Chapter 10 - The Lie Inside the Truth
Maya stopped the tape.
No one spoke.
Julian stood across the office with his hands at his sides.
"Play it again," Derek said quietly.
Maya didn't.
She looked at Julian.
"Why would he say your name?"
Julian's face had gone pale.
"Because he thought I betrayed him."
"Did you?"
"Not the way he thought."
"That sentence is not helping you."
Julian moved toward the window.
"The night Rafael came to me, I told my father he had been there."
Maya's breath stopped.
"You what?"
"I thought if my father knew Rafael was scared, he'd back off. I thought I could negotiate."
"You told the man who wanted him silent where he was."
"Yes."
Maya hit him again.
This time Julian stumbled.
Derek looked away.
"My father died because you opened your mouth."
"Yes."
"And then you hired me."
"I didn't know who you were."
"Then you found out and kept me close. Why? Guilt? Curiosity? Did you want to see whether I knew anything?"
Julian's voice cracked for the first time. "At first? Yes."
That hurt more than everything else.
Maya stepped back as if he had struck her.
"At first."
"Then I knew you."
"Don't."
"Maya—"
"Don't turn this into some confession that makes you feel better."
She grabbed her coat.
Julian blocked the door.
"Vale is still hunting you."
"Move."
"No."
"You do not get to cage me because you're afraid."
"I'm trying to keep you alive."
"My father trusted you with his life. How did that go?"
The words landed. Julian stepped aside.
Maya left.
Derek waited until the elevator doors closed.
"You letting her go alone?"
"No. Put someone two blocks back. She can't know."
"She'll know."
"Then use someone better."
Maya walked for nearly an hour.
At noon she reached St. Stanislaus Church, where her mother used to bring her after Rafael died. She sat in the last pew and stared at candles she did not believe could help.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Her mother.
Beside her sat a little blond girl with tear-streaked cheeks.
Sophie.
Below the image was one line.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT BOTH MOTHERS TO HAVE CHILDREN TOMORROW.
A second message gave an address.
Maya stood.
Across the street, the man Julian had assigned to follow her reached for his phone.
Maya saw him in the church window.
She walked out the side door instead.
May you like
Ten minutes later she was in a cab heading west.
And on the floor beneath the pew where she had been sitting, her dead father's cassette tape remained behind.
