Uncovering You 7: Resurrection by Scarlett Edwards Read Free Book Online

night. Jeremy was right: I internalized it. I spent the weekend locked away, refusing to acknowledge the implications of what I’d learned. Okay, so I was the victim of a revenge plot. The worst had already been done to me. Jeremy and I have moved on from there. Knowing the reason why I was taken did not have the effect I thought it would, back when I was first released from the dark. It did not make me hate Jeremy any more.
    In fact, it did not influence my feelings toward him in any way. Neither positive, nor negative. I already knew that Jeremy Stonehart was vindictive. I knew that his life had been built around revenge. Knowing that I was targeted because of some type of manifestation of that came as no great surprise. I’d already assumed as much.
    Still. Still, maybe because I refused to let the new information affect me or my feelings toward Jeremy, my subconscious protested. That bit of news was another drop into the festering bucket of filth that has taken residence in my soul. Maybe it was enough to make some spill over. Maybe that was the second ingredient.
    Or maybe, regret over how I dealt with Fey over the phone Sunday night was what pushed me over the edge.
    The workday was rough, but no more so than usual. Of course there is pressure to deal with on the job. The IPO keeps looming in the background, and almost every day as many negative stories break about Stonehart Industries as positive ones. I dove in head-first yesterday, forgetting everything else, surrounding myself only by concerns related to the job.
    That got me to 5 p. m. After the workday was over, things become hazy. That is where reality starts to blur.
    Trying to reconcile my memories with the video brings me to this:
    Sometime after five, probably just before Simon tapped my arm, I got that text from Fey. I read it, and—for one reason or another that I absolutely cannot discern—my mind protested. It retreated.
    It retreated, and made up the fantasy that I saw afterward. The specter of Jeremy’s father. The illusion of the collar. The extra photographs contained within the envelope.
    That explanation makes me extremely uncomfortable. It does not sit well with me.
    But for the moment, it’s the only one I’ve got.
    I step out of the shower and look at myself in the mirror. It’s the first opportunity I’ve had to do so with the cameras off.
    I thought I’d gotten used to them—tucked their presence away in some forgotten corner of my mind. I realize now that they were always weighing on me. Now that I’m free to do whatever I want without fear of Jeremy watching, it feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
    I look at my body. There are no signs of neglect. None of abuse. I look perfectly healthy. Nothing at all about my appearance would indicate that I’m going insane.
    But how do I know if what I’m seeing right now isn’t another illusion? What if the true image of the girl staring back at me shows a wretched, pathetic, ruined thing?
    No. I shake my head. I’m not that far gone. Not yet. I still feel in control. I still feel like I have a grip on reality.
    But isn’t that exactly what I felt yesterday? When I thought I’d met Hugh, and not…Simon?
    Yes. Yes, it is. And that is what makes the entire episode so discomfiting.
    Not once, in my interaction with Hugh, did anything feel off. I mean, his behavior may have been a little strange, but that was it. There were no signs or indications that what I was experiencing was not what was actually happening.
    Does someone who’s going crazy realize it? Is this the outcome of all the abuse I’ve suffered at Jeremy’s hands? Is my mind finally breaking?
    Or does the truth lie along a more sinister path?
    Could it be possible, however unlikely, that the entire thing was somehow planned by Jeremy?
    I scoff and dismiss the thought. The man has power. He revels in control. But he cannot make an image of me appear on a video screen.
    I saw myself, from the surveillance