All Chapters of STEP ASIDE EX-HUSBAND: THE RISE OF LIANA: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Liana's POVThe shriek sliced through the house like a blade. Not Cam's usual shriek of laughter or argument—but a raw, terror-filled cry that made my blood freeze. I took off before I even knew I was moving, heart racing, feet barely hitting the floor. Stanley's boots pounded after me."Cam!" I screamed, terror constricting my throat.She was in my mother's room, shaking next to her grandmother who was on the floor—dead.Grandma!" Cam cried, her little hands trembling as she stretched to grab my mother. "Wake up!"I fell to my knees, grabbing for my mother. Her skin was cold and sweaty, her breathing ragged and shallow."Mom. Mom!" I struck her cheek, checked for a pulse. Still going, thank God. But slow. Weak. I glared up at Stanley. "Call an ambulance."He was already on the phone.I believe she fainted," I exclaimed, voice trembling, "or perhaps… her blood pressure. I don't know," I murmured.Cam just kept sobbing, hiding her face in my ribcage. I pulled an arm around her and held

Dominic's PovThe house creaked beneath the silence. Every step I took up the stairs was calculated, slow and deliberate. My heart had tensed up out of rhythm and my throat bulged as I swallowed. The darkness was not just an absence of light, it was palpable, dense and enough to choke someone. The only light came from the soft glow of the streetlamp shining through the blinds on the first floor, painting skeletal fingers of light up and down the walls.The stairs creaked underfoot and I tried to be careful with my steps. I ran my hand over the banister, cold as a corpse. I thought I saw a shadow move past and I stopped in my tracks. Heart beating fast, I searched into the darkness but everywhere grew still, then the light flipped off and on again. My breath caught in my chest. No footsteps. No sound. Just that damn light spoofing me. Who the hell was in my house? As I walked further, I bumped into something. There was a flower vase just by the side and I had run into it. It wasn't ex

Lianas PovThe knock rattled me out of my sleep like a gun shot.It wasn't loud but it sounded too urgent. Too intentional. It wasn't like the usual tap of a visitor or the stutter-step thud of a delivery person. It was a knock that sounded quite unique.I looked at the clock. 6: 57 a.m. What the hell?Pulling my robe tighter around me, I padded to the door, still blinking the remnants of sleep from my eyes. The sun hadn’t risen fully, casting a soft amber hue across the street, washing the world in half-light. I hesitated, looking through the peephole.Suddenly, I stepped back as if the sight had burned me. Dominic? What… what was he doing here?My heart flipped, thudded, and then raced as the knock came again. Slowly, I pushed open the door, my knuckles white on the handle."Liana," he said, his voice unusually soft and cautious. He looked like a man who had not slept. His eyes had shadows under them, shadows not of tiredness but of restlessness, of fire gnawing from the inside out.

Liana's POVThe door slammed shut with a loud crack, yet it echoed like thunder within my very bones. I stood there, frozen,my chest panting and air slicing through my lungs like splinters of glass.He was gone but the moment still hung on me like smoke. Heavy and choking. I leaned against the door and slid down, the weight of it all crashing down on top of me. My back struck wood, my knees drew up into my chest, and the tears came before I could stop them.Large, hot, angry sobs. I didn't cry because he'd yelled or sworn or blamed me.I cried because my daughter was finally in the open and at risk. He'd looked at me as if I'd cut something vital out of him. Well… maybe I had but I didn't care. How did we end up here? I buried my face in my hands, trying to push it all back. But the silence in the apartment was too overwhelming now. Every breath was a reminder of what I'd just shattered."Mommy?" The little voice pierced the fog.I raised my head. Now, Cam stood in the hallway, rubb

Liana's POVI hadn't even noticed I'd turned the car on.I was staring at Rainer's words still, my body language shaking—Dominic unleashing all his power as a whirlwind storm that claims legal custody—when I was gripping the steering wheel with everything I had in a deserted restaurant parking lot, tensed to the extreme. My mind was racing in my ears, muffling the world out.I gazed down at my fists on the steering wheel—white knuckles, shaking fingers. I breathed deep and concealed my face in my hands.> Dominic wants to settle. No court filing. A meeting tomorrow morning. Neutral ground.My heart squeezed like a vice. The whole sound of the word—settle—was an offer concealed as a threat.The engine growled as I backed out of the parking space, streetlights and signs whizzing by behind my steamed windshield. Panic and terror crashed through me like waves in a tempest.My phone buzzed on the seat beside me, jerking me into a sitting position. I stared at it before it slipped somewhere