Chapter Two

Liora turned, feeling the soft cushions underneath her; she didn’t think hell had soft cushions or that heaven had soft cushions. She adjusted herself again, wondering why everything felt different, a sharp contrast to what she had imagined. Then she forced her eyes open; the light in the room made her blink twice before she finally adjusted to the room. 

The soft sheets, the familiar scent of cloves, and the purple painted walls and she sat up abruptly. It took one look around and she recognised it as her former apartment, the one she lived in before Leonard gifted her a new one.

“This is… my old room?” she asked no one in particular.

“Is this a dream?” she muttered as she looked around her room again. It felt too real; she scrambled off the bed, heart racing, as she paced around the room, her eyes catching the full-length mirror at the side and gasped. This was how she looked like 3 years ago. She scrambled around once more, finding her phone that was unfamiliar to her; she had changed out a model the moment there was a new one. She powered it on and the date stared back at her.

April 5th, 2022.

Her hands trembled and the phone fell from her hands. She had been reborn three years ago? She couldn’t believe her eyes, delivering a slap to her face to confirm but the sharp pain that tore through her cheek told her that she wasn’t dreaming; she had been truly reborn.

She slowly took her seat on the bed, the memories flowing into her head. The inauguration, the accusations, the lies, the conspiracy, the court, the actual truth and how she had bled to death in a messy hallway in prison. She clenched her fists tightly; they were not going to get away with what they did, they had taken her for granted, sentencing her to a life that nobody would have wanted, if they had asked, she would have given everything for them but instead, they chose the hard way out.

Anger boiled in her the longer she thought about it. Fortunately, she had been given a chance – a chance to start over, a chance to do things differently, and a chance to choose herself. She had placed the Morgan family above everything in her first life and that was because she owed them for the good life she lived, she had paid them back in her last life; in this life, it was time for them to pay her back.

She bent and grabbed her phone. The fall had made her phone break, she tried to sift through her memories, thinking about what was supposed to be happening. She couldn’t exactly remember; she quickly changed her clothes and got into her car and drove to the nearest convenience store, she changed her phone and slid her sim card in it; the first call was from her assistant. She picked up the call immediately. 

“Miss Morgan, you finally picked up your call” the familiar voice pierced Liora’s ears and she held back as tears rushed to her eyes.

"You've not forgotten that we have a meeting with Mr Lancaster this morning, have you? This deal is important to save us from the current trouble we are in; your father had placed a lot of emphasis  on this meeting," Penelope added and Liora’s lips parted.

This was it.

The partnership she had snagged made her father promise to hand over the company to her after two years. That time she hadn’t known that the deal had saved the Morgan Group from a  major financial deficit; she had just thought the deal was extremely important and was even elated that her father had handed over such an important job into her hands. It wasn’t until later that she figured it out but she didn’t mind but that wasn’t the case anymore.

Now she knew that if the deal had fallen through, her father would have most ikely allowed her to take the fall for it and gotten rid of her. The thought that they had been scheming against her for such a long time and she had no idea about it made her head swim with both anger and hatred.

“What time is the meeting?” she asked.

“By 10am, in the next forty minutes,” Penelope replied and Liora nodded.

“I’ll be there,” she replied and then paused. “It is nice to hear your voice again, Penny,” she added and then there was a pause.

“We were on a call last night till past 3am; what do you mean it is nice to hear my voice again?” Penelope asked and Liora laughed, ending the call. 

A small sinister smile spread across her lips.

“If I don’t save you this time around, I wonder what’s going to save you,” she murmured.

Penelope.

She had been the only one that ran around in her last life trying to prove her innocence but against the might of the mighty Morgan Group, she was like an ant and she was easily smashed. 

She got back into her car while dialling a number; it was a number she had thought she would never use in her life.

“I certainly believe that you have the wrong number” the gruff voice almost made Liora laugh.

“I need a burner phone,” she replied stoically.

“A burner phone?” the other party asked.

“Yes and have it delivered to my house in ten minutes. I’ll wire the money to your account.” Liora finished and without waiting for the latter, she ended the call. She knew the burner phone would be at her house in ten minutes.

She walked back into her apartment, looking at the space with new excited eyes. She didn’t know how much she had missed it but there would be time for reminiscing, now, she had revenge to get to. She burrowed through her wardrobe, finding a gown that hugged her figure. Serephina had gotten it for her but they had both laughed that she would never wear it; she preferred to be courteous most times but maybe it was time for a change.

In ten minutes, there was someone pressing the doorbell. By the time she got to the door, there was nobody there, just a box lying on the floor. Liora chuckled as she picked it up and closed the door. She quickly unwrapped the box and brought out the burner phone.

She opened her new phone and copied a few phone numbers into the burner phone.

“I can’t wait to see you suffer, to see you crawl and beg and bleed,” she gritted through her teeth. Less than ten minutes later, she was driving to the agreed meetup location. She parked her car in the garage and brought out the burner phone and typed a message to Mr Lancaster. 

As someone who has your best interests at heart, I humbly suggest that you rethink your investment in the Morgan’s Group current projects, especially since they have an enormous financial deficit that needs to be filled immediately.

She scheduled it to send in another ten minutes and then scheduled another message to send to another number. She left the phone in the car and went to the meetup room. Penelope was already waiting; she stared at her in surprise but Liora merely winked at her. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Morgan,” Mr Lancaster said and Liora shook hands, giving him a tight smile.

“Thank you  Mr Lancaster for meeting up with me. I know that your time is precious and so I don’t plan to waste it,” she started and the man nodded in approval. She quickly passed him the documents she had worked on for weeks.

“These are the current projects we are working on and I have highlighted the ones that are suitable for you to invest in,” she added and the older man nodded again, clearly impressed as he flipped through the file quietly. Liora’s hands were placed on her lap, watching him calmly as she counted the seconds left in her head.

50, 49, 48, 47, 46, 45, 44, 43, 42, 41, 40, 29, 38, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33...

“I’m very much impressed by what I’ve seen,” Mr Lancaster said and Liora heard Penelope heave a sigh of relief behind her. She almost burst into laughter.

“Thank you—” the phone buzzed.

“Excuse me,” Mr Lancaster said and she smiled.

“No problem, sir.” Liora said, retaining the smile on her lips.

She watched as his face darkened instantly, “Is this some kind of joke?” he bellowed at Liora and she immediately feigned ignorance.

“What? What are you talking about, sir?" Liora asked, looking shocked.

“Financial deficit?” he asked and the rest of the meeting dissolved into chaos. 

“What do we do?” Penelope asked, clearly shaken, “I didn’t know we have financial deficits; the President didn’t say anything about this,” she cried.

“I also have no idea,” Liora responded, running her hands through her hair.

“I think you should call the President and let him know,” Pneelope said and Liora nodded.

“Let’s go,” she muttered as she checked her wristwatch. She waited until noon, until there was new trending news online.

MORGAN GROUP IN FINANCIAL DEFICITS?

"Dad, he just got a text message and started talking about financial deficits. I tried to assure him that wasn’t true but he wasn't listening." Liora spoke into the phone, her voice clearly shaken.

“It’s on the news,” her father spoke; he was shaken as well, panicking.

“I just saw it too.” Liora continued feigning ignorance.

“Someone is targeting us,” her father grunted.

"Dad, we really don’t have a financial deficit, right? It’s all some lie,” Liora said and then her father went quiet for a few seconds.

“Of course. We don’t have any financial deficits. I’ll get back to you. Don’t take any interviews,” he instructed.

“Yes, Daddy.”

“I’ll get to the bottom of this,” her father finished and then ended the call.

Liora snickered as she stared at her phone, “Get to the bottom my ass.” 

“I’ve only just started and you are spiralling already?” she tapped her tongue against the upper part of her mouth.

“If I were you, I would get ready because I’m not going to go easy on any of you.”