Uncovering You 8: Redemption by Scarlett Edwards Read Free Book Online Page A

pocket and produces a small, sealed envelope.
    I’ve enough dealing with envelopes to be naturally suspicious of such things. “What is it?” I ask.
    “Open it and you’ll see.”
    “And if I don’t?”
    “Then you’ll be refusing information that I think you may find absolutely vital to your situation.”
    “What situation?” I ask.
    “Oh, you know.” He looks around the hall, making a vague sort of sweeping motion with his hands. “All of this.”
    I don’t take the envelope. “Did Jeremy send you?” I ask.
    “Now, see? Right there. It hurts when I hear others address my own son by his first name, and yet I am forbidden to do so.”
    “From what I understand, it’s your own fault,” I lash out at him. “The way you raised Jeremy was despicable.”
    “Was it, now?” Hugh taps his lips. “And what do you know about it, Lilly? Were you there? “
    I narrow my eyes at him. “Are you mocking me? Of course I wasn’t there.”
    ‘”Ah. I see. No, I’m not mocking you, Lilly. I just wanted verbal confirmation. The mind…I find it has begun to slip a bit, in my old age.”
    Now my defenses are definitely up. Verbal confirmation? I’ve heard Jeremy use that term.
    And nothing about the man before me suggests a weakened mind. In fact, nothing about him suggests true deference on any level. I’m starting to believe Hugh is a lot more sinister and a hell of a lot more dangerous than I ever suspected.
    “So. Was it Mr. Stonehart who told you the way things were in his childhood?”
    “No,” I say.
    “So then you’re taking the word of third-party sources.” Hugh’s mouth makes a small, compressed ‘O’. “Hmm.”
    “I want you to leave,” I say. “I don’t like talking to you without Jeremy here.”
    “Why? Are you afraid of what conversation may uncover? Look at me.” He glances down the front of his suit. “I’m harmless. I doubt I possess the strength to force you against your will.”
    He looks at me with sharp, cunning eyes that make me certain that he is referring to his son.
    “That’s not the type of strength I’m worried about,” I mutter.
    “Ah,” he says softly. “I understand. You are fearful of the things I might say. Of the paths I might lead you to.”
    “Is that what you think you’re doing? ‘Helping’ me?” I ask. “We’re not allies, Hugh. We’re not friends. I have a long memory. I remember the stunt you pulled in your office with the photographs, with the collar.”
    “All of it orchestrated by Mr. Stonehart,” he says. “If you think I am at fault, then you are misplacing blame, I fear.”
    “I don’t care,” I snap. “You were a part of it! You were involved. Don’t you dare act as if you’re just a passive party in all this! I don’t know exactly where you stand yet, Hugh, but I intend to find out.”
    “I think,” he says, “that your intentions could be reached, were you to simply invite me inside.”
    “I don’t want you in my room.”
    “Your friends’ room then, perhaps?” He glances at the adjacent door. “We can talk in there.”
    I hate his passive aggressiveness. It makes it very difficult to get a read on him. For that matter, there’s nothing about Hugh’s manner that I like.
    “ I fear,” I say mimicking his words, “that you mistake me. You think I’ll entertain your company simply by virtue of you showing up at my door? Well, I think you’ll find that I am ready to do no such thing. I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to hear from you. I don’t even want to see you—unless it happens on my terms, in my own time. And I certainly don’t want any of your poisonous gifts.” I glance at the envelope still in his hands.
    Hugh sighs. He tucks it away. “A pity, that,” he says. “I came here hoping we could make peace. The need has hung heavy on my consciousness, like a noose, since I first met you, Lilly. I can’t help but feel that, perhaps, some of what you’ve experienced at the hands of…”