Chapter 76: Collateral Damage
“Lily Turner, right?” Her words were interrupted by a thick French accent. Looking up, she noticed a man dressed in a black designer tuxedo with an intimidating aura that matched his cold, dark eyes.
Lily stepped back with a frown as she reached for her phone, her hands hovering on the first number that popped up, ready to press in case of a sudden attack.
“Who are you?” Lily asked, her voice cold and guarded as she glared up at the man standing before him.
“Why not look closely? Don’t I look familiar?” He asked while pointing to his face. Following the movement of his hand, Lily’s eyes traced his face, the familiar, unique spring green eyes, the soft-looking light brown hair, and the accent.Exclusive © content by N(ô)ve/l/Drama.Org.
Although this man’s accent feels and sounds thicker than the one she hears regularly, She could not mistake the other resemblance for a coincidence. “Bryan Roux?” She carefully nodded, and the man nodded.
“Can we talk somewhere more private?” He asked while pointing to his car. Lily looked from the car to the man standing, not knowing how to process the whole thing.
He is someone from her past Victoria; technically, with his fame and his family’s prestige, there was no way he could have met the original owner. Not even a coincidence since he stays in France.
‘How did they meet?’ she thought to herself as a thought came to mind. With a shake of her head, she let down her guard and walked towards the car.
“If you hadn’t called my name, I wouldn’t have been able to confirm my suspicions about you, Miss Victoria,” Bryan voiced as the door shut.
Hearing her name being called, Lily froze up in fear. Her body was breaking out in a cold sweat. Her heart raced against her ribcage as her palms broke out in a cold sweat.
Several questions rushed through her mind while she stared in shock at the nonchalant man who was casually pouring himself a cup of wine.
She let out a nervous chuckle as she turned to face the window. “Haha, I think you got the wrong person. I’m not Victoria; I’m Lily,” she breathed out nervously.
“Lily Turner, date of death: 27th of May. Cause of death: brain failure after being pushed down the stairs by her friend and the daughter of her family’s employee,” Bryan recounted.
“That was what was meant to happen, but instead. Lily, whose condition had a chance of improving, was discharged after her accident. Not only that, the brain damage that was supposed to cause a sequel completely healed up.”
“Lily, who had no technological skill at all, began to work with Mark Watson to develop amazing software. Should I continue?” He asked with a smirk, further making Lily tremble in fear.
She bit her lip while glaring at her fidgeting hands. “Even if what you are saying is true, you have no way to prove it. Like I said, you’ve got…” Her words were cut off as Bryan handed her a tablet containing all the proofs needed to show that what he was saying was true.
Her eyes widened in disbelief as she scrolled through the contents of the tablet, the evidence of her true identity staring back at her in cold, hard facts.
“How did you get all this?” she whispered, her voice barely audible above the blood rushing in her ears.
Bryan leaned back in his seat, a smug smile playing at the corners of his lips. “I have my ways, Miss Victoria,” he replied cryptically.
“But why? Why go through all this trouble?” Lily questioned, her voice shaking with fear and confusion.
“Are you finally getting involved now that my mom and I have been killed?!” She demanded angrily, and Bryan sighed.
“It could not be helped back then,” he replied with a frown, and Lily scoffed.
“Of course it wouldn’t! My mom was just paying for her sins of disobeying the family and marrying that scum, right?” She demanded.
“And I was just collateral damage? Cleaning up the evidence that your family had a disobedient daughter”
“Your mom knew you two were going to die,” Bryan announced, cutting her off once again. Lily froze upon hearing his words. Her eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
“I can’t go into details right now, but your mom knew about what would happen in the future, and she was the one who told me to come look for Lily Turner after you died.” He explained carefully.
“She told me these things right from the first day she began to ingest the poison from your stepmother,” he continued.
At this point, Lily could no longer control her anger and her trembling body. “If she knew, why the hell did she not try to stop it? Why did she die? She would have done something to stop them!”
“Because she couldn’t. Like I said, I don’t know the details of everything that happened back then. I have long since cut connections with the family, and I guess that’s why your mom came to me since she never wanted anything to do with us again.” He explained.
Lily nodded as she wiped away the stray tears in her eyes. “Why did she ask you to look for me?” She breathed out calmly.
“I have a message to deliver to you from her. It says, ‘The lucky system; trust it to find the truth. I want to know the meaning, but I couldn’t find it no matter how much I looked.” His words were interrupted by Lily’s loud laugh.
She rolled her head back with her hands covering her face as she laughed. Her laugh lasted for several minutes, making Bryan worry something had happened to her.
He was about to reach for his phone to call back his driver and bodyguard when she calmed down. “No wonder I felt the name was familiar when I woke up,” she muttered with a sigh.
‘Mom, you always have a plan, don’t you?’
“You got the message?” Bryan asked in confusion, and Lily nodded, “Yeah, somehow. I’ll figure out how to go about the rest later, I guess?” She replied with a shrug. “Is there anything else?”
“Here,” Bryan said as he handed her a black card with nothing written in it, “She left a computer lab in Lily’s name and then some huge amounts for your future development. I’m honestly confused about all this. But knowing how crazy my sister was, I won’t be surprised if she had found a means to transfer soul before she died,” he muttered with a fond smile while patting Lily’s shoulder.
“What’s your plan?” He asked with a serious expression.
“Taking it all, a step at a time,”
“Well, that’s the best way to go, and I trust you. You were just like her when she was younger, so I know you’ll pull through,” he encouraged.
“If you need anything, I can guarantee you that I’m richer than Watson’s cub. Come to me.”