SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 26

STEFAN'S POINT OF VIEW

The bourbon burned down my throat, a welcome fire against the cold emptiness spreading through my chest. I signaled the bartender for another. My fourth? Fifth? I'd lost count hours ago.

"You sure about that, buddy?" he asked, eyeing the empty glasses.

"Just pour the damn drink," I growled,

The alcohol couldn't drown the words that had haunted me all day: Martin Greene reading Camille's will, her final message cutting through me like a blade.

*"To my former husband, Stefan Rodriguez, I return the engagement ring that belonged to his grandmother, with the hope that next time he gives

it, it will be with honesty and true devotion.

The ring sat heavy in my pocket, retrieved from the safety deposit box this morning. Grandmother Rosa's ring Three generations of Rodriguez women had worn it before I'd placed it on Camille's finger, promisin Thirty million dollars and the Cedar Hill estate. All of it to charity. Not a penny to her family. Nothing to Rose. Nothing to me. Everything to help girls who had no one else to turn to

That was Camille. Always giving. Always thinking of others. Even in death.

My phone vibrated again. Rose. Her sixth call tonight. I silenced it without answering. Couldn't talk to her. Not after watching calculation rather than grief cross her face at the will reading. All she cared about wa Had I really left Camille for that? For someone who couldn't even fake proper sadness at her own sister's generosity?

The night air hit me like a slap as I stumbled out of the bar. I started walking, no destination in mind, until I found myself at Riverside Park, where Camille and I had spent countless Sunday afternoons during our first year together.

Before Rose came back from London. Before everything changed.

I sank onto a bench overlooking the water, the same river that had swallowed Camille's car. Her body never found. Just

waterlogged reminder of the

diamond caught what little light penetrated the park's

“I

to the night, to Camille's ghost."m

buzzed. Rose

you?" Her voice sharp with

"Out"

Come over. We need to talk about what happened

mouth. Had I ever denied Rose anything

us," Rose hissed. "To punish us from

sounded more like a sob. "Is that what you think?

Chapter 26.

Even after everything, she loved

and turned off my phone. The alcohol had

memory surfaced: Camille on our first date, describing her dreams of working with disadvantaged youth." Everyone deserves a chance," she'd said, eyes bright with conviction. "Especially kids who start with I'd nodded along, pretending her passion moved me when really I was just calculating how long until I

my place. God, I'd been shallow then. Had I

realization hit me with physical force. I'd left the one person who truly loved me for someone incapable of loving anyone but

me at the Rodriguez family mausoleum. Inside, I traced the engraved letters

said to the empty air. "With the ring. You're

grandmother's ring

Rose? For exciten Hours later, I found myself outside the Lighthouse Foundation. Camille's charity. The organization she'd left her fortune to. Young women entered and exited, some with hard eyes and defensive postures, others Inside, I met Dr. Elena Reyes, the director. She showed me the plans for Cedar

carefully designed under

but emotional safety," Dr. Reyes explained. "Many of them

I heard myself say.