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.

Lillian was nervous but excited, clutching her notes. She was excited for this.

Slowly, she plugged in her USB, and the projector started displaying the charts, grap and spreadsheet she had prepared before hand.

"Good afternoon. Today, I’ll be presenting a market entry strategy designed to maximize early capital flow while ensuring long-term sustainability—"

But before she could move to the first slide, a hand went up from the panel. A middle-aged man in a dark suit, one of the guest investors, frowned.

"Excuse me," he interrupted, his voice cutting her off mid statement. "This looks... very familiar."

Lillian blinked in confusion, momentarily thrown off. "Familiar?"

The man leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. "Yes. Because I’ve already seen this exact model. Last week, in fact, when I was consulting with Carver & Holt Associates."

Carver & Holt was an up-and-coming firm based in Chicago. She’d read about them. But how could they possibly have her strategy?

Damian and Vanessa exchanged the briefest of glances, then Damian let out a dramatic sigh and shook his head.

"Lillian..." His tone heavy with disappointment, "you promised us you wouldn’t... borrow from anyone else’s work. We trusted you."

Vanessa’s voice followed, it was soft but loud enough for everyone to hear: "This isn’t just borrowing, Damian. This is theft. She’s presenting Carver & Holt’s strategy as her own."

Lillian’s stomach immediately dropped. She opened her mouth to say something but words refused to flow out.

When she finally spoke, her voice was filled with desperation. "No—that’s not true! This is my work! I’ve been building this for months, I—"

But her protests reached none of the investors or the professors ears

Damian stepped forward, putting a hand on her shoulder as though he were trying to save her from further embarrassment. "Please, Lil. Stop digging the hole deeper. You’ll only make it worse."

Vanessa shook her head, her expression one of faux sorrow. "I told you she was up to no good while she pretended to be working hard..."

"Y-you have to believe me, this is all mine." She pleaded, "turning to Damian and Vanessa for support."

They had seen her work on this for nights on end. They had seen how much sleep she had skipped on, so why were they—

Her were thoughts cut off when she noticed the subtle grin on Vanessa’s face and that’s when everything clicked....she did this, no, they did this.

But she had no way of accusing them as the room had already come to its decision, with everyone looking at her in a way that told her that she was a thief.

She went from the University’s top student to a Corporate thief and an academically dishonest student in just a moment.

The silence in the room was suffocating. Every eye was on her, not with the respect or admiration she had hoped to gain, but with suspicion and contempt.

One of the professors she admired most, Dr. Keller, slowly removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. When he looked up at her again, his disappointment stung worse than if he was angry.

"Lillian," he said, his voice carefully measured, "plagiarism is not only unethical—it destroys careers before they begin. You know how seriously we take these matters."

Matters went down hill from there and by the end of the week, her reputation was shattered. Whispers followed her across campus.

Professors who once praised her now treated her with wary detachment. Even her scholarship was put under review.

Save for her parents, Lillian felt utterly and completely alone. And Damian and Vanessa?

They had completely gotten away with everything and according to rumors, they were last seen handling luxury goods.

________

-------------Present Day-------------

Lillian sighed as she erased the memory from mind..or rather, put it in a corner of it.

Her name was eventually cleared and the idea was finally recognized as her own, but the damage had already been done.

No one looked at her the same again, and although the professors had apologized, it all felt hollow.

Slowly, she created a shell, a comfortable one that she’d retreat into, to avoid getting hurt and that was the Lillian Ethan found.

But this time it was going to be different, she was going to stand her ground against the two and she wouldn’t let them destroy her or her new life again.