Chapter 166 Chapter 166

Chapter 166 Chapter 166
Liana’s POV

The city below looks like it’s made of glass and ash. Z-Core Tower gleams against the morning light, its mirrored skin catching every illusion I helped build.
 I used to love this view,  the sense of order, the illusion of being above the chaos. But now, all I see is reflection: lies polished until they shine.
On my desk, the evidence sits in quiet accusation,  a laptop, three encrypted drives, and a folder of legal documents I haven’t signed yet. My hands hover above the papers. The air feels heavy, the kind of stillness that comes right before something breaks.
I play the audio again. I need to hear it one more time, even though every syllable tears another layer off me.
“Elia wanted to escape,” Stanley’s voice says in that patronizing calm he always wore like cologne. “She begged me to help fake her death. I gave her what she asked for. I just used it to secure what was already mine.”
I hear my own voice on the recording, trembling but defiant. “You framed Dominic. You used her pain as leverage.”
Then his reply: “I used the situation. There’s a difference.”
I stop the playback. The silence afterward feels almost merciful.
For days, I’ve been standing on this cliff, one step between loyalty and truth, between survival and ruin. Stanley taught me that every empire depends on the illusion of control. “The moment you waver,” he told me once, “someone stronger will take what’s yours.”
He was right. But he never said what happens when the thing you’re protecting isn’t worth keeping.
When I walk into his office, he’s already waiting. He stands by the floor-to-ceiling window, hands behind his back, his reflection fractured by the glass. The skyline burns behind him in orange light.
“Liana,” he says without turning. “I wondered when you’d come.”
“You always did know when the fire was coming,” I reply.
He smiles faintly at that, then gestures toward the chair opposite his desk. “Sit. Let’s talk like civilized people.”
I stay standing. “You lied to me.”
“I lie to everyone,” he says simply. “That’s how business works.”
“This wasn’t business. This was Elia. This was murder, fraud, manipulation….”
He cuts me off with a raised hand. “Don’t make this moral. You knew what we were building, and you knew the cost. You chose to stay.”
“I chose to believe in you.”
“Then you made your first mistake.” His words hit harder than I expect. Maybe because they’re true.
I step closer to the desk, meeting his gaze. “I have everything, Stanley. The recordings. The files. The transfer ledgers. The witness protection documents with your signature. You used her disappearance to strip the Smith assets and destroy Dominic. You built your empire on her grave.”
He studies me for a long time, his expression unreadable. Then he sighs and walks around to the liquor cabinet. “Do you know what I see when I look at you?”
“Someone who’s about to end your career.”
He pours two glasses of whiskey, slides one toward me. “No. I see the version of myself I used to be, idealistic enough to think the world can be fixed. Naïve enough to think justice matters more than power.”
I don’t touch the glass.
“You think you’re doing the right thing,” he continues. “But if you go through with this, you’ll burn with me. The board will disown you. The prosecutors will tear you apart. They’ll ask why you stayed. Why you signed the approvals. Why you married me.”
“Because I didn’t see who you really were.”
His smile sharpens. “You saw me perfectly. You just liked the reflection.”
That one lands. For a moment, I can’t speak. Then I set the folder down between us.
“Then I guess it’s time I stopped pretending.”
He looks down. The top page reads Petition for Annulment. His hand stills.
“Liana…” His tone softens. “Don’t do this.”
“It’s already done.”
He straightens, mask sliding back into place. “You think you can win by destroying me? You’re smarter than that. This company is your legacy too.”
“No,” I say quietly. “It’s my prison.”
The walk back to my office feels like wading through static. Every passing employee nods politely, unaware that their world is about to collapse.
 I’ve spent years perfecting this façade, the polished executive, the composed strategist but my hands are shaking by the time I reach my desk. I open my laptop, attach the files, and draft the message.
To: Special Agent Carter – Federal Bureau of Investigation
Subject: Evidence Regarding Z-Core and Project Eden
Agent Carter,

I am submitting the enclosed documents and recordings as evidence of corporate conspiracy, fraud, and human experimentation under the directive of Stanley Holt and associated members of Z-Core Holdings.

I am prepared to provide testimony and full cooperation with the Department of Justice.

Liana Holt
I hover over the send button for a long time. My pulse slows. My throat burns and then I click. Just like that, it’s done.
I call my lawyer next. “File the annulment today,” I tell her. “No settlements, no negotiations.”
She hesitates. “Liana… once this becomes public…”
“I know.”
“Are you sure this is what you want?”
I look out the window, at the tower I helped build now gleaming like a monument to everything false. “It’s what I need.”
That afternoon, the news breaks. Federal inquiry into Z-Core Holdings and Project Eden. CEO Stanley Holt under investigation.
By evening, the board calls an emergency meeting. I don’t attend. When I leave, no one stops me. The security guards look confused, the receptionist whispers my name like it’s already history.
Outside, the wind is sharp against my face. The streets buzz with the sound of headlines being rewritten. Somewhere in the chaos, I imagine Stanley pacing his office, watching his empire fracture in real time and for the first time in years, I don’t feel afraid.
Back at my apartment, I pour myself a glass of water and sit by the window. The city glows below, I think of Elia, her voice trembling in that recording. “I’ll disappear forever.”
You don’t have to, I think. Not anymore. I pull out my phone and send one last message, to a number I shouldn’t have, but do.
Dominic: It’s done. The authorities have everything. I filed for annulment this morning.

L
Three dots appear. Then a single reply:
You did the right thing.
I set the phone down and close my eyes. For the first time, the silence doesn’t feel like guilt. It feels like relief.
Tomorrow, there will be fallout,  headlines and questions about complicity. I’ll face them all. Maybe I’ll lose everything I once thought mattered but tonight, I have something Stanley never understood.
I raise the glass to the skyline, to Elia, to Dominic, to the woman I used to be. Then I whisper into the quiet,
“Justice served.” And for the first time, I believe it.