Becoming A Tech Tycoon Begins With Regression novel Chapter 81

Chapter 81: A Past That Haunts

Ethan frowned as he saw Lillian’s pale face through the mirror. He knew who the caller was, but what it was about? He had no idea.

Aria, on the other hand, turned to her friend and mouthed ’Who’s on the phone?’

Lillian gave no reply, but there was the undeniable trembling of her hand that held the phone to her ear.

She was sure she had left all this behind, sure that they’d never find her here in Atlanta but the voice on the other end of the phone proved otherwise.

Her eyes briefly locked with Ethan’s on the rear view mirror and that helped her compose herself a lot more than she thought.

"Why are you calling me?" She asked, a bit of her composure returning to her.

"Oh come on Lilly," the person on the other end said, "you sound so cold right now, don’t tell me you’re still salty about the past."

The sound of that voice scraped against old scars she thought had healed. Lillian’s grip on the phone tightened, her nails biting into her palm.

Her past, their faces resurfaced in her memories. A man with the perfect salesman’s smile, a woman whose every word dripped with false sweetness, they were her ’friends’ from university.

She had trusted them, poured her ideas, her strategy, her instincts into their little "venture." She had believed them when they said she was family.... Who could blame her?

She was just a little girl with big dreams, one that thought the world was made of rainbows, one that was just excited that her ideas were being appreciated.

And then—one day—it was all gone. The company she had helped build, the brand she had cultivated, even the connections she had painstakingly nurtured. They had stripped her name from everything, rewritten the narrative, and when it came time for the law to intervene... all she remembered were camera’s being pointed at her.

Their carefully staged evidence left her painted as the manipulative fraud, the greedy little girl who wanted more than she deserved.

The betrayal burned more than the humiliation. To be used so thoroughly, so expertly, and then discarded. It was why she hated attention, why the click of a camera made it difficult for her to even breathe.

She had learned the world could twist an image in a heartbeat, leaving you powerless to defend yourself.

This was the real reason why she was so introverted, the reason why people scared her, why she couldn’t breathe when face with the cameras.

"I don’t know what you want, Vanessa" Lillian said, her voice sharper now though her hands still shook. "But you won’t get it from me, not again."

’End the call,’ Aria mouthed again but Lillian refused to. She wasn’t about to run, not again.

This time, she’d face them.

"Come on," Vanessa said, Lillian could practically hear her foxy grin over the phone, "can’t we just decide to visit a good friend who has been ghosting us for years now?"

The ’we’ confirmed one thing, Damian was also with her which caused her face to become even paler. Vanessa was one thing, but Damian?

He was the real fox.

As if confirming her words, Damian’s laughter suddenly came faintly through the receiver.

"Hello, Lilly," Damian’s voice oozed charm, the same charm that had once convinced her he could sell ice to the Eskimos. "I see you haven’t forgotten about us, that’s good."

Lillian swallowed, her voice wavering but still remained defiant. "I don’t want to hear you. Either of you. You’ve done enough."

Vanessa’s mocking chuckle cut through. "Done enough? Oh, sweetheart, we gave you everything. Without us, you’d still be some naïve little girl scribbling business ideas in a notebook."

"Yo—" she was cut off by Damian before she could complete her words.

"You see, Lilly," Damian’s voice slid like oil through the line, "a little birdie told us that you’re now a CEO. Quite the surprise, really. After all the trouble you got into, we didn’t think you had it in you."

Lillian froze. Her heart hammering against her ribs.

"We didn’t come to pick a fight," Vanessa chimed in, her tone deceptively sweet. "We just thought... maybe it’s time to bury the hatchet. You’ve always been the brain, Lilly. Damian and I—well—let’s just say the business world hasn’t been kind without you."

Her nails dug deeper into her palm. There it was.

But before she could respond, Aria snatched the phone from her, placed it on her ear and spoke, "listen, I don’t know who you are or what the f*ck you want with my friend, but if you ever call her again, I swear I’ll make sure you regret it."

The other end went quiet for a moment, then Damian’s laugh came through the receiver again, smooth and unbothered.

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