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,"

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

easily startled. "The Phoenix Foundation you announced, it could

move. Something that actually helps

rebuild after betrayal."

Camille said, surprising herself. "Anyone who's been discarded, anyone who's been told they're nothing after giving everything. People like

be easy," Alexander said. "Building

fingers nervously

desk. "Victoria won't understand.

did to me."

will you tell

tried to murder my body, but staying consumed

voice cracked

her destroy any more of

took a single step closer.

Victoria gave me

it. And I'll 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

seemed to physically lighten

deeper.

want to help," Alexander said simply. "In whatever way

trained suspicion or Camille Lewis's

asking for truth.

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

through such darkness and still carry light

a foot separated them. "Because the woman who

hospital room is the same woman who stands here now, finally

rise to her cheeks. "You make me sound better

head. "I just see

too hurt to

swayed gently beneath them, a living

forward. Through the window, Camille

clean and sharp as

Alexander continued. "Every step, in any way you

that's what you want."

Camille studied

his jaw, the 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.

them, an offering, not

face like sunrise.

before placing her hand in his. His fingers were warm, solid, his grip gentle but secure. "I should warn you," she said,

what I'm doing. All my plans ended with

the beautiful part." Alexander's

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

her, steadied her against

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

Stefan had withdrawn. For

could give them or do

scared," she admitted, the

held no

doing something

knock at the cabin door

engineers stood there, awkwardly holding

we've got some anomalous