Chapter 88: Facing The Past

Lillian buried herself in file after file, keeping busy. She had promised Ethan she would deal with her past on her own.But she doubted she was ready to face it. Everything was going so well, why did this had to resuface now.

No, she wasn’t going to run from it again. She had resolved to face it and she would. Slowly she opened the message Damian and Vanessa sent her.

She hated how nervous she was while opening the message but she couldn’t avoid facing it.

The message was a simple one,

<Another little birdie told us that you’re currently in Atlanta, so we thought of paying you a visit, we’ll call you when we arrive ????>

Her heart immediately dropped as she read it, her grip on the phone tightened until her knuckles turned white.

They knew exactly where she was. And worse, they planned to walk straight into her life as if they still had that right.

For a fleeting second, she considered deleting the message and pretending it had never arrived. But again, that would solve nothing.

Damian and Vanessa wouldn’t just back off because she ignored them, no, the Vanessa and Damian she knew were too brazen for that..

A thousand thoughts rushed her at once, what would Ethan say if he found out? What if they showed up at the office, dragged everything she wanted to keep buried into the open? Would he still look at her the same way?

Would he still trust her? Or would he also not believe not believe her like the people in the past hadn’t.

This was one of the reasons why she couldn’t accept his help. Lillian was afraid of his opinion of her changing.

With a sigh, she took a deep breath to calm herself down. She had to logically approach this than emotionally, else she’d make mistakes.

First, they had no hold over her, not anymore. The accusations had been proven false, so the most the two could was try to stain her reputation with lies.

Although, even those lies could do damage if told in the right places and a bad reputation wasn’t something she or OmniTech Corp could afford right now, not when they’re so close to Sentinel’s launch.

Picking her phone up, she dialed a number and put in on her ear. The phone rang for just a few minutes before it was answered.

"Aria, I need your help." Without waiting for Aria to say anything, Lillian said.

"Sure," Aria response came, "what do you need."

---

The two, Damian and Vanessa, finally landed in Atlanta and they calmly strolled out of the airport.

Their second job, just as Lillian had speculated was to ruin her reputation, resurface her past and plant a seed of doubt in the minds of the public for her.

But the main target of all this wasn’t Lillian as the two had come to learn. Since she was basically the face of OmniTech Corp, any stain in her reputation would spread to OmniTech’s.

Why was OmniTech, a new company, a target for Dmitri and his employer? They didn’t know, nor did they care.

All they cared about was the pay, and it was high enough for them to not ask any questions.

Besides, they despised Lillian enough to want to witness her downfall. She had always been better, better than them in everything.

College, grades and even business. She was just naturally gifted. But she was also very gullible at the same time.

Which was why they had successfully involved her in their ’business’, why they had used her ideas to grow and why she was the only one who took the fall when the time came.

And this time wouldn’t be any different. She might’ve made a new friend, become the COO of a company but she was still the same gullible Lillian they always knew...

Or so they thought.

"Let’s inform our friend of our arrival, shall we?" Vanessa said with a smile on her face as she lowered the sunglasses on her face, "I bet she’ll be excited to see us again after so long."

"Let’s get this over with and return," Damian said as he also took off his sun glasses, "Atlanta is too hot for my liking."

Hailing one of the cabs that were at the airport’s parking area, they headed to a nearby luxury hotel, one that was being paid for by Dmitri.

Their plan was simple, at least on the surface: arrive in Atlanta, make themselves known to Lillian and stir up memories of the past.

From there, they would subtly leak hints of her ’past’ to anyone who might be paying attention, making sure the story gained traction without them having to lift a finger.

They were promised bonus pay if they could find out the identity of who she worked for, this OmniTech and that was the reason why they’ll be meeting with her.

If she was as gullible as they remembered, then she’d have no problems introducing them to her boss, to help her friends out.

She might’ve previously sounded agitated on the phone but they still sensed the old Lillian that lay underneath and they were going to completely bring her out.

"This might be the easiest money we’ve ever earned," Vanessa said with a grin on her face as she leaned on Damian’s shoulder, "after this we should take that vacation to the Caribbeans we had been planning."

Damian smirked, shaking his head. "Don’t get ahead of yourself. Let’s just see if she’s really as gullible as we remember. Past betrayal or not, people can change."

Vanessa waved him off, still grinning. "Please, she’s too timid to actually change. I’ve got a feeling this reunion is going to be... entertaining."

----

Back in his office, Ethan listened to the conversation between the two with a smile on his face.

"I agree," he muttered, "this reunion really should be interesting."

Damian and Vanessa had no idea what they were walking into, but they’d soon find out.