SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 20

Camille's point of view.

The voice behind me sent the frame tumbling from my hands. It hit the carpet with a muffled thud as I spun around.

Victoria stood in the doorway, her expression a storm of fury and pain. Her usually perfect appearance was disheveled, clothes wrinkled from travel, hair slightly mussed, as if she'd rushed home unexpectedly. "L...I thought you were in Tokyo," I stammered, heart hammering against my ribs.

"Flight canceled due to mechanical issues." Her eyes swept the room, cataloging any disturbance I might have caused. "You didn't answer my question."

I could have lied. Could have claimed I got lost,

accidentally found the key, had innocent reasons for snooping But something in Victoria's face, the raw wound exposed beneath her anger, demanded honesty.

"I was curious," I admitted, bending to retrieve the fallen photo frame. "About the locked wing. About why it was. off-

limits."

"So you invaded my privacy. Searched my office for the key. Entered a space clearly meant to remain closed." Each sentence fell like a judgment, cold and precise. "Yes." No excuses. No justifications.

Victoria's gaze settled on the photo in my hands. Something flickered across her expression, grief so intense it momentarily overwhelmed the anger.

"Put that down," she said quietly. "And get out."

I carefully returned the frame to its place. "Victoria, I..."

"Now."

expecting her to step aside. Instead, she remained planted in the doorway, forcing me to squeeze past her, close enough to feel the rigid tension in her body, to smell the subtle scent of her perfume mixed with the staleness of long- haul

doorway, one hand gripping the frame as

today is?" she interrupted,

my head, unease growing at the

her birthday." Victoria's knuckles whitened on

three today."

days to violate this sanctuary, I'd chosen the one when Victoria's grief would be

know," I

Something in her tone shifted, the cold fury giving way to something more complex.

a knight moving to threaten a bishop.

might shatter

me, I

Sometimes I sit here and try to remember what move she was contemplating" Victoria's finger hovered over a white pawn. "She always

coming here on her birthday, sitting in her space, pretending for a few hours that she's just stepped out. That she'll return any moment with My chest tightened at the naked pain in her expression. Gone was the formidable businesswoman, the ruthless mentor, the demanding adoptive mother. In her place stood simply a woman hollowed by grief, pr "She was

had never spoken this openly before, never revealed so much of

touched a chess piece, the black queen, with gentle fingers. "But then revenge became my purpose. Destroying the Prestons gave me a reason to continue. And when "Until you saw my photo," I

"Do you know what I thought when I first saw you? Not just that you looked like her, though the resemblance was striking. I thought: here's another bright

you what the Prestons tried to stamp out in

I countered. "One photo in a society

Your education records. Your medical

undermined at every turn, yet still fought to carve out your own space. Imagine

swimming against the current of my family's preferences,

Chapter 20

W of my value independent of my usefulness for revenge or my resemblance to Sophia. "When I saw you in here," Victoria said, gesturing toward Sophia's bedroom, "my first thought wasn't