SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 95

Chapter 95

Three hours later, Rose gazed out the window of a private dining room in Montreal's most exclusive restaurant. Snow fell gently outside, illuminated by street lamps and café lights. Inside, candles flickered on th "You seem surprised to be enjoying yourself," Herod observed, watching her over the rim of his wine glass.

Rose turned from the window. "I am, a little. I haven't thought about anything but revenge for so long. It feels strange to just... exist."

"Vengeance is consuming," Herod agreed. "It leaves little room for ordinary pleasures."

"Is that why you collect books? To remember there's life beyond revenge?"

He considered this, "Perhaps. Though I began collecting long before Victoria Kane entered my life."

Rose studied him in the candlelight. Without the hard edges of their planning sessions, Herod Preston revealed different

facets, cultured, thoughtful, even charming in his precise way.

"Tell me about the brother you lost," she said softly.

Herod's expression tightened momentarily, then relaxed. "Charles was the better of us. Kinder. More idealistic. He believed in love, in goodness. I always saw

the darker side of human nature."

"And yet Victoria targeted him first."

"Because he was connected to what she loved most, her daughter." Herod swirled the wine in his glass. "The cruellest revenge strikes not at you directly, but at what you cherish."

Rose thought of Camille, of the Phoenix Grid, of how precisely

their attack had been aimed at what her sister valued most. "We're following her playbook, aren't we? Using Victoria's

own methods against her."

improvements," Herod added. "Victoria acted from raw grief. We

at manipulation as you." Rose might once have taken this as an insult Tonight, she recognized it as appreciation, one strat "We all use the tools life gives

to others. That people believe

to see

her carefully constructed personas without question, who never looked for the truth beneath the performance. "I don't know," she admitted, surprising herself with her honesty. "I'm not

suggested. "Who Rose Lewis is when the masks

The

grateful adopted daughter. The supportive

is," Herod said with

rage, your determination, your refusal to accept defeat.

her, a recognition she hadn't expected. In Herod's eyes, her darkness wasn't

want the pretty lies,"

that made her look up from her plate. “I see your ruthlessness, your capacity for vengeance, and I find

charged with meaning. Rose felt her pulse quicken. She was accustomed to inspiring desire in men, but always for the mirage she created. Never for her true self, especially not t "Why did you really bring me

fork, considering his answer. "Because partnerships forged only in hatred rarely survive. Because I wanted to know if there could

is there?" Rose challenged, though she already suspected

across the table, his fingers brushing hers in a touch too deliberate to be accidental.

familiar. How long had it been since she'd

felt different. Unpredictable. Dangerous in ways that had nothing to do with their revenge

"that mixing business and

Herod

down from a challenge in her life. She turned her hand beneath

"No," she said simply.

within herself. For a moment, they remained perfectly still, connected by that single point of contact, the air between

suddenly certain.

appeared in the doorway, two glasses of whiskey in and. The moonlight

her head. "No. Surprises, maybe,

"What surprises you?"

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