Chapter 152: Point of No Return

Charlotte gave a dry laugh. "What are you talking about? Is this some movie reference I missed?"I sighed, pulling out a chair and sitting down across from her. "No, Charlotte. I really need to apologize. I told you I wouldn't hide anything from you, but I did."

She squinted her eyes. "You're acting kinda weird."

"I was a market analyst for the Johnson Family in my past life," I said, keeping my tone steady. "I came back from 2034 to 2002—thirty-two years back. That's how I managed to make money so quickly. I knew how stocks would move."

I was completely serious, and I could see her confusion slowly shifting to disbelief. "Okay... Let's say it's true. Was I your girlfriend in your past life, then?"

"No. I never even met you in my past life. I got married much later, but my wife left me."

"Did you go to the same university?"

"Yes. You know Sam. He was my friend in my past life too. He recommended me to a job at his family."

"Why did your wife leave you?"

"That's... I'm not sure. It's complicated... maybe she wanted someone with more money, or maybe because I barely spend any time with her."

She continued her barrage of questions and then at some point she turned silent, clearly trying to process everything.

After a moment, she spoke again, her voice softening. "I guess... I did feel like you were a bit too mature for your age. But... does that change anything? I wanted to be with you because you seemed more mature.

Even if what you're saying is true, it doesn't change what we have now."

I smiled. "I hoped you wouldn't mind... because I really want you to stay with me."

Her expression shifted, and she looked at me more intently. "I still don't buy it, though. You need to give me more details. How did this even happen? Did you die and come back or something? If you can't explain it, I'm just gonna think you're losing it."

"I didn't die. It sounds absurd, but in 2034, I was... at a low point in my life, and one day I just stepped into an elevator, and it just kept descending. When I got out, I was back in 2002."

I spent the next two hours talking with Charlotte, opening myself up to her completely.

I told her everything about my story before I met her, this life and my previous life, leaving almost no detail unturned.

In the meantime, Charlotte made some tea for us and took the notebook off the table.

She listened to me almost religiously, asking questions like I was telling her the plot of some novel.

Later, as I finished telling my story, she spoke up. "I'm a bit disappointed that you're telling me all this only now, you know. It's so interesting."

I looked at her sincerely. "To be honest, I might have never revealed it to you, but I met someone today who changed my mentality a bit... It has to do with the last detail that I haven't told you. I found out about it not too long ago myself."

I leaned back in the chair. "Charlotte, there are at least two more people who have traveled back in time, just like I did."

Charlotte stared at me for a few seconds with absolutely no reaction, and then she stood up, walking over to the open kitchen.

She was wearing black shorts and an oversized red hoodie today. She looked cute as always.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Making coffee. Want some?"

I watched her move around the kitchen. "You seem pretty unfazed by what I'm telling you."

"Honestly, I don't know how to react." She said, with a neutral tone. "Back when we were on that club cruise and I found out about the illegal things you're involved in, babe, something just switched in my brain, and now... I think I'm kind of numb to it all. It just feels surreal."

She picked up the coffee cups and gave me a small smile. "But... I like the thought that I am dating one of the few people who might have the most impact on where the world is going."

She started walking out of the dining room to the hallway. "So, come on. Let's continue this in the living room."

I followed her, and we moved to the living room, where I took a seat on the couch.

She settled into the armchair, tucking her legs up and sitting sideways, cuddled up with the cup of coffee in her hands. "So... will you tell me the rest of the story?" Charlotte said, taking a sip of her coffee.

"I will. Let me start with the attack on your life... Back when we were targeted, I did some research, and even before the FBI came here, I suspected these attacks were tied to the cyberattacks on my brokerage accounts. And so I searched for hacking orgs and I found this organization, which sold an unbelievable amount of day-ones on the dark web."

"Day-ones? What's that?"

"They basically sold information about how to hack into systems. And they seemed to have an unlimited amount of them."

"I also found information about Bitcoin," I added. "a cryptocurrency that wasn't supposed to exist for another few years. This basically confirmed for me that there is someone else like me out there."

"And today at the university." I said. "I met Ava. She's supposedly leading that organization; they call it 'Liberation.'"

Charlotte looked alarmed. "You met the person who tried to kill me? You should've had the bodyguards restrain her and call the police."

"First of all, I don't have any proof to convict her. And also... she's not the one that I need to worry about. She's the girlfriend of the person who actually went back in time. So if they locked her up, it would only make the situation worse."

Charlotte placed her coffee back on the table and moved to sit next to me. "He would probably get very pissed off... to have his girlfriend in jail. But he's risking quite a bit, sending her. You would have never done it to me, right?"

The corner of my mouth moved up. "Don't act like this. This is a serious situation."

"Why did she even come to meet you?"

I let out a sigh and put my arm around her shoulder, leaning back a little. "You know how I told you I want to become the richest man in the world. Well, that guy's ambitions seem to be even higher. They're a bunch of anarchists who think all forms of central government, policies and taxes are enemies of society.

They don't see how silly their goal is, or they just don't understand how hard it would be to make it work."

"I see... and what did they want from you?"

"They realized they have to conquer the financial world to see their ideology through, so they want to work with me."

Charlotte frowned. "So you have no choice but to go along with it. Otherwise, we're screwed, no?"

"I already accepted their proposition. I will work with them. But... there is no way I will let them have their way. I have a plan."

Charlotte leaned in; she seemed interested but also nervous.

"I'll follow their scheme, but only until my influence is high enough." I continued. "If everything goes well, civil war could spring out in several countries—that's their ultimate goal."

I met Charlotte's gaze. "But I would be the one to make it happen, the one to lead it. And if I play my cards right, especially with the Freewinds club... I could betray them all at the very end and take everything for myself."

Before I could say anything more, Charlotte suddenly grabbed the material of my sweater, pulling me closer. She maneuvered her leg around my waist, settling down squarely on my lap, her body pressing tightly against mine.

"I knew you were crazy," she said, awestruck and teasing, "but I think I still underestimated you."

As I looked up, she bit her lip and smiled.

Before I knew it, her hands were tangled in my hair, and my mouth fastened onto her tender lips as her tongue searched to pull mine into her mouth.

She seemed to take the news well.

...

The next day, Friday, I met with Ava at a café. I got two more phones from her and explained how the Freewinds club worked, but I left out one important detail, the longevity research.

I sent one phone to Sidorov in Miami and the other to Derec Johnson.

On Monday, February 23rd, I called Sidorov.

I told him that I would need a new identity for the actress Kirstie Allen.

Sidorov quickly created an identity for her. Jessica Marlowe. Living in a small town near Dayton, Ohio. Early retirement, no kids, dead parents.

I also made sure he would get a plastic surgeon to do a small makeover on her.

With new clothes, makeup, and short hair, she would look like a whole new person. Sёarᴄh the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Now that I worked with Ava and her boyfriend, I called her and asked her for help in staging Kirstie's death.

However, their plan made me reconsider my morals.

They told me they would set her house on fire and dispose of a woman's dead body in there, making sure the temperature is high enough to burn the body to the bones.

As the house burns, they and Kirstie will be long gone from Tampa, Florida, where she lived.

Then they would bribe or force the autopsy doctors to run a DNA sample from Kirstie.

I...

Who's dead body did they have?

Fuck... what was I getting myself into...