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."

enough to feel the rigid tension in her body, to smell the subtle

turning back to find her still watching from Sophia's doorway, one hand

what today is?" she interrupted, voice unnaturally

my head, unease growing at

on the doorframe. "She would

three today."

physical blow. Of all days to violate this

know,"

cold fury giving way to something more complex. "You didn't. Because I never

away from the doorway, moving 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.

movement might shatter this unexpected

me, I

it. Sometimes I sit here and try to remember what move she was contemplating" Victoria's finger hovered over a white pawn. "She always took her time, considered every possibility The parallel

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 set. "She was the best of me. The kindness I couldn't afford to show, the warmth I'd forgotten how to express, the

of the moment. Victoria had never

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 thought when I first saw you? Not just that you looked like her, though the resemblance was striking. I thought:

forward slightly. "I recognized in you what the Prestons tried to stamp out in Sophia. Potential, Intelligence. A fundamental

me," I countered. "One photo in

records. Your medical history.

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

its accuracy. All my life, I'd been swimming against the

Chapter 20

"Not just because you 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