— Past Life Flashback, Shylie Reed (Before her death, early 20s to 40s) —
Before the accolades.
Before the crushing loneliness.
Before she took her final breath alone in a sterile hospital room, lungs filled with fluid, drowning in the aftermath of COVID-19—
There were two names she would never forget.
Darren Tan
Elias Tan
Roseville Academy — Past Life, Age 16
Shylie's journey started in the hallways of Roseville Academy, where she first saw Darren Tan in the 11th grade, a shy girl overshadowed by the grandeur of the school's elite. Darren, always a senior in her mind, was untouchable. A star. The type of student whose very presence demanded respect without trying. He was everything she was not.
He was a fixture in every room. The kind of guy whose smile could light up a room and whose handshake made everyone feel like they mattered. Captain of the swim team. Class president. A leader who seemed to have an effortless grasp on success. No one could ignore him, nor did they want to.
And yet, despite his visibility, despite his popularity, he never noticed her.
Shylie was invisible, stuck behind the shadows of her family's drama. Her parents, constantly creating a spectacle of themselves, left her little room to be seen. Not that she would have wanted it anyway. They had their own world, their own battles, battles Shylie was too tired to fight. She had her own quiet rebellion. Being overlooked gave her the space to build her mind, her strategy, quietly, from the background.
She watched Darren, though, from a distance. At lunch in the quad, during swim meets. She observed the effortless ease with which he navigated his world. Friends. Teachers. Classmates. He knew everyone and made them feel like they mattered.
Shylie didn't resent him. She simply couldn't fathom ever belonging in the same room. He existed in a world she had no entry to, a life she could never reach.
Years Passed: A Quiet Struggle
As the years rolled on, Shylie worked tirelessly, honing her intellect while her family's attention shifted elsewhere. She graduated early, her academic feats unnoticed by the people who should have cared most, her parents, her brother.
Life continued without interruption. Shylie buried herself in work, taking night classes while juggling part-time jobs.
Meanwhile, Darren Tan's life seemed to unfold in front of her, visible in every news article, every feature on the Tan Group's meteoric rise.
She watched from the outside, as Darren continued his upward trajectory:
"Darren Tan Funds Clean Water Project in Rural Villages"
"Tan Group's Rising Star Nephew Promotes Youth Innovation Fair"
"The Friendly Face of Future Tech: Darren Tan's Unlikely Rise"
He wasn't just a golden boy, he was golden, untouched by the usual pitfalls of life. He became a top executive in Tan Group, the family business that seemed to run everything.
But their paths never crossed. Not once.
Tech Gala — Age 38
Then, at 38, after years of quietly building her career in AI, Shylie finally saw him again—Elias Tan, the cold, distant patriarch of the Tan family.
The night of the tech gala was supposed to be like any other, networking, presenting her latest work to a room full of uninterested faces. But when Elias entered the ballroom, it was as if the very atmosphere shifted. The temperature dropped. People parted instinctively. Elias Tan didn't just enter a room, he commanded it.
He was everything Shylie had heard and more. He wasn't just a legend. He was the legend, CEO of Tan Group, an ex-military man with a reputation for ruthless efficiency and an obsession with order, precision, and results.
And then their eyes met.
It wasn't the kind of glance you'd expect. Elias didn't look through her as most of the elite would. He didn't dismiss her as just another attendee. He looked at her. And, for the briefest of moments, Shylie felt seen, not as a woman in the crowd, not as an object of some fleeting interest, but as someone whose presence he registered. And that alone changed everything.
Her breath caught in her chest, but she quickly pulled herself back together. She couldn't let this moment overwhelm her.
She had worked too hard, spent too many sleepless nights building her career to let one fleeting glance throw her off.
After the Gala
The night ended in defeat. Shylie had presented her predictive AI model to an uninterested room, a few glances thrown her way, but mostly a sea of indifferent faces. The rain had started just as she exited the venue, soaking her as she stood by the curb waiting for her taxi.
It was then, when the cold rain had begun to wash away the last traces of her confidence, that she saw the black car.
The driver rolled down the window, a calm voice piercing the silence of the night: "Miss Reed."
Her heart skipped. She recognized that voice instantly. Elias Tan.
For a second, she hesitated, unsure of whether to ignore him, to simply walk away. But she couldn't. Something in her told her this moment was too significant to pass up.
"Get in." His command was simple, but it carried weight. No room for argument.
She obeyed.
Inside, the car was warm, private. Elias didn't offer small talk.
They didn't discuss anything beyond formulas, risk analysis, forecasts, projections. The conversation was efficient. Cold. Calculated. And Shylie found herself falling into it, her mind responding to his with equal sharpness.
There was no flattery, no empty niceties. He didn't try to impress her with his name or his wealth. Instead, he simply listened, intently, carefully, as she spoke about her work, her predictions for the future of AI. He didn't need to like her. He didn't need to praise her. All he required was to understand the depth of her intellect.
And when the car stopped at her building, it was over. No offer, no promises. Just a nod of recognition from a man who understood that war was won not through emotions, but through precision and calculation. Shylie had never felt so simultaneously invisible and powerful.
Present Day — Shylie, Age 16 Again
Now, she was back. Sixteen. Back in Roseville Academy. Back in the same halls where Darren had laughed with his friends, where Elias had been nothing more than an unattainable figure on the horizon.
But this time, it was different. This time, she wasn't the quiet girl in the corner anymore.
This time, she would change everything.
She would no longer be passive. No longer invisible. She remembered every misstep, every opportunity lost in her past life. Every moment she had wasted when she could have been reaching out, building alliances, understanding the power structures that governed this world. Now, she would act. Strategize.
She wasn't here to blend in. She wasn't here to be another cog in someone else's plan.
This time, she would control the narrative.
Darren Tan, the golden boy, the rising star, he was in her path. And Elias Tan, the cold, calculating architect of his empire, he was the prize. She wasn't just a passive observer anymore. This time, she wouldn't be watching from below.
She would climb, outsmart, and rewrite the game. And nothing—no one—would stand in her way.