Chapter 157 Chapter 157

Chapter 157 Chapter 157
Liana’s POV

The city burns behind me in headlines and sirens. Every channel, every feed, every whisper carries Dominic’s name  and mine beside it.
Z-Core collapsing in public view, Stanley in hiding, regulators circling like vultures. I don’t wait for explanations. I don’t pack carefully. I just run.
Camilla drives. Her hands are tight on the wheel, knuckles white, eyes fixed on the empty stretch of highway that cuts through the rain-dark countryside.
We haven’t spoken much since we left the city. There’s nothing left to say that doesn’t hurt.
The last time I saw Dominic, he was standing in front of a window, his reflection carved by lightning. His voice was low, almost resigned.
“You wanted truth. It doesn’t come without blood.”
Now that truth has teeth. It’s chasing us. Camilla breaks the silence first.
“Where are we going?”
I hesitate. “North. The coast. There’s a safehouse near Calver Bay. My father used it when he wanted to disappear from board meetings.”
“Perfect,” she mutters. “We can hide with all the other ghosts.” She means it as a joke, but it lands heavy.
The wipers scrape rhythmically, the only sound in the car besides the rain. “Camilla,” I say finally, “if you want to go back, I won’t stop you.”
She snorts softly. “Back to what? My phone’s buzzing with reporters, my apartment’s probably being searched, and the company’s frozen my accounts. So no, I think I’ll stick with you.”
Her tone softens. “Besides, you’re the only person left who doesn’t scare me.”
I glance at her and realize she’s trembling. The highway narrows, the rain easing into a fine mist. Forest replaces the industrial sprawl, tall, silent trees leaning close as if listening.
I should feel safer out here, away from the city’s noise. I don’t.
Every mile feels heavier. Like we’re driving deeper into something we can’t turn back from.
Camilla turns on the radio, flipping through static before landing on a station mid-broadcast.
“New developments in the Z-Core embezzlement case. Sources confirm that leaked documents include biometric evidence tying former executive Dominic Smith to financial misconduct…”
I reach forward and shut it off. Camilla glances at me. “Do you believe him?”
“About what?”
“That he didn’t mean for it to leak like that.”
I think of his eyes when I confronted him. “Yes,” I say finally. “I believe him.”
“And Stanley?”
My jaw tightens. “Stanley’s a man who confuses control with love and now that he’s lost both, he’ll do anything to get them back.”
Camilla exhales. “So we’re not running from the law. We’re running from him.”
“Both,” I admit.
We drive for another hour. The forest thickens, the road narrowing into winding bends. Dusk falls too early, gray light swallowed by fog.
Ahead there was movement, a figure stands at the side of the road, arm raised. Camilla slows instinctively.
“Don’t,” I say sharply.
“She could be hurt.”
“Or bait.”
But it’s too late. The car’s already stopping, tires hissing on wet asphalt. The woman steps into the beams of the headlights and my heart stops.
She’s drenched, pale, her clothes torn at the sleeve. Her eyes wide, green, familiar. She looks about thirty. The right age. The right height and she looks exactly like Elia.
“Liana,” Camilla whispers. “Tell me you’re seeing that too.”
Every instinct screams that this isn’t real, that the exhaustion, the fear, the adrenaline are twisting my vision.
But when she steps closer, I see the small scar above her brow, the same one Elia had after she fell off her bike.
“Stop the car,” I say.
“It’s already stopped.”
I unbuckle my seatbelt, my breath shallow. “Stay here.”
“Liana….”
“Stay. Please.”
I open the door and step into the cold air.
The woman watches me, unmoving. The fog curls around her like smoke. When I’m a few feet away, I say the name I haven’t spoken aloud in years.
“Elia.” She blinks, lips parting slightly.
It’s the smallest thing, a flicker of recognition, maybe. Or fear.
Then she says, in a quiet, trembling voice, “You shouldn’t be here.”
My heart lurches. “You’re alive.”
She shakes her head. “Not like you think.”
“What does that mean?”
She glances toward the trees, her gaze darting behind me. “They’ll find you if you stay.”
“Elia, please…”
“Don’t call me that,” she whispers. “That name’s gone.”
The words hit like ice.
“I’ve been watching you,” she continues, voice almost breaking. “You shouldn’t have opened the drives”
“Hiw…how do you know about the drives?”
“Because I made them.”
The fog thickens, swallowing her outline.
“Wait,” I say, stepping forward. “If you made them, then Dominic…”
“Dominic was supposed to destroy them,” she says, cutting me off. “He didn’t. He thought exposure would save you. He doesn’t understand what’s buried underneath.”
“What’s underneath?”
Her eyes lock on mine, and for a second, she looks just like she did the night before she vanished.
“Names,” she whispers. “The ones who built everything. Your father. Stanley. And others you’ve never met.”
She looks past me again, urgent now. “You have to go. Please, Liana.”
“Not without you.”
“I can’t go back.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not supposed to exist.”
The air splits with headlights, another car approaching fast from the bend.
Elia steps back into the shadows. “Run.”
“Elia…”
“GO!”
Camilla shouts from behind me, “Liana! Get in the car!”
I turn just long enough to move and when I look back, she’s gone. Only the fog remains. We drive off, tires spinning water, my pulse thundering.
Camilla’s voice shakes. “Who was that?”
I can barely breathe. “It was her.”
“Her who?”
“Elia.”
Camilla stares at me, disbelieving. “Liana….”
“I saw her face. I heard her voice. It was her.”
She swallows hard. “Then where did she go?”
I stare into the dark road ahead. “Wherever she’s been hiding all this time.”
The rain starts again, heavier now. The wipers strain to keep up, but the road ahead blurs into streaks of gray and white.
For the first time since this all began, I’m not sure which scares me more, the danger chasing us or the truth waiting at the end of the road because if Elia’s alive then none of us ever escaped that night.