Chapter Ten: Sharper Than They Said
Lia had a small meal while waiting for time to pass. Nothing elaborate, just something to keep her from collapsing.
Her bags were minimal, barely enough for someone relocating. She packed light, intentionally. She wasn't going there to stay, she was just going to find answers. And even if she decided to stay she could still some clothes
When the time hit 1:55 p.m., she stood up smoothly and calmly, then walked across the private tarmac to where the GT-Peregrine awaited her.
She boarded the jet without a word and took her seat near the window. She had no entourage, no security. Just her and the mission. She was going to do it quietly as possible.
As the jet engines began to rumble and the ground below started to blur, Lia glanced out the window.
Mazia. The city that had once been home. Now, it meant nothing. Just trauma and shadows. Pain hidden behind glass walls and smiling masks. She felt no nostalgia, no grief. She just felt free ( freedom to be exact) she was just released.
Inside the cabin, the stewardesses couldn't hide their curiosity. It wasn't every day that someone, especially a woman boarded Damien's private jet alone.
Even rarer to see him treat someone with the kind of respect they'd seen earlier that day.
He hadn't called her Miss not ma'am but he had called her Boss. That one word had shifted the entire atmosphere on the tarmac.
Still, the stewardesses were professionals. They didn't ask questions. They just watched with silent curiosity, glances exchanged, heads tilted slightly.
But they knew where the line was and no one dared cross it.
The flight from Mazia to Volgrin lasted three hours.
Lia didn't sleep. She didn't even open her mouth to speak not to even request for something. She simply sat there, her eyes locked on the sky, as the world she once knew disappeared beneath the clouds.
At exactly 5:00 p.m., the jet began its descent into Volgrin.
Volgrin was a new place, a new beginning. And maybe, just maybe if she was right a buried was truth finally about to come to light.
The jet wheels screeched softly as they kissed the tarmac with a soft jolt. The city of shadows welcomed her with an overcast sky and a biting wind that didn't care who you were.
Lia stood only when the aircraft came to a complete halt. She didn't wait for assistance. She took her sleek carry-on and walked off the GT-Peregrine without looking back.
She was dressed in all black, a thick hoodie covering her head and casting a shadow over her face. She looked like a ghost, a blur of dark cloth and quiet steps. No one could tell who she was, and that was the point.
Volgrin hit her instantly when she came out, the smell of wet concrete, distant honking, a city built on secrets and sin. The air here felt heavier than Mazia's. Maybe it was the unspoken tension that lived in the cracks of every wall. Or maybe… she was just feeling everything all at once.
A SUV was parked waiting for her.The driver stepped out and opened the back door with practiced precision. He didn't speak. He didn't need to, Damien's people were trained to know when silence spoke louder
On the far edge of the tarmac, a hunched man smoked beneath a flickering lamppost. His eyes tracked the black SUV like he knew things he shouldn't.
Then it happened. Lia's steps slowed, her breath paused just for a second.
She felt someone was watching her. She didn't see them, not yet. But she felt it Yes!!
The prickle at the back of her neck. That charged stillness in the air was like a sniper holding their breath.
Immediately Lia's gaze drifted past the SUV, toward the edges of the runway.
And there it was a movement, subtle or was she wrong. No! She disagreed, then a glint of something reflective behind a stack of fuel barrels.
Lia didn't flinch but moved a gaze and didn't look again. But her body remembered it, it mapped it.
" My welcome to Volgrin I guess" Lia murmured under her breath smirking then
She slid into the back seat. The door shut behind her, cutting off the outside world.
The vehicle pulled away smoothly, joining the stream of Volgrin's afternoon traffic.
---
Across the tarmac…
The watcher flinched. He had been careful, he was well hidden, merged with the background.
But she was still able to see him.
"Tch." His voice was barely a whisper. "She's sharper than they said." then he disappeared melting into shadows, boots silent against the concrete as he vanished between crates and smoke.
...
Fifteen minutes later, they turned off the main road into a quiet, walled compound. A security gate rolled open automatically, revealing a modest stone house tucked beneath tall cypress trees. It looked discreet, remote but safe.
It was the safehouse. The driver parked under the covered port. He stepped out again, walked around, and opened her door. Lia stepped out into the chilly breeze, her hoodie catching the wind slightly as she surveyed the place.
Not a single soul was in sight. Just as it was meant to be.
---
Inside, the safehouse was minimalist. Dark wood floors. Cold grey walls. A fireplace that hadn't seen fire in years. But it was clean, tight, and equipped. Damien had even left her a folder on the table red-stamped, with the initials "DM."
She tossed her bag onto the couch and walked straight to the kitchen. She opened the fridge which was fully stocked. Her fingers skimmed a bottle of water before she grabbed it.
And stood there for a moment, Lia just stood there, leaning against the counter, the water in hand with her head bowed. She was in deep thought.
She was here. In the same city where Dr. Marie had last been seen. The woman who watched her mother vanish. The woman who might be the missing link to everything Lia was denied. Truth, history, blood.
Lia straightened slowly. Her expression hardening into steel again.
She had come to Volgrin for answers.
And she wouldn't leave without a reckoning.