Chapter 13 - TYLER WASN'T DEAD
—
The words blood on the driver's seat changed the room instantly.
Every ugly thing Tyler had done became secondary to one fact.
He was Lily's father.
If he was hurt, someday I would have to explain that to her.
I hated him.
I did not want him dead.
Those truths could exist together.
"How much blood?" Evelyn asked.
Giovanni shook his head.
"Marco doesn't know."
"Was the car locked?"
"Driver's door open."
"Phone?"
"Gone."
"Wallet?"
"In the console."
I looked at Giovanni.
"That sounds staged."
"It might be."
"Or Carlo found him first."
"Also possible."
My phone rang.
Vanessa.
I answered.
She was crying so hard I could barely understand her.
"Jessica, Tyler is missing."
"I know."
"Police are at the house."
"Then talk to them."
"He called me this morning."
I straightened.
"When?"
"Seven-thirty."
"From his phone?"
"No, a number I didn't know."
"What did he say?"
"He said if anyone asked, I hadn't seen him."
"Had you?"
"No."
"What else?"
She hesitated.
"Vanessa."
"He said he had insurance."
Giovanni looked at me.
I put the call on speaker.
"What kind of insurance?" he asked.
Vanessa went silent.
"Giovanni's here," I said.
"I don't want to talk to him."
"Then talk to me."
"Tyler said Robert and Carlo were going to blame everything on him."
"They probably will."
"He said he had copies that proved otherwise."
"Where?"
"He didn't tell me."
"Did he say anything about being in danger?"
"He said, 'If I disappear, don't believe the first story.'"
I looked at Giovanni.
That sounded like Tyler.
Dramatic enough to frighten everyone.
Vague enough to preserve control.
"Did he mention Lily?"
Vanessa became quiet.
"No."
Of course he did not.
Even while supposedly running for his life, Lily was still an asset before she was a child.
"Give the number to police."
"I already did."
"Good."
Vanessa sniffed.
"Jessica?"
"What?"
"I know you hate me."
"This is not the moment."
"I need to say it anyway."
Her voice broke.
"If something happened to him, I need you to know I didn't know the plan when we started."
I closed my eyes.
"Which plan?"
"The trust."
"You knew there was money."
"Yes."
"You told him."
Silence.
"Yes."
"Then you knew enough."
She began crying again.
"I thought he would divorce you anyway."
The cruelty of that sentence landed softly because it was five years late.
"He didn't divorce me," I said.
"He walked out and made me file while nursing a newborn."
"I know."
"No, you know now."
I ended the call.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Evelyn closed Robert's settlement folder.
"We need to preserve this, copy it, and get it to the trust court."
"Today?"
"Today."
"What about Tyler?"
"Police find missing people."
Her tone was firm.
"You do not."
That was good advice.
I followed it for nearly three hours.
At 1:18 p.m., my phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number.
YOU WANT THE TRUTH?
I knew before the second text arrived.
COME ALONE.
A location pin followed.
An underground parking garage in River North.
I showed Giovanni.
His face went hard.
"No."
"I wasn't planning to."
He looked faintly surprised.
"Personal growth," I said.
Evelyn contacted the detective handling the car scene.
The detective told us not to respond immediately.
They traced the number.
Prepaid.
Activated that morning.
Then another message arrived.
TELL FIERRO HIS UNCLE TRIED TO KILL ME.
Giovanni read it.
"He wants a reaction."
"Can Carlo see our messages?"
"Unlikely."
"Then Tyler wants you angry at Carlo."
"I already am."
"Maybe he wants protection."
Evelyn nodded.
"Or leverage."
I typed under the detective's direction.
I WILL NOT COME ALONE.
The answer arrived immediately.
THEN YOU DON'T GET THE DRIVE.
I looked at Giovanni.
"The backup."
He nodded.
I typed again.
POLICE OR NO MEETING.
Three dots appeared.
Disappeared.
Appeared again.
Then one word.
FINE.
The detective arranged the meeting in a public lobby two blocks from the garage.
I was not allowed to approach until officers confirmed the area.
Giovanni stayed in a surveillance van because Tyler had specifically demanded he remain away.
Evelyn came with me.
At 2:07, Tyler walked through the lobby doors.
Alive.
He had a cut above one eyebrow and dried blood on the collar of his shirt.
Nothing about him suggested the amount of blood in the car had come from a life-threatening injury.
I felt relief first.
Then fury.
"You staged it."
Tyler sat across from me.
"I needed Carlo to think I was gone."
"You made Vanessa think you were dead."
"She'll recover."
The coldness of that answer erased the last trace of sympathy I had for him.
"You made police search for you."
"I needed time."
"For what?"
He looked around the lobby.
"A deal."
Of course.
"No."
"You haven't heard it."
"Every deal you've made with my name has cost me something."
"This one saves you."
"From you?"
His jaw tightened.
Evelyn leaned forward.
"Where is the drive?"
Tyler looked at her.
"I want immunity."
"We do not control prosecutors."
"Giovanni does."
"No, he doesn't."
Tyler laughed.
"Please."
"Whatever you believe about the Fierros, criminal immunity is not something a CEO can hand you in a hotel lobby."
"Then I want protection."
"From Carlo?"
"From all of them."
He looked at me.
"Including Robert."
I studied his face.
For the first time, Tyler looked genuinely afraid.
"What happened under Lower Wacker?"
"Carlo's guy followed me."
"What guy?"
"I don't know his real name."
"What happened?"
"He tried to take my bag."
"And the blood?"
Tyler touched the cut above his eye.
"Some mine."
"Most?"
He looked away.
"I used blood from a butcher package in the trunk."
I stared at him.
"You carry butcher blood?"
"I bought steaks."
Despite everything, Evelyn blinked.
"That may be the strangest sentence I've heard this week."
Tyler ignored her.
"I left the car because I knew they'd watch my house."
"Where is the drive?"
"Safe."
"What is on it?"
"Emails."
"Whose?"
"Robert, Carlo, Vincent."
My stomach tightened.
"Vincent?"
Tyler looked toward the surveillance camera in the lobby.
"Giovanni's father knew Carlo was using bad loans to pad acquisition targets."
"Did he know my signature was forged?"
"Not at first."
"Later?"
Tyler hesitated.
"Yes."
I thought of Vincent offering me one million dollars to disappear.
Maybe he had not been buying distance from scandal.
Maybe he had been buying distance from evidence.
"How do you know?"
"There's an email."
"Show me."
"Deal first."
"No."
Tyler leaned closer.
"Jessica, you don't understand what you're dealing with."
I almost laughed.
"You have been saying that to me since I was twenty-three."
"This is different."
"No."
I held his gaze.
"It's the same trick with more expensive men."
His face hardened.
"I can walk."
"Walk."
He stared at me.
I pushed my chair back slightly.
"You want protection because you're scared."
"Yes."
"Then evidence is the only thing making you useful."
"I have it."
"And every minute you hide it, you look more involved."
Evelyn said nothing.
She did not need to.
Tyler's breathing changed.
I continued.
"You forged my loan guarantee."
"Robert did."
"Prove it."
"I can."
"You helped Vanessa impersonate me."
"That was her idea."
I stared at him.
He looked away.
"You put pills in my car."
"No."
"Then prove who did."
"Robert."
"Proof."
He swallowed.
"The drive."
"Then give it to police."
"And get arrested?"
"Maybe."
"You want Lily's father in prison?"
The manipulation was so familiar it almost comforted me.
At least some things had not changed.
"I want Lily's father to stop using her as a shield."
Tyler flinched.
"You think you're better than me."
"No."
I stood.
"I think I finally stopped believing you when you say I'm worse."
I turned to leave.
"Wait."
I stopped.
Tyler reached inside his jacket slowly.
A plain black flash drive appeared between his fingers.
He placed it on the table.
"Copy only."
Evelyn did not touch it.
"Police take custody."
Tyler swore.
"Fine."
A detective approached from the far side of the lobby.
Tyler watched him come.
"One more thing."
I looked at him.
"Your mother knew about the power of attorney."
My stomach clenched.
"Robert said she only witnessed it."
"Robert lied."
"How do you know?"
"Because she was there when he printed it."
I stared at him.
"Were you there?"
"No."
"Then how do you know?"
Tyler looked toward the approaching detective.
"Vanessa recorded Robert admitting it two years ago."
"Why?"
"Because she didn't trust him."
I almost laughed at the irony.
"Where is that recording?"
"On the drive."
The detective took the flash drive into evidence.
Tyler was then asked to accompany officers for questioning.
He protested.
He demanded an attorney.
He was not arrested immediately, but he did not leave the lobby free either.
As officers led him away, he looked back at me.
"Jessica."
I said nothing.
"I did love you once."
For years, I had wanted to hear something like that.
An admission that the marriage had been real before he destroyed it.
Now it sounded like a man leaving a tip after stealing the restaurant silverware.
"Then you should have acted like it."
He looked away.
The forensic copy of the flash drive took hours.
By evening, investigators confirmed it contained thousands of emails, bank records, contracts, and audio files.
The material was immediately placed under restricted review because some documents involved ongoing corporate investigations.
Evelyn received permission to view only the files directly involving me and the trust.
We opened the first folder at 8:41 p.m.
ROBERT.
Inside was a scanned power of attorney with my name.
My signature was forged.
My mother's genuine signature appeared beneath it as witness.
There was also an audio file.
Vanessa's voice began first.
"You forged Jessica's signature?"
Robert answered.
"Thomas did what was necessary."
"That's not what I asked."
A pause.
Then Robert said the sentence that broke whatever remained between my mother and me.
"Margaret watched me sign Jessica's name and told me to make it look closer to the driver's license."
I stopped the recording.
I could not breathe.
Sophia covered her mouth.
Giovanni stood behind me, silent.
I pressed play again.
Vanessa asked, "Why would her mother help you?"
Robert laughed softly.
"Because I saved their house, and because Margaret has always been more afraid of Jessica having power than Jessica being poor."
I stopped the audio again.
This time I did not cry.
I felt empty.
Then Evelyn opened another folder.
VINCENT.
The first email was from Carlo.
Subject: MERCER COLLATERAL.
The second was Vincent's reply.
Proceed, but keep Giovanni out of it.
If the Hale beneficiary challenges, settle quietly before thirty.
I looked at Giovanni.
His face had become expressionless.
His father had known.
Maybe not at the beginning.
But enough.
Then another email appeared, dated yesterday morning.
From Vincent to Carlo.
The nurse will take money if pressured correctly.
If not, make the custody issue expensive enough that she becomes practical.
Giovanni read it twice.
He said nothing.
He simply took out his phone and called his father.
Vincent answered.
Giovanni spoke one sentence.
"You used a five-year-old child to force her mother into a settlement."
Silence.
Then he said, "We're done."
He ended the call.
I looked at him.
"What does that mean?"
May you like
His eyes remained on the dark phone screen.
"It means tomorrow, I remove my father from the company."
