SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 35

ALEXANDER POINT OF VIEW

The soft hum of my car's engine fills the silence as I watch the gallery entrance. Rain taps

against the windows, turning the city lights into blurred stars. My thoughts keep returning to her to the moment she collided with me outside that powder room, to the brief flash of raw emotion in her eyes before Camille. Even her name feels different on my tongue now.

My security team thinks I'm obsessed. Maybe they're right. I've spent a year tracking her transformation, gathering every scrap of information about who she was before Victoria Kane molded her into this new c I pull up an old photo on my phone. Camille Lewis at her engagement party, standing slightly behind Rose while Stefan's attention clearly drifted toward her sister. Even then, something in her eyes spoke of qui But I see it. I've always seen it.

The gallery doors open, spilling light and laughter onto the wet sidewalk. The city's elite emerge in their designer clothes, diamonds catching streetlight as they hurry to waiting cars. I watch them with the detach Movement catches my eye, a flash of emerald silk. Camille appears in the doorway, and my breath catches despite myself. She moves with deliberate grace, each step precisely placed. Victoria's training shows

But there's something else. Something uniquely her own that shines through the polish and refinement. I lean forward slightly, studying

driver's offered umbrella, tilts her head back slightly to feel the water. Such a small act

The

and social training.

mind drifts back to our encounter. The slight tremor in her hands when I steadied her. The sharp intake of breath when I mentioned family reunions. The way her eyes widened for just a moment when I hinte Rose and Stefan emerge shortly after, lost in their own world of

fingers tighten on the steering wheel. Their casual cruelty, their unthinking arrogance,

that recognizes the

We're alike in that way, Camille and J. We've both

see that Camille is becoming something far more significant. Something th I've built my empire watching people, reading the pattern others miss. Every facial expression, every gesture, every careful word tells a story if you know how to interpret

composure while fire burns in her eyes. How she wields her new identity like armor while keeping her true self carefully guarded. The subtle tells that reveal her struggle between Her car pulls up to the

watch her check her surroundings one last time, a habit Victoria must have drilled into her. But there's natural vigilance there too, Instincts honed

The

They're all missing the real story, Missing the strength that radiates