Uncovering You: The Complete Series (Mega Box Set) (152 page)

I turn away. I can feel tears forming behind my eyelids, and I refuse to let my brother see me cry. Never, since my mother’s death, have I truly cried.

But now, faced with the prospect of losing another woman who owns my heart, my defenses have broken.

I
have broken.

“Then do it,” I say, choking on the words. “But let me see her first.”

Chapter Forty-Eight

LILLY

December 21
st
, 2014

I gasp, startled by the voice. It pierces through the all-encompassing nothingness of my mind.

I look up. My vision does not work as well as it used to. I have trouble lifting my head. My body feels shriveled, shrunken. Small. Thirst and hunger have long since disappeared. In fact, I feel almost nothing. I see almost nothing.

Nothing but the wonderful prospect of death.

It does not frighten me. In fact, it’s calming. In death, I will be released. In death, I will be no slave to evil Stonehart. In death, the visions will not come—

A startling thought. I tug on my braid. Visions? What visions? I’m already blind…

“Lilly…please. Come back to me, my love. I know you’re in there. I know you can hear me. I know you can see.”

The voice… the voice is so familiar. Whose is it? I cannot tell. It’s familiar, but it’s also
different
, choked on emotions that have never been there before.

Someone takes my hand. “Come back to me.” Fingers stroke my knuckles. “Please. Come back to me. Please.”

Warmth creeps up my arm from that touch. But whose touch is it? Why do I feel like I shouldn’t ignore it, like I should embrace it? Why do I feel that the warmth can pull me out of the darkness—

In an instant, my vision clears. I see
him
, that vile, evil, horrible man, sitting on the bed beside me.

“Lilly…” Stonehart says.

No,
I think.

In my final act of defiance, I close my eyes and let death take hold.

Chapter Forty-Nine

JEREMY

“Lilly. Lilly, wake up.”

No answer.

“Lilly.” A hushed command. “Goddamn you, Lilly, get up!”

No answer.

“Don’t leave me. Don’t do this. Not now. Not now.
GET UP!
”

No answer.

***

Chapter Fifty

JEREMY

One year later: December 2015.

“Jeremy? She wouldn’t want to live like this.”

I hear the words, but they barely register. They bounce around in some distant part of my mind. My brain refused to assign them meaning.

Just like it refuses to assign meaning to anything that’s happened in the last twelve months.

Three months after Lilly’s medically-induced coma, Atticus had come to me and announced he’d done it: he’d found a permanent counteragent to the poison. Lilly would be saved. She would have to be operated on, and then allowed to rest. With her unconscious, that was not a big concern.

I approved the procedure. I watched from the waiting room as my brother injected her with the agent that would purge the poisonous residue consuming her mind.

“She needs to heal now,” Atticus had told me in the aftermath. “Now we just wait for her to heal.”

That we did. That
I
did. I stayed by her side every day. Every single day, since that moment, I stayed beside the barely-breathing figure that would be my wife.

Such hope filled me those first few days
. Oh, how little I knew…

My Lilly did heal. Bless her soul, her brainwaves normalized. The poison had been leached out of her. She was whole again.

But she would not wake.

Time, I thought back then. We need to give her time. She’ll come to on her on.

That, we did too. We gave her time. A week passed. I did not sleep. A month passed. I barely ate. Two months.
Three
.

She was healed, goddammit, why wouldn’t she wake?

In a fit of rage I shook her. Screamed at her. Begged her and pleaded with her to come back to me. I took her hand and whispered all the things we would do together as husband and wife. I told her of the places we’d go. The things we would see. The grand ceremony of our wedding, our honeymoon, everything.

She did not stir.

I spoke of the children we’d have. Children I never wanted before. I spoke of growing old together, of living our lives in full together. How weak my voice seemed then.

“Just wake,” I begged her.

She did not stir.

Then I promised her, as I held her hand, as I whispered in her ear, that we would one day look back on this and laugh.

Three and a half weeks later, my brother came in and spoke to me in earnest.

“The IV is the only thing keeping her alive,” he’d said. “I’m sorry, Jeremy. I cannot give you false hope. She is brain dead.”

But like an idiot, like a deranged fool, I refused to believe. She was right there! My Lilly was right there, dammit, and damn her fragility! It did not matter! She was right there and she was breathing and she was
healed
! Why didn’t anyone see? She would open her eyes any moment now and see me as I see her, she would see me as Jeremy again, not as Stonehart, never as Stonehart, and we would live all the hopes and dreams of our lives out together.

I was giving in to some of my own hysteria, then.

I became desperate. I called Lilly’s mother and told her what happened. I asked her to come. I thought, prayed, hoped, that maybe hearing a second familiar voice would help Lilly rise.

Still, she did not stir.

More long, desperate months passed. Every day, Lilly looked more and more like a preserved corpse. He skin was ghostly white. Her breathing, so delicate, so thin, it did not look like she drew breath at all. And her heart! How I hated that weak, feeble, deceptive beat of her heart.

One night, delirious from lack of sleep, I yelled at her.

“You’re stronger than this,” I began. It was a cold, stormy winter night outside. “Lilly. I know you’re there. Give me a sign. Give me anything. Lift a finger. Just one. That’s all I need. That’s all I need, my precious Lilly-Flower. Please. I love you. Let me know you’re still in there. Let me know you’re still alive. I healed you. GODDAMMIT,
I HEALED YOU LIKE I SAID I WOULD
!”

I was shaking her, then. A team of nurses had to rush in to pry me off.

Still she did not stir.

“Jeremy?” The voice interrupts my contemplations. “It’s time. We need to pull the plug.”

I turn my head and see Renee. How she can be so strong when faced with her daughter like this, I do not know. I have lost the strength eons ago.

Tears sting my eyes. I look at Renee like a man lost.
I cannot let her go, never, I can never let her go
.

“She’s gone,” Renee whispers.

I shake my head. I rub my face with both hands. I stare at the floor.

Renee takes my head and holds me to her stomach. She strokes my hair. I let her.

I’ve long since given up on appearances, or facades of strength, or acting immune. None of it matters without
her
.

“I know,” I finally whisper.

Renee tilts my head up. Our eyes meet. Hers are dry. She’s long since accepted her daughter’s fate.

“I’ll leave you to it, then,” she says.

The hollow sound of the door closing breaks the peace of the room.

I look down at the love of my life for the final time. “Lilly,” I say. My voice quavers. “I did not deserve you.” I lean in to kiss her eyelid. “I never deserved you.” I kiss the other one. “Goodbye, my sweet Lilly-flower.” I press my lips to her warm-yet-icy-lips. “Goodbye, my love.”

Then I turn away and reach for the plug.
One small tug
.

My fingers curl around the cord. One quick pull, that’s all it takes.

I take a deep breath, the deepest of my life, delaying the inevitable moment for just a little longer.

Then, with all my muscles tense, I begin the motion that will end her life.

But just as I do, some force, some instinct, makes me turn back. And my hand stops cold, because I see…

An eyelid flutter.

The End,

Uncovering You 10

***

Note from Scarlett:

So… that was my original ending for Uncovering You 10. I wanted it to remain true to the start of the series. I wanted it to be something that left people thinking about the journey LIlly and Jeremy went on. I wanted it to represent the tumultuous nature of their journey together.

Lots of readers (the vast majority, in fact) disagreed. They hated it.

So, I wrote an eleventh book, taking place fourteen months after the eyelid flutter. It finalizes things a lot more. So if you’re unhappy or dissatisfied with the ending for book 10… keep reading. Things become more conclusive next.

But
, if you want to know my original vision for the ending, the one I had in mind from the very start of the series? That’s what you’ve just read.

Yet if you’re more of a romantic at heart, and wanted to see the HEA... read on!

~Scarlett Edward

December 2015

Uncovering You 11,

The Lost Chapter

By Scarlett Edwards

Book Description:

When all the lights were truly gone, when everybody else abandoned hope, one man stayed true. One man stayed with me. 
Because of him, I am alive today. 
This is the start of our new life together. 
-- 
Author's Note : 
Uncovering You 11: The Lost Chapter
 recounts events fourteen months after the end of 
Uncovering You 10: The Finale.
 It is a short story of approximately 7,000 words for those who wanted a more conclusive ending to the series.

Fourteen Months after “The Flutter”

LILLY

I stand still, eyes closed, hands on the railing. The gentle sway of the yacht makes me feel like I’m floating.

A warm breeze flows through my hair and tickles my neck.

I breathe deep. Every breath I take is a triumph of will, a celebration of life.

I absolutely love it.

The air is so pure I can smell the sunlight. It mingles with the soft ocean spray, warming the mist that touches my face.

At times like this, I can forget everything. I can forgive everything, because life—this moment—is so absolutely perfect.

Strong hands circle my waist. A scruffy cheek is pressed against mine. The hairs that scratch my skin feel delicious.

“I keep wondering how long you’re going to stay here,” a deep, rich male voice rumbles in my ear.

I lean into the body behind me and release the railing, firm in the knowledge that I can never waver. I will never fail.

“I’m going to stay until you come for me,” I whisper. I open my eyes and tilt my head to rest on his shoulder. “But with you, I’m going to stay forever.”

I turn around, and face the man I once hated, the man I now love:

Jeremy Stonehart.

I trace a careful finger along his jawline, against the short, prickly stubble. “I like this,” I tell him, my voice languid. “Don’t shave.”

He answers with a low growl that comes from his throat and kisses me.

My eyes shutter close and I lose myself in the feel of his lips against mine. His mouth, which can be so cruel and hard, is now soft and gentle.

I melt into Jeremy.

He pulls away, and looks me deep in the eyes. His are the color of sapphires. The Caribbean sun makes them shine.

“How are you feeling?” he asks me.

“With you?” I reply. “Like I’m in a dream.”

He hugs me tight. A touch too tight, but I’m not complaining. Any type of contact with this man feels wonderful.

He places his chin on my crown. “This is a good place,” he tells me. “We can spend months here. However long you need, Lilly. I’m with you, every step of the way.”

I stiffen a bit. He worries about me. I know. He thinks I’m still delicate, that I still need his protection. And while that’s not entirely untrue, it undermines some of the progress I’ve made on my own.

I’m still healing. The worst is past, but it’s only this week that Dr. Telfair deemed me well enough to travel. And only by land or sea, not by air.

Jeremy told me how he waited at my side while I slept. He told me how he stayed and prayed and held out hope when nobody else believed there was such. He told me how without me, he was lost. And what a miracle it was when I stirred, and opened my eyes.

I love him for that. When all the lights had faded, when both our futures seemed doomed, he stayed true. His belief in me, in my recovery, gave me a second chance. Gave us a second chance.

Or maybe a third, or a fourth, or a fifth? How many times had darkness taken hold, only to have that ray of light that is Jeremy Stonehart shine through and illumine the way?

I know I’ve been given my share of chances. I know that not everybody survives. Love is strong, but even love cannot overcome everything, not when the stakes are so high.

Except in our case? Love
did
triumph. Love conquered all.

“Thank you, Jeremy,” I say. I keep my features placid. “That’s very sweet.”

He acknowledges my reply with something of a grunt.

Of course, he’s still Jeremy. He’s still Jeremy
Stonehart
, the man who could have had the world. The man who
did
have the world, but gave all that up to be with…

Me.

So I forgive him for being worried. Of course he would be protective. Especially when there are still lingering effects of my year-long coma.

Physical therapy helped. Post-traumatic counseling helped. My muscles had all-but wasted away when I awoke. I had to learn how to walk again, how to use my arms and my legs, hell—even how to breathe on my own.