Chapter 11 - Tyler’s Last Lie
Tyler appeared at L’Aura just before dawn, sitting alone in the closed dining room with a paper cup of coffee between his hands. The restaurant had been Emily’s old workplace, the place where she had learned to read people by the way they handled a tray or avoided a mirror. Now every familiar table seemed to contain a memory with a blade hidden inside it.“You shouldn’t be here,” Emily said.Tyler looked up. His face was thinner than she remembered, and the reckless confidence that had once made him dangerous had been worn down to exhaustion.“I know.”“Then why come?”“Because Vincent will lock you in a room before he lets you hear this.”Emily stayed near the entrance. Leo stood behind the bar, one hand beneath the counter where he kept the emergency phone.Tyler placed a flash drive on the table. “This came from Sophia.”“You’re working for her again?”His silence answered.Emily felt disappointment before anger. That was the part she hated most. Some piece of her had believed Tyler could still choose better.“What did you give her?”“A location.”“Whose?”“The house on Armitage.”Leo swore.Emily stared at Tyler. “You gave Sophia the location Mateo mentioned?”“I gave her a location she already knew.”“That is not an explanation.”“It’s the only reason you’re still alive.”He pushed the drive across the table. “She believes the vault will open only if you arrive with Vincent. She wants both of you there.”“And you?”“I’m supposed to deliver you.”Emily’s throat tightened. “You’ve done this before.”“Yes.”“You betrayed me before.”“Yes.”The bluntness stole the force from her accusation.Tyler rubbed both hands over his face. “I keep telling myself there is a difference between betraying someone and surviving the people who own your mistakes. I’m beginning to think that difference only exists in my head.”Leo came around the bar. “What’s on the drive?”“A payment list. Names, dates, shell companies. Enough to prove the Northstar network is real.”“Why give it to us?”Tyler looked at Emily. “Because Sophia told me Vanessa was dead.”The words changed the room.Vanessa had vanished after her engagement to Tyler collapsed, leaving behind only a brief message that she needed distance. Tyler had claimed not to know where she was. Emily had assumed their relationship had ended in another explosion of secrets.“She isn’t dead,” Emily said.“I saw her last night.”“Where?”“At the Armitage house.”Leo reached for the phone.Tyler stood quickly. “Don’t call Vincent.”“You don’t get to make demands.”“Sophia is listening to the city, not just the phones. If Vincent goes there, she’ll close every exit.”Emily picked up the drive. “Why should I believe anything you say?”“You shouldn’t.”He drew a folded photograph from his jacket and placed it beside the drive. It showed Vanessa standing beside a man Emily had never seen. The man wore the split-wave emblem.“That was taken three days ago,” Tyler said. “Vanessa told me she was going to destroy the network. I believed her. Then she gave Sophia your name.”Emily felt the old suspicion return. Vanessa had always been intelligent, composed, impossible to read. Jealousy had never seemed to explain her hostility toward Emily, but people rarely needed a good reason to hurt each other.“Where is she now?”Tyler hesitated.“Where is she?”“In the house.”Leo moved toward the door. “Then we go.”“It’s a trap,” Tyler said.“You just told us she was there.”“Because it’s the truth.”Emily looked at the photograph. Vanessa’s expression was not frightened. It was focused. Her hand rested on the man’s sleeve, but her fingers were curled into a fist.There was something wrong with the image.“The date,” Emily said.Tyler frowned.“You said three days ago. The trees behind her are green. We had the first snow last week.”Tyler went silent.Leo took the photograph and held it under the bar light. “It’s older.”“Sophia altered the date,” Tyler said.“Or you did.”Tyler flinched.Emily stepped closer. “Tell me the real reason you came.”For a second, his face broke open. Fear. Shame. Something close to grief.“I took the account key,” he said. “Sophia thinks I have it. I don’t. I gave it to someone who can get it to you.”“Who?”Tyler’s phone vibrated.He checked the screen and went pale.“What?” Emily asked.He turned the phone toward her.A live photograph showed Emily’s mother inside the medical residence, asleep beneath a white blanket.The message beneath it contained six words.BRING EMILY, OR SHE WAKES ALONE.Tyler looked at Emily. “I’m sorry.”Then he slammed the emergency door open, threw a smoke canister across the room, and disappeared into the gray morning.Leo pulled Emily behind the bar as alarms began to shriek.On the table, the flash drive lit up.A file opened by itself.It contained a transfer authorization bearing Emily’s name—and Tyler’s fingerprint.
