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

doorway, one hand gripping the frame as if for support. "I'm sorry,"

what today is?"

shook my head, unease growing at

Victoria's knuckles whitened on the doorframe. "She

three today."

this sanctuary,

know,"

shifted, the cold fury giving way to something more complex.

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

motionless, afraid any movement might shatter this

me, I

it exactly as we left 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 to our relationship, her aggressive molding of me, my attempts to anticipate

at me. "Ten years 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 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

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

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

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

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

me," I countered. "One photo in

interrupted. "Every aspect of your life examined. Your education records. Your medical history. Your social circles. The more

undermined at every turn, yet still fought to carve out your

observation stung with its accuracy. All my life, I'd been swimming against

Chapter 20

Victoria continued. "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 saw you in here," Victoria said, gesturing toward Sophia's bedroom, "my first thought wasn't