Flashback: Alton University, Original Timeline – Sophomore Year
Ryan Keller was still wearing his old running shoes and carrying textbooks in a duffel bag when he first crossed paths with Vince Patel in a business analytics seminar. Vince sat confidently in the front row, always with the right answer, always with a joke the professor found funny.
They weren't friends then. Not yet. But Ryan remembered the way Vince watched the room like a strategist watches a board.
Vince: "You're not going to make it through Advanced Market Theory carrying your books like that. People are going to think you're here to clean the windows."
Ryan (dryly): "Then I guess I'll clean the curve too."
Vince laughed. That was the start.
A year later, at a networking gala hosted by the dean's office, Ryan met Liz Ashcroft. She was stunning, sharp-tongued, already fielding internship offers from Fortune 100 companies. Her degree was secondary to her brand.
Liz: "If your handshake is as firm as your pitch, you might just survive this place."
Ryan: "I think you just insulted and complimented me at the same time."
Liz: "I do that when I'm interested."
After graduation came, they went their own seperate ways. It was years later that they encountered each other again, when Ryan reiceived a contractors job with the company they worked for. They had hit off immediately and became fast friends. Ryan and Liz started dating and things were getting serious.
After many lonh discussions and lots of market research, Ryan and Vince had launched their first startup in fintech services. Liz joined later, handling PR and strategic communications. The three of them were inseparable in their ambition.
And then came the unraveling.
The startup faced liquidity issues. One partnership turned hostile. Legal costs mounted. Ryan fought to hold the company together while Vince grew increasingly secretive.
Until one day, Vince was gone—along with every dime they had left. The bank froze the accounts. The IRS came knocking. Lawsuits followed. Investors turned cold.
One morning, Ryan arrived to a boardroom ambush: The shareholders had voted to remove both Vince and Ryan from the company citing Vince's actions and Ryan's lack of foresight as the major contributing factors to the investors and shareholders devision.
Shareholders: "You don't have the mindset for survival, Ryan. You have vision, sure. But vision without aggression is just dreaming. This isn't personal. You were the heart of the company. But now we need teeth."
They pushed him out and ended their relationship. Within six months, the company folded anyway. They blamed him publicly, citing mismanagement. It was Ryan's lowest point. The betrayal had cut deeper than failure ever could.
It wasn't just business.
It was the beginning of the end.
The result? He was blacklisted in the only industry he knew. Doors slammed in his face. Friends ghosted him. His fiancée, Liz, finally left when the eviction notice came.
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Present Day – Hotel Suite, Alton University
Ryan stood alone by the window, the post-keynote energy still humming in his ears. The applause had been real. The recognition overwhelming.
But all he could see were their faces.
Liz and Vince.
Looking almost exactly as he remembered them.
Ryan (thinking): Why now? Why here?
He ran a hand through his hair, the weight in his chest no longer vague.
Was it fate? Coincidence? Something else?
He had built Phoenix from nothing, remade himself brick by brick, decision by decision. And just when the world recognized that journey, the people who had dismantled him the first time reappeared like echoes from a story he thought was finished.
Ryan (thinking): Was I drawn here... or were they?
His thoughts turned darker. What if the pull he felt wasn't just intuition, but something deeper? A gravitational force that tied him to the parts of his past he hadn't yet reckoned with? He had erased the timeline where they ruined him—but maybe not the damage they caused.
Ryan (to himself): "Maybe the timeline isn't the only thing that loops. Maybe the wounds do, too."
He heard the door open softly. Leah stepped in, her eyes still glowing with pride from the event. She walked up to him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
Leah: "You were brilliant tonight."
Ryan (distractedly): "Thanks, it means a lot to hear you say that."
Leah: "Are you ok? You seem a bit distracted."
Ryan: "I'm ok, sometimes I just feel like the past doesn't want to let me go."
Leah (confused): "The past? Is it somebody we knew in high school?"
Ryan: "Nevermind, don't worry about it. No matter what comes, I can handle it as long as your are with me."
Leah blushed, and happily dug deeper into his embrace.
And as he held her, he stared out into the dark college town below—the same one that had made him once, and nearly destroyed him.
The past wasn't done with him.
And this time, he wasn't planning to run.
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