All Chapters of STEP ASIDE EX-HUSBAND: THE RISE OF LIANA: Chapter 81 - Chapter 86

DOMINIC'S POVLiana has really evolved. Who would have thought that the woman I once had under my finger could tell me off like that. The most annoying part is that I did. she won. Not only did I know that if I hung around one more second, I'd lose it in front of my daughter but I also wasn't going to let Liana witness me losing my mind like some street lunatic. But damn, I was already lost. There was no use denying it anymore.I crept by the side entrance of the park, the cacophony in my skull louder than the shouts of families whispering of me and what had happened or of branches creaking overhead. A father tossed his boy over his shoulder, a girl laughed in the distance, and it all stabbed my ribs with something I barely recognized.I'd just caught a glimpse of my child. And she didn't even know who I was. She looked straight at me like I was some stranger and not her dad. My hand went to my chest, as I felt a spasm of hurt and sharpness, as I made my way to my car. I got in, clos

Liana's POVThe evening meal was strangely quiet. I watched Cam pick at her mashed potatoes then all of a study, she raid her head in one fluid motion and asked me a question. "Mummy?" she asked, throwimg jabs at her mashed potatoes but not eating, her little fingers pushing the food around on the plate instead of into her mouth. "That man in the park... the one you told to stay away… was he my daddy?"The question was a total shock. I thought she had forgotten since she didn't say anything about it. My fork slipped, and it clanged against my plate and for a moment, I couldn't remember how to breathe. Mum stopped cutting on the other side of the table, knife halted on the roast chicken in front of her. The room was suddwnly filled with just the deafening sound of silence. I tried ro speak but I was speechless. "No," I finally said but Mum's eyes rose to me, calm but daring. The kind of look that said “time to stop running and hiding”. It was a look a mother could only give when she

Liana's POVThe morning started too quiet. The kind of quiet that was palpable, like something was holding its breath. It was not peaceful, but tensed. Even the birdsong during the morning felt reluctant and distant. The atmosphere hummed with the kind of tension that got lodged into your skin and refused to budge.I stood in the kitchen barefoot, wrapping my hands around a steaming mug of tea that had long since grown cold. I wasn't drinking it, I just needed something to hold onto. Something to keep me grounded. My gaze was on the window, where smears of grey clouds filled the sky, dulling the street to a metallic colour.Cam was still asleep. Her quiet breathing floated out of her bedroom down the hallway, unshaken and light. It was strange, but comforting, unaffected by the chaos of the world. She had no idea that a storm was brewing around us. That soon, her world could be turned over. I didn't like it. I didn't like that I couldn't protect her from this.A shuffling of steps beh