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."

past her, close enough to feel

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.

is?"

shook my head, unease growing

whitened on

three today."

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

know,"

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

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. "Insisted it helped her think strategically.

movement might shatter

me, I

what move she was 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

of 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

of the moment. Victoria had never spoken this openly before, never revealed so

too." She touched a chess piece, the black queen, with gentle fingers. "But then revenge became my purpose. Destroying

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 young power over

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

you barely knew me," I countered. "One photo

examined. Your education records. Your medical history. Your social circles. The more I

all her dreams You were undermined at every turn, yet still fought to carve out your own space. Imagine what you might have become with proper nurturing instead of constant

swimming against the current of my family's preferences, Rose's

Chapter 20

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 at the invasion o that you might damage