SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 70

Chapter 70

Camille's point of view

I stood in Victoria's darkened office, staring at the files spread across her massive desk. The penthouse windows behind me reflected my silhouette against Manhattan's nighttime skyline, a solitary figure surrou I'd never suspected.

Victoria was in Tokyo closing the Moretti Global acquisition, leaving me alone with access to her private servers, supposedly to prepare for my new role heading Kane Industries' fashion division. Instead, I'd stur Now my world was tilting on its axis.

The first document had seemed innocent enough, a standard background report on Alexander Pierce and his business holdings. But the next had stopped my breath in my lungs: detailed accounts of Alexander the-

scenes manipulation of markets to prevent Rose's company from securing emergency financing last month.

And it didn't stop there.

Email exchanges between Alexander's chief of security and private investigators tracking down Rose's former lovers in London. Financial records showing how Alexander's shell companies had purchased cont For more than a year, Alexander Pierce had been secretly advancing our revenge plan, removing obstacles, closing escape routes, ensuring that Rose and Stefan's destruction was absolute and inescapable.. All without ever telling me.

My hands

trembled as I picked up the most damning document of all, a detailed memo from Alexander to his chief financial officer, dated three weeks after I'd first appeared publicly as Camille Kane.

"Proceed with liquidation of all Rodriguez Shipping stock," it read. "Strategically release holdings to drive share price down. Coordinate timing with Kane Industries' debt acquisition plan. Maintain maximum deni I sank into Victoria's chair, mind spinning with implications. Had Alexander been using me? Had his apparent interest been just another manipulation, another way to advance his own agenda? Or was there som My fingers hovered over my phone, torn between fury at his deception and a strange, growing warmth at the thought of what his covert assistance might truly mean.

I could decide how to respond, the office

you found my

the airport. Her face revealed nothing as she moved into the room, setting her bag on a side table with deliberate calm. "You're

in Los Angeles," I said, not bothering to

early. I took the company

a scotch from the bar cart without offering me

Rose and Stefan? That he was the mysterious benefactor closing financial doors and buying up their

glass. "All of that,

the documents into a neat pile. "I don't know yet. Depends

lying," Victoria corrected.

challenged, anger finally

spread beneath us. "When I proposed our plan to destroy Rose and Stefan, you agreed under one condition, that it would be strategic, not emotional.

"I remember."

Pierce complicated that

of our original strategy. His assistance, while valuable, introduced variables I

appeared at that charity

Victoria finished for me. "He'd been

distance. Helping accelerate it in ways

out of this?" Victoria's expression softened almost imperceptibly. "That's a question better asked directly to Alexander." "Did y Victoria shook her head. "Not until three months ago. His security is remarkably thorough, but

extended our reach. His motivation, while personal, didn't interfere with our objectives." "His motivation," I