Chapter 116 Chapter 116
Liana's Pov
The sun was just beginning to go down when I opened the car door, my purse on my shoulder and my phone loosely held between my fingers. The safe house was silent, still and dark. As I stood in front of it, I sighed. Behind those walls was Serena, the one who held the secrets we were all so desperately wanting to find out.
I'd not seen her since the night before the hearing. I had spoken to her over the phone but I needed to see her. I didn't want her feeling like I didn't care. It was because I was busy with cam.. And I alsp didn't want to look at her and see a blank look where fire and confidence once resided. But tomorrow was the next hearing. The pressure was mounting by the minute. I had to see her. I had to check in.
I typed in the code and waited a few seconds before I heard the ding. I walked in my pace slower than usual, like my legs did not want to move any further.
As I opened the inner door, I sighted her nurse sitting by the dining table munching on some snacks.
"Good evening, ma," she said, standing up and walking towards me."You're welcome."
"Thank you, ," I whispered. I took a deep breath before entering. "Is she up, I need to see her."
"She's in the living room," she told me, nodding down the hall. "She's been quiet today."
I crept down the hall slowly, my steps quietly brushing against the floor of tiles. The house was a quiet place to be, the kind that didn't press down on your ears but wrapped around you. And still, my heart pounded.
As I walked into the living room, there she sat. She was sitting on the couch with her legs pulled in under. She had a book open on her lap but she was not reading it. Her eyes were lost somewhere else in her head.
When she looked up and saw me, an illusion of a smile appeared on her face. I knew he was happy to see me but I also knew she was struggling to smile.
"Liana," she breathed. Her voice was smaller than I'd remembered, but her face had brightned up.
"Hey, Serena," I said, moving over and sitting beside her. I encircled her in my arms and pulled her into a warm gentle hug. She felt smaller, frail in a way that left my chest hurting and wondering if she had lost weight too. "I've missed you."
"I missed you too," she said, burying her face into me. "You didn't come to see me."
I pulled back and looked at her. "I know. I should have come. I just… Okay I am not going to lie to you. I did not come here and look you in the eye knowing fully well how worried you are about the whole case. It is better than it was but it still doesn't look good and I didn't want to lie to you."
"I would have prefered if you told me the lie," she whispered. "Tell me it's all okay."
I gripped her hand in mine. "I know."
We sat there in silence. Just two women with too much history, too much hurt, and never quite enough words to get it all out. I glanced around the room. It was neat. There were blankets folded on the side of the couch and a half full glass of water on the coffee table. The TV was off. It the silence and peace of a room where you'd recover from something. But how do you move on when you don't even know what's missing?
Serena finally said something. "I've been thinking a lot. I have been wondering how things were before all of this. You said we had it all, Liana. We had everything. And I just really wish I can have even the smallest illusion of what that feels like."
"I know," I said, my throat constricted. "And I can't give you that feeling but I can assure you that back then, we were so close. So close to finally getting justice. We were ready to just win and put it all behind us."
"And now I've forgotten everything," she grumbled, looking down at her lap. Her hands were trembling slightly. "And everyone's doing so much. Struggling. Pursuing leads and doing all the things we didn't need to do. And all I do is sit here doing nothing."
"Don't say that," I said to her, squeezing her hand tighter. "You're not useless. You're still the reason everyone's fighting. You may not remember at the moment, but you did so much before this and even now, you're being such a huge support system. It all still matters."
Tears welled up in her eyes. "But it doesn't feel like that. It feels like I'm just this shattered piece everyone's trying to piece together again. Like I'm letting everyone down."
"You're not," I told her, shaking my head. "We're doing this because we believe in what we started. Because we believe in justice."
And when I said that, something broke in my head. It hit me like a blinding ray of light peircing through a thick fog. I felt like an epiphany and I quickly sat up a little more.
"Wait. Rena. You were researching the case before the accident, and had everything righy? You told me you had papers, files, everything."
She blinked. "I think so but even if I did, I don't remember where I put them."
"But if you weren't with your laptop the day you were attacked," I said quickly. " It's probably at your house. Maybe the laptop is still there."
She nodded slowly. "It should be. I don't think I was with it."
My heart started racing. "Then we'll go. Me and Stanley. We'll go to your house tonight. We'll go through every folder, every note, every backup. Even if we don't know where to start looking, we'll take turns until we do find something."
Serena looked at me, her eyes clearing a little. "You really think it's still there?"
"I do," I said firmly. “We can't be sure but maybe it is there."
"Then go," she said softly. "I want to help. If this can help… then do it."
I didn't delay. I grabbed my phone and called Stanley. He picked up on the third ring.
"Hey… Are you all right?"
"Stanley," I said immediately, already making my way back towards the hall. "Listen. I'm at Serena's. We just thought of the possibility of the laptop being at her place. I think we should go and check."
"Are you kidding me? How didn't we think of that long before now?"
"I honestly don't kniw but If we can find that computer, we might be able to find something that can help. Notes, papers, something."
There was a moment of silence.
"I'm in," he answered. "Where are you now?"