Becoming A Tech Tycoon Begins With Regression novel Chapter 89

Chapter 89: Facing The Past [2]: Contempt

Lillian sat at her desk after her phone call with Aria. She was a lot calmer than earlier and already had a plan figured out, thanks to Aria.

It’d take a while to gather all the information she needed but once she did, it was checkmate against the two.

Though she knew Ethan could do it faster or even if she used Sentinel, she’d get the info a lot faster, maybe under an hour, but she wasn’t going to drag her personal life into her work life or vise versa.

Her fingers drummed lightly on the desk, the only outward sign of her lingering nerves. A text from Aria confirmed that she was handling the task given and results would be given the next day.

A small smile tugged at her lips. She didn’t deserve a friend like Aria, but she was grateful nonetheless. With Aria at her side, she didn’t feel completely cornered anymore.

Lillian closed her laptop with a quiet snap and leaned back, staring at the ceiling.

She replayed the memories Damian and Vanessa had left her with—the betrayal, the humiliation, the shame—and let the familiar ache wash over her.

The more she thought of it, the more recent it seemed, although it had been over a year at this point.

------Two years ago------

Northwestern University’s main campus - Chicago.

The light inside one of the university’s business lab was currently turned on, and the repeated clicking of a keyboard could be heard.

The lab smelt of coffee and a bit too many energy drinks. Most of the PCs were turned off and the lab was empty, save for three people and the PC in the center of the lab.

Lillian sat at the center of the room, sleeves rolled up, hair tied in a messy bun, eyes fixed on the glowing laptop screen in front of her.

This was their temporary office that the university had allowed them to use thanks to the involvement of a top student in their business... Lillian.

On the Pc’s monitor, numbers, projections, and models filled the spreadsheets Lillian had painstakingly built. It wasn’t for a school assignment, it was her idea, her vision. She had spent weeks refining it, testing scenarios.

A business strategy so airtight that even their professors had called it "investment-worthy."

It was a plan that’d elevate their newly started business to greater heights.

Damian leaned casually against the edge of the desk, arms crossed, a smile on his face that never reached his eyes but Lillian was too tired to notice.

"You really outdid yourself, Lil," he said smoothly as he glanced at the screen. "This will impress everyone at the pitch."

He really was impressed. The spreadsheet wasn’t something one would just casually come up with, it involved years of following market trends and doing research on the flow of capital and consumer behavior in emerging markets.

But she had done it in just a few months.

Vanessa was sprawled on the couch nearby, tapping away on her phone, but her eyes moved towards the two, "Yeah, you really should get some sleep before the presentation. You look like you’ve been run over."

Lillian had smiled faintly, exhausted but proud, proud that she had two people who recognized her work, proud that they were proud of her...

Or so she thought.

While she moved towards another couch to finally get some rest, she failed to notice the glint in Damian’s or Vanessa’s eyes.

The sound of the AC was the last thing she heard before Lillian finally drifted off. Her notebook lay open beside her, half-filled with hand-drawn models and notes in her tidy handwriting—blue ink, underlined three times whenever she was sure of something.

Damian’s smirk widened as he leaned over her shoulder, careful not to wake her. His eyes scanning the spreadsheet again, settling on the projections.

He whistled low under his breath. "This isn’t just a good strategy," he muttered, glancing at Vanessa. "This could get us through the door of some real investors. Hell, maybe even a contract."

Vanessa slid her phone into her pocket and got up, her heels clicking softly against the tile.

She walked over, peering down at the sleeping Lillian. "And she thinks we’re all equals in this," she said with a small laugh, pushing a stray hair off Lillian’s face. "Sweet, isn’t it?"

Damian looked at her before giving a small smile, "of course."

That night, while Lillian slept, the two copied every single one of her files onto Damian’s flash drive.

The spreadsheets, the drafts, even the raw research data she had spent months collecting, all of it.

They left her original files intact, making sure she wouldn’t suspect a thing.

The next day, the three of them entered the pitch room together, standing before a panel of investors and professors.

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