SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 82

The cabin door opened with a soft click. Alexander looked up from Ruth's journal, his fingers still resting on the worn leather cover. His expression shifted from surprise to something more guarded, hope held carefully in check.

Camille stood in the doorway, backlit by the morning sun. The ocean breeze had

loosened strands of her hair from its

perfect arrangement, giving her a wildness that contradicted the careful image she'd maintained since her transformation. She stepped inside, letting the door close behind her.

"I sent the helicopter back," she said, her voice steadier than she felt.

Alexander set the journal aside. "You're staying?"

"For now." Camille moved further into the cabin, noticing the small details she'd missed before, the coffee mug with a chipped rim, the wrinkled shirt

hanging by the tiny

bathroom, the scattered notes in Alexander's handwriting. Signs of actual living, not just performing.

The silence between them stretched, filled with unspoken questions.

"The view from the bow is incredible," she finally said. "You can

see the whole city. All those buildings, all those lives. From here, they look so small."

"Perspective changes everything." Alexander remained seated, giving her space.

Camille touched

the silver rose pendant at her throat. "When I was little, I used to imagine who I might become. A doctor, a teacher, an astronaut. Normal dreams." Her mouth curved in a sad smile. "Then I became Stefan's wife creation."

"And now?" Alexander asked quietly.

"Now I want to be someone new." The words felt strange on her

tongue, frightening

and liberating all at once. "Someone who makes her own name, not just wears someone else's."

Alexander's face remained calm, but his knuckles whitened slightly as his hands

gripped the edge of the desk. "What does that look like for you?"

Camille turned to the window, watching

the waves catch sunlight. “I don't know exactly. But I know what it doesn't

look like." She took a deep breath. "It doesn't look like spending

my life feeding a hunger for

revenge that never gets satisfied. It doesn't look like measuring my worth by how successfully I destroy others."

She faced him again. "When I was in that parking garage, bleeding and broken, I thought I'd lost

everything. Victoria

showed me I was wrong, I'd lost things, but not everything. Not myself."

a path,"

does two things, it destroys and it transforms. I've done enough

his movements careful, measured, as if approaching something precious and easily startled. "The Phoenix Foundation you announced, it could be

relations move. Something that

rebuild after betrayal."

herself. "Anyone who's been discarded, anyone who's been told they're nothing after giving everything. People like I was. People like you were, alone in that hospital." The words hung between them,

said. "Building something meaningful never

know." Camille's fingers

desk. "Victoria won't understand. She might see

did to me."

you tell

my body, but staying consumed by

cracked slightly. "That

any

single step closer. "You'll

tech division, yes. Victoria gave me

"I earned it. And I'll use it to build the grid, to fund the foundation,

"And Rose and Stefan?"

jaw tightened. "They've lost everything. They'll face legal consequences for what they did. But I won't spend another day thinking about them.

seemed to physically lighten her. She stood

deeper.

said simply. "In

direct, without Victoria's trained suspicion or Camille Lewis's naive

asking for truth.

never left hers. “Because I've spent years watching you from a distance, first with gratitude, then with worry, then with admiration. Because I've never

could walk through such darkness

foot

in a hospital room is the same woman who stands here

her cheeks. "You make me sound better

head. "I

been too hurt to

beneath them, a

Through the window, Camille could see the

clean and sharp as

continued. "Every step, in

that's what you want."

Camille studied

eyes, the tension in his jaw, the careful way he held himself, offering without demanding. She'd forgotten

word hung between them, an offering, not a

smile breaking across his face

it for a long moment before placing her hand in his. His fingers were warm, solid, his grip gentle but secure. "I should warn you," she said, a hint of humor in her

no idea what I'm doing. All

beautiful part." Alexander's thumb

what comes next. And speaking as someone who watched you

steadied

the armor Victoria had helped her build,

love Stefan had withdrawn. For

she could give them or do for

scared," she admitted, the words

Alexander's voice held no judgment. "Fear

something that

knock at the cabin

moment. One of the engineers stood there, awkwardly holding

Pierce, but we've