𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚎 || 𝐅𝟒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 (editing)

fifty

chapter fifty:

Collateral Damage is a Bitch
———

"What the matter Thyme?," Ren asked the boy who was laying stiffly on the white leather couch. The crisp smell of air conditioning and vanilla scented candles lingered throughout Ren's condo. It was soothing. The rays of sunlight were dancing warming in the air, gently hugging the furniture, the floor, and the skin of the two boys. Thyme sat up on the couches and let out a sigh before turning to face his friend, "I just spoke with Auntie Yu. My mom fired her."

He was practically seething, a clear i'll intent hoisted towards his mother. How dare she fire the most loyal person in that goddamn household?! "Why did she do that?," he asked rhetorically, venomous words dripping out of his mouth. Ren seemed to be distracted. His eyes were completely unfocused and Thyme took notice. "What's wrong?"

"You know your mother can do anything," Ren carefully began, "She fired Auntie Yu because she knew how important Auntie Yu was to you both."

"What does that mean?"

"This is far from over."

The buzzing of Thyme's phone bounced off of the walls. The moments after Thyme checked his phone felt like a scene in a disaster movie. Thyme erupted in furious screams as he frantically tried to check every single card, bank account, or any other asset. It was all useless in the end. Thyme had been cut off from his families money.

"What do we do now Thyme?," Ren questioned as he watched his best friend on the verge of either tears or murder. "Don't waver," Thyme mumbled under his breath resulting in a confused stare from Ren.

A soft ding indicating a text message came from Ren and Thyme's phone. They both slowly slipped the phone out of his back pocket. Ren slowly read out loud the text message that Lia had sent in the group chat, "collateral damage is a bitch, trust the process Thyme." The two stared at each other in confusion at the cryptic message.

"Collateral damage?," Ren asked under his breath as Thyme's phone began to vibrate. He stared at his screen to see the contact info indicating that his mother was calling him. Hastily, he accepted the call and placed it on loudspeaker.

"What do you want?," Thyme yelled.

"They've ruined everything! Your little friends ruined everything," his mother said over the phone. Her voice was a mix between pure anger and frustration.

"What are you talking about?"

"The company, Thyme! A bunch of investors just pulled out and the stock of the Paramaanantra group is falling! They all said that Hikaru Nakamura told them to! What did you do to pods off your new friends? Thyme, everything is ruined!"

Liliana stared at herself in the floor-to-ceiling mirror in her walk-in closet. She looked down at her phone that was constantly buzzing from messages in the group chat trying to understand the text she sent. She reached her perfectly manicured hand over and turned off the phone completely to silence it. Afterwards, she went back to staring at herself blankly in the mirror.

"Ms. Nakamura, I've prepared your options to wear tonight," her stylist, Liv, said with a calm tone. Lia turned and smiled before walking over to look through the rack of new clothes. "The young master of the Genovese family is standing outside, should I let him in?"

"Would you please Liv," she stated without looking up. After the door was open Vincent waltz his way into the room already styled in business attire. "The blue one would look the best," he announced. Lia let out a scoff, "I don't take advice from the color blind," she retorted but took the blue dress off of the hook to try it on.

It fit wonderfully — not that anything ever looked bad on her gorgeous frame — she decided she would keep it on for the night. Vinny walked over and ruffled her hair until it looked like she had rubbed her head vigorously with a balloon.

"Glad to have the old you back, Lia," he said with a smile recalling the re-emerging confidence and I-don't-give-a-fuck attitude. He had missed his best friend, not that Lia was awful to be around before. But it seemed like she had forgotten who she was in life. He liked to compare her to a master of poker. The old Lia, the one that existed back in Europe before she met any of the F4 members, easily made herself known to everyone. She was able to walk into the room of the most intelligent of people and still maintain her complete composure, prodding them with pondering questions that stumped those geniuses but she would do so humbly in a way that would never harm the ego of another. Lia was elegance. But how couldn't she be? She was trained about the ins and outs of the world since she was able to process a thought. She was a master of poker that always had a full house but would contain her composure no matter what was thrown at her.

And that Liliana was finally back.

———a/n

...so "daily" updates... that's not been happening for a bit... BUT IM BACK NOW I HAVE FINISHED EVERYTHING FOR SCHOOL (minus graduation stuff but it's ok) SO BACK TO NORMAL DAILY UPLOADING SCHEDULE!!!

catt: