All Chapters of STEP ASIDE EX-HUSBAND: THE RISE OF LIANA: Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

Serena's PovThe loud crack of the gavel echoed through the courtroom causing me to freeze for a moment."Order!" the judge bellowed, eyes sweeping the room.My legs trembled, but I pushed myself forward. For a moment, the faces blurred, Liana looked stunned, Stanley's mouth dropped and Dominic scowled frozen in surprise. My heart pounded in my ears, but I forced myself to breathe. "Serena?" Liana's voice cracked, incredulity and fear twisted in them. "What are you doing here?"I steadied myself on the back of the wooden chair before me. "Don't worry," I said, attempting to sound as composed as possible. "I've got this."The other lawyer sprang up immediately, his finger pointing at me as if I were a threat. "Your Honor, this is highly wrong! This lady does not belong here, she's unstable and unfit to testify."His words hurt, but I stood my ground.The judge's gaze landed on me, ominous and interrogative. "Ms. Serena… the court has been informed of your medical condition. Why are yo

Liana's PovI stood in front of the mirror, barely recognizing myself. The dress was pristine white, simple and yet lovely, its lace sleeves brushing against my arms as though they were trying to remind me that I was finally allowed to live in light. My hair had been pulled into soft curls that covered my face, and the veil was pinned with precision. Behind me, my mother took a deep breath and I immediately turned towards her. Her eyes were gleaming and her lips curved in a tremulous smile."You look lovely, my darling," she whispered, her voice cracking. "I am so proud of you. For everything you've done, everything you've suffered. You've carried more burdens than anyone should, and today, you get to set them down finally.".Her tears failed me and I began to cry. I moved closer, taking her hands, and for a moment I wasn't a woman about to be married, but a daughter being told she had lived.The door opened suddenly Serena's friendly face broke in on our fragile moment. She was my ch

Liana’s POV They say success feels like sunlight, bright, warm, radiant. But no one tells you how blinding it can be when you’ve spent years in the dark.This morning, the city outside my office window shimmered in gold. Every reflection on glass towers, on the river below seemed to echo the same word the board kept using Expansion, Z-Core’s new vision, My vision.If I tilted my head just right, I could see the mirrored letters of our logo across the next building, Z-CORE INDUSTRIES, it was bold and like it had been waiting all along for me to take the helm.I smiled at the thought. “Regional Director.” It still felt strange saying it aloud, sometimes I would catch myself glancing at my nameplate making sure it was real. Mrs. Liana Voss, Regional Director.Marriage had changed more than my title. Stanley, my husband was the kind of man who seemed to carry his own gravitational pull. Composed, confident, the quiet strength of someone who never lost arguments because he never raised h

Dominic’s POV The cursor blinks on the screen, every pulse of light feels like a question. Are you sure you want to see this? But it’s too late for doubt. I’ve already crossed the line.Z-Core’s subsidiary ledger lies open before me, it was encrypted and buried beneath layers of false shells meant to ward off anyone who doesn’t belong here. I don’t belong here anymore but I know their systems better than most of their own engineers. The irony isn’t lost on me, breaking into the very fortress I helped design.I’d told myself it was for her protection. After the leak, after seeing her name tossed around corporate gossip channels, I couldn’t sit still. She didn’t deserve this, something about the timing didn’t add up. The announcement was too precise, too aligned with Z-Core’s internal schedule. Someone inside had planned it long before the board blamed her. So I decided to look where no one else could.The subsidiary ledgers, where the skeletons hide. It takes hours to slip past the

Dominic’s PovThe engineer insists on meeting at midnight and that alone tells me what he’s sitting on something.The warehouse he chose sits at the edge of the city, one of Smith Engineering’s defunct research annexes before Z-Core swallowed them whole. The building’s bones are still metal and glass, but it feels hollow now, like a memory someone abandoned halfway through. The smell of oil and rust clings to the air, sharp and stale.I cut the headlights and step out of the car. Every sound echoes and water dripping, wind through a broken window, the soft click of my boots. My nerves have been shot for days, ever since I found the ELIA TRUST file buried under Z-Core’s subsidiary ledgers. That signature, Stanley Smith. It shouldn’t exist.A shape moves inside the building, faint against the dim glow of an old emergency light. The man waiting there looks like the kind who’s spent too long running from something, hunched shoulders a tremor in his hands that doesn’t come from cold.“You