Page 165 of Crocodile Tears
“Isobel deserved justice, but she didn’t get it. You were let off with a three-year driving ban and a fine your father paid – little more than a slap on the wrist.”
“That’s not how it felt,” he whispered. “It’s been more like a life sentence.”
“Well, it is now,” Tyler said drily. “Meeting you only sharpened my desire to bring you down. You broke up with Solange, which was irritating, so I had to sit on my hands for a while and plot my next move.”
Solange shifted uneasily in the armchair, looking profoundly guilty.
“I sent her back into your life at precisely the time you needed a confidante. It was no accident that you met her in the pub that evening. I’d learned that you were frustrated by your father’s lack of belief in your abilities as a designer, so I decided that would be the best way of reeling you in.”
Alex glanced at Solange again, but she still wouldn’t meet his eye.
“You surprised me with your designs, though, I must admit,” Tyler mused. “I thought they’d be the doodles of an indulged child, but they are actually bloody good. I decided that, at the very least, I’d take them off you.”
“But they didn’t work,” Alex protested. “The designs were useless. You wasted your money.”
Tyler laughed. “Of course they worked. They were beautiful, and you were so dedicated that I had to come up with ways to get you out of the workshop so my engineers could screw them up. They made such tiny alterations that you didn’t see what they’d done. Your designs worked from the beginning.”
“Christ.” Alex buried his head in his hands. Now he understood why Tyler’s engineers had always been so hostile and uncooperative.
He felt a confusing sense of elation that his designs were as good as he’d always believed, combined with a growing sense of anger at how ruthlessly he’d been played.
“The holopad you gave me… was that to spy on me?” he asked.
Tyler laughed. “Actually, no – I already had all the information I needed. That was a genuine gift. I was trying to reel you in, butter youup, keep you sweet. At first, I thought I’d steal your designs and ruin your relationship with your father, but that wasn’t enough to make up for all the pain you’d caused me. So, I thought I’d put some pressure on you, place temptation in your path, and see what Alexander Lytton was really made of. You didn’t disappoint.” Tyler gave a dry chuckle. “You showed your true colours then. Nobodymadeyou take that money – it was all down to your own arrogance: the fatal Lytton flaw.”
“I was desperate.”
“But you could have walked away.”
Alex bowed his head, knowing that was true. A thought occurred to him, and he looked up again. “You said you placed temptation in my path…”
“Ah, the penny finally drops.” Tyler gave a satisfied smile. “You know, you really can’t go around using and abusing people and not expect them to turn on you one day, Alexander.”
He snapped his fingers and another familiar figure walked into the room. He was wearing a pair of brown Eco-Dry trousers and a beige shirt, and Alex noticed immediately that he wasn’t wearing an ID tag.
“Neil,” Alex said hoarsely, getting to his feet. “Neil?”
“You should treat the people who love you better, Alex,” Neil chided.
“You betrayed me to teach me a lesson about love?” Alex asked incredulously.
“Of course not,” Tyler said smoothly. “He betrayed you for his thirty pieces of silver. I paid him well for his services. He made enough money to buy himself out of his contract at Lytton AV and to live the rest of his life in freedom. His days of being an IS are over. Ironic, really, considering yours have just begun.”
“Neil?” Alex whispered, still gazing at him in disbelief.
“I approached Neil during your first year at Lytton AV,” Tyler continued. “Solange told me there was a fault line there; I thought it was worth exploring after you chucked her out of your life. I provided him with a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to cry on, and he agreed to help me – at a price.” Tyler shot Neil a withering glance. “He was your greatest mistake.”
“You should have loved me the way I loved you, Alex,” Neil told him defiantly. “We could have been so good together.”
“That wasn’t love – it was possession. You wanted to own me, Neil, not love me.”
“Well, now you’ll find out what being owned is really like – and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving person,” Neil retorted.
“I can’t believe you did this to me.”
Neil gave a sanctimonious smile. “I hope you fall in love with someone who despises you, and I hope they break your heart the way you broke mine.”
Alex stared at him in disbelief. “Christ, what a bitter, twisted bastard you are.”
