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."

gave you a

A path of fire." Camille's voice grew stronger. "But fire does two things, it destroys and it transforms. I've done enough destroying. I

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

move. Something

rebuild after betrayal."

they're nothing after giving everything. People like I was. People like you

won't be easy," Alexander said. "Building

Camille's fingers nervously

desk. "Victoria won't understand. She might

did to me."

you

tried to murder my body, but staying consumed by hate

soul." Camille's voice cracked slightly.

any more

a single step closer. "You'll still run

gave me

use it to build the grid, to fund the foundation, to create something

"And Rose and Stefan?"

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

her words seemed to physically lighten her. She stood taller,

deeper.

to help," Alexander said simply.

trained suspicion or Camille Lewis's naive trust. Just

asking for truth.

hers. “Because I've spent years watching you from a distance, first with gratitude, then with worry,

such darkness

moved closer until barely a foot separated them. "Because

the same woman who stands here

"You make me sound better than

shook his head. "I just

too hurt to

beneath

Camille could see the

met water, clean and sharp

in any way you need. But

that's what you want."

Camille studied

careful way he held himself, offering without demanding. She'd forgotten what it felt like to be offered something with no debt attached. "Yes," she whispered. Then stronger: "Yes. I want your

hung between them,

shoulders relaxed, a smile breaking across his face like sunrise. "Then we'll build something extraordinary

held out his hand, palm up, not grabbing, just offering connection. Camille looked at it for a long moment before placing her hand in his. His fingers were warm, solid, his grip gentle but secure.

idea what I'm doing. All

the beautiful part." Alexander's thumb

"You get to discover what comes next. And speaking as someone who watched

her, steadied her

deeper, past the armor Victoria had helped her build, past the wounds

love Stefan had withdrawn. For the first time

she could give them or

she admitted, the words

held no judgment. "Fear

doing something that

at the cabin

the engineers stood there,

interrupt, Mr. Pierce, but we've got some anomalous readings from