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."

you a path," Alexander

A path of fire." Camille's voice grew stronger. "But fire does two things, it destroys

as if approaching something precious and easily startled. "The Phoenix Foundation you announced, it could be real,

relations move. Something that

rebuild after betrayal."

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, raw and

be easy," Alexander said. "Building

Camille's fingers

photograph on the desk. "Victoria won't understand. She might

did to me."

will you tell

tried to murder my body, but

cracked slightly.

her destroy any more of

closer. "You'll still

gave me

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

"And Rose and Stefan?"

they did. But I won't spend another day thinking about

words seemed to physically lighten her. She

deeper.

help," Alexander said simply. "In whatever way you'll

trained suspicion or

asking for truth.

I've spent years watching you from a distance, first with gratitude,

darkness and still carry

until barely a foot separated them. "Because the

hospital room is the same woman who stands here now, finally free to decide who she wants to

"You make me sound better than I

shook his head.

too

swayed gently beneath them, a living thing

Camille could see the horizon

met water, clean and sharp as a

step, in any way you need. But

that's what you want."

Camille studied

he held himself, offering without demanding. She'd forgotten what it felt like to be offered something with

word hung between them, an offering,

smile breaking across his face

grabbing, just offering connection. Camille looked at it for a long moment before placing her hand in his. His fingers

idea what I'm doing. All my

beautiful part."

across her knuckles. "You get to discover what comes next. And speaking as someone who watched you systematically dismantle two empires, I'm fairly confident you can handle building a new

grounded her, steadied her

his words that reached deeper, past the armor Victoria had helped

had withdrawn. For the first

give them or

she admitted,

held no

something

knock at the

of the engineers stood there, awkwardly holding

we've