Read Uncovering You 9: Liberation for Free Online Page A

walls. Waiters and servers and hostesses are everywhere.
    Jeremy was right. I do recognize some of these people. They’re all from Stonehart Industries. Even if I don’t know all their names, their faces are familiar.
    All my team members are here. Not one comments on my extended absence. All they say is how glad they are to see me again, how they cannot wait for me to return, and to ask if I’ll be coming back this week.
    I don’t know what story Jeremy told them. But, I find it almost too easy to slip back into the act that Jeremy taught me. Be gracious but non-committal. Don’t volunteer information. Turn the focus onto them, away from me.
    And so, navigating through the sea of strangers and half-acquaintances becomes something I do on autopilot. A waitress hands me a drink. I take it. Jeremy introduces me to some of his colleagues I do not know. I greet them and shake hands.
    In short, it’s a party even if I’m not really there. As before—just as at the gala—everybody wants to talk to Jeremy. They don’t spare much more than a courteous glance at me.
    I don’t know how much time passes with Jeremy keeping me at his side. My wine glass has been refilled more than a few times. Faces and voices are starting to blur.
    “Jeremy, I’m tired,” I say when we find ourselves in a rare moment of isolation in a secluded corner. “I want to go to bed.”
    “Already?” he asks. “I thought you would have enjoyed this.”
    I shrug. “It’s not exactly my scene.”
    Jeremy gives a secretive smile. “To tell the truth, it’s not mine either. I’d much rather be alone…with you…” His hand caresses the side of my stomach. “…in our bedroom, upstairs…”
    “So end this,” I suggest. “Wind the party down. Tell everyone to go home. You’re the host.”
    “As the host,” he says forlornly, “I still have certain duties to perform. But why don’t you go upstairs? I’ll see if I can’t get there soon.”
    I hesitate. I haven’t left his side all evening. “Are you sure?” I ask.
    “Definitely,” he says, kissing my lips. “I can manage. And if you’re tired, I don’t mean to keep you here…” He lowers his voice and looks at me with unspoken conviction. “…against your wishes.”
    My head is spinning from too much drink to heed the danger of those words.
    “Goodnight, then,” I say, “until I see you again.”
    “It shouldn’t be more than a couple of hours,” Jeremy promises.
    I break away from him and drift through the crowd. I hear murmurs that dampen when I come close. Whispers and furtive words. Are they talking about me?
    Stop this , I tell myself firmly. You’re becoming as paranoid as Paul .
    And at that moment, like an apparition rising from the crypt, I see him before me.
    Except, he’s not alone. My mother is there beside him. They are talking, speaking, laughing …as if nothing at all is wrong.
    I blink, and the illusion shatters. Paul is not here. The man I’d mistaken for him is speaking to his wife. Pretty couple…
    Jesus Lilly. Get a grip ! I chide myself, bringing a hand to my head. Why would Jeremy bring Paul here ?
    Noises and voices around me assault my senses. It’s suddenly too much. There are too many people, too many sounds, too much commotion. I made a grave mistake leaving Jeremy’ side. He was my anchor. Without him, I am lost.
    I look back over my shoulder. But the spot where I’d left him is empty. He is gone.
    Again, I’m surrounded by all the voices. All the people. Someone is trying to make conversation with me. I’m dimly aware of that. I mumble something back, some excuse that hardly sounds plausible even to my own ears. And then I flee.
    I flee to escape all the voices. I flee to escape all the noise. I flee because being around so many people, in a place where I had been alone for so long, in a place where I’d glimpsed the darkest corners of my soul, feels worse than the gravest sin.
    It feels like sacrilege.
    I run through the halls,