     
    Don’t touch me, Rose .
    No matter how hard I try, I can’t get those words out of my head. They are on repeat as I drive with Jeremy to work. They’re all I think about as one of his assistants takes me away and shows me to my new office. They’re all I can focus on as some senior partner or other comes and lectures me on the details of my new job.
    It feels good, albeit a little frightening, to be back amongst people. Particularly so soon after waking up in that unfamiliar room in Colorado with the first mention of brain damage fresh on my mind.
    But my own concerns pale in comparison to what I feel for Jeremy.
    It’s no secret anymore that we’re together. Everybody in the building knows it. They’ve seen the pictures. They’ve heard the chatter. And if they look at me a bit differently now that they know I’m sleeping with the most powerful man in the city, well, so be it.
    Don’t touch me, Rose .
    That’s what he screamed when caught in the clutch of his night-terror. That’s who he thought I was, when I brushed his arm.
    Why? He said he dreams of the past. Of the time he still lived under his father’s shadow. Charles and Jeremy go back all the way to that time.
    Could he and Rose have the same connection?
    Halfway through the day, I find myself lingering by the elevators, in the exact same spot I was that time Hugh found me.
    Hugh is his father, and he works in the building, I think. Hugh is his father, and Jeremy explicitly asked me if he had mentioned Rose when he came unannounced to my door in Boston.
    There is a connection. I’m positive. But how far does it run?
    I debate calling on Jeremy, and then decide against it. I don’t want to interrupt him at work. Besides, I have things I should be doing. Getting acquainted with all I’ll be responsible for.
    I turn away—and am startled by the sight of Hugh, looking all the more like a sly, devilish bird, peering at me from the corner.
    “Hello, my lovely,” he greets me. He strides forth and gently but firmly takes my arm. “My son’s paramour.”
    I recoil inwardly from his touch. I try not to let my discomfort show. Now that I know exactly who Hugh is, and all that he’s responsible for, in screwing up Jeremy’s life from childhood and all the consequences of that upbringing, I want nothing to do with him whatsoever.
    But I’m also not dumb enough to spit a gift horse in the face. Hugh might have valuable information for me. And it’s obvious he still wants something from me, or else he would not have come to seek me out on my very first day back.
    “Does Jeremy know you’re talking to me?” I ask, pivoting smoothly to make it appear that the way he’s leading me is exactly where I wanted to go all along.
    “I’m almost certain he has more important matters to attend to,” Hugh replies. “But despite that, yes. You’ve evoked some sort of curiosity within him. You’ve made him start to act like an unreasonable man. And my son, for all his flaws, was never anything if not reasonable.”
    “So he allows you to call him ‘your son’ now, does he?” I ask.
    Hugh shrugs. “The secret’s out. Not that it should have ever been one to begin with. It’s almost like he’s somehow…hmm, ashamed of me.”
    “Gee. I wonder why that would be.” I don’t hide my disdain.
    Hugh shakes his head. “Such a bratty child,” he says, half to himself. “Under my roof such remarks would not have been taken lightly.”
    “Under your roof?” I scoff, and wrench out of his grip as we come into his private office. “The one you raised Jeremy under? Look what that got you. Such a spectacular success.”
    Hugh gives a small, curious smile. “Isn’t it?” he wonders. “My youngest son, the largest shareholder of the stock market’s most coveted company. My youngest son, the darling of the country’s media. The roguish heir of a