SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 83

The late afternoon sun slanted through the tall windows of the Lewis family estate, casting long

shadows across the polished floors. Margaret Lewis sat alone in the east wing parlor, surrounded by open photo albums. Her trembling fingers traced a photograph of seven- year- old Camille, beaming with a missing front tooth

and holding a science fair ribbon.

"First place," Margaret whispered to the empty room, her smile crumpling.

She turned a page. Camille at

ten, sitting with Margaret on marble steps, their heads bent over. "The Secret Garden." Margaret remembered how Camille had begged to read two chapters that night.

The memories washed over her in waves. These were all from before Rose had

arrived when Camille was thirteen. Before everything changed.

With shaking hands, she pulled out a photo

tucked between pages: Camille at ten in the kitchen with Margaret, making Christmas cookies despite the chef's protests. Flour dusted their faces, laughter frozen in time. They had been inseparable then.

"We were happy," Margaret said to the photograph. "We were so happy."

She hadn't realized she was crying until a tear splashed onto the

plastic sleeve. Margaret wiped it away carefully, then pressed

the album to her chest.

The fifteen-thousand-square-foot mansion felt

too vast now, too quiet. Since the day the visited Camille and she cut ties with them, Margaret had moved through each day like a ghost. Richard's voice echoed in the hallway as he spoke to Bradford, their butler.

"No calls, Bradford. Not even from the board."

"Very good, sir. Shall I have Mrs. Peters prepare dinner for two

in the small dining room?"

"That would be fine. And tell her no seafood tonight. Margaret isn't up to it."

Margaret turned another page. Camille at

fourteen, playing the grand piano at her recital.

Richard's footsteps approached, then stopped in the doorway.

"Oh, Maggie," he said softly, using the nickname he hadn't spoken in years.

Margaret looked up at her husband. His bespoke suit couldn't hide how his frame had thinned, his shoulders slumped. His face seemed to have aged a decade in

the past month, deep lines carved around his mouth.

“Look at us,” Margaret said, holding up a family vacation photo. "She was twelve here. Remember how she wanted to learn to scuba dive, and you were so worried?"

Richard knelt beside her, taking the photo.

anyway," he

face. "Came back with that certification and

worried too

We should have worried less about the

picked up another photo: Camille on

making a mistake choosing Boston instead of Yale. I

He shook his head. “She was

Camille winning

laughing with friends

was always so good, Richard. So kind." Margaret's

her. How did that happen?

more recent photo, Camille and Stefan at

smile that had fooled

we wanted to see," he said. "Rose was so... perfect on the surface. She said all the right things, did all the right things. She moved through our world like she was born to it." "Not like Camille,"

and questioned everything. Who didn't care about appearing in the society pages or impressing

broke. "Our own daughter,

closed her eyes, remembering Camille's face at Kane Industries

ago, cold and

she'll ever forgive us? Ever

immediately. He gathered

looking at each one with

don't know," he said

tried to tell us about Rose and Stefan... The way we doubted her,

desperately. "We can make it

tried that

at us like we were shareholders asking for a

we meant nothing to

cheeks. "That's not our

"No,"

met at Kane Industries, that's who our daughter had

Camille's wedding to Stefan. The

Rose is looking at her, even then. How did we

the daughter

was

own person, messy and real and... so much stronger than we

faces. Then, after Rose came, the images changed dramatically. Fewer candid shots, more posed photos

lost her starting the day Rose arrived.

chose

we praised Rose's perfect manners while

she belongs to Victoria

Actually loves her,

Victoria Kane is capable of love the way we understand

She gave her purpose, power,

when her old one was

Margaret's hands curled into fists. "Our 'perfect' daughter who tried to

our real daughter killed."

thinking about that summer when

She broke

her room for

I would tell her stories until she fell back asleep.

to hear about brave girls who fought dragons or solved mysteries.

to be