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."

Instead, she remained planted in the doorway, forcing me to squeeze past her, close enough to feel the rigid tension in

the sitting area, I paused, turning back to find her still watching from Sophia's doorway, one hand gripping the frame as if for support. "I'm sorry," I said softly. "I

today is?"

shook my head, unease growing at the

on the doorframe. "She would have been

three today."

violate this sanctuary, I'd chosen the

know," I

in her tone shifted, the cold fury giving way to something more complex. "You didn't.

to the chess board in the sitting area. With careful precision, she adjusted one of the pieces, a knight moving to threaten a bishop. "Sophia loved chess," she said, not looking at me. "Insisted it helped her think strategically. We played every Sunday morning. This was our last game,

might shatter this unexpected moment

me, I

contemplating" Victoria's finger hovered over a white pawn. "She always took her time, considered every possibility The parallel to our relationship, her aggressive molding of me, my attempts to anticipate her expectations, hung unspoken

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 more than my daughter," Victoria said, sinking onto the sofa beside the chess

of the moment. Victoria had never spoken this

fingers. "But then revenge became my purpose. Destroying the Prestons gave me a reason to continue. And when

with sudden intensity. "Do you know what I thought when I first saw you? Not just that you looked like her, though the resemblance

slightly. "I recognized in you what the Prestons tried to stamp out in Sophia.

me," I countered. "One photo in

Your education records. Your medical history. Your

at every turn, yet still fought to carve out your own space. Imagine what you might have become with

accuracy. All my life, I'd been swimming against the current of my family's preferences, Rose's manipulations,

Chapter 20

resembled her physically. Not just for revenge against those who hurt you. But because I recognized something worth saving. 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 anger