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."

We move

Rose might once have taken this as an insult Tonight, she recognized it as appreciation, one strat

doors that remained closed to others. That people believe what they want to believe, see what

you want me to see tonight?" Herod asked, leaning forward

accepted 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 sure who

discovering tonight," Herod suggested. "Who Rose Lewis is when

food too artful to immediately disturb. The waiter poured more wins - retreated, leaving them in

adopted daughter. The supportive sister. The perfect fiancée. Sometimes I wonder if there's anything

said with unexpected certainty. "I've

rage, your determination, your refusal to accept defeat.

hadn't expected. In Herod's eyes, her darkness wasn't something to hide

the pretty lies," she

weight that made her look up from her plate. “I see your

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

down his fork, considering his answer. "Because partnerships forged only in hatred rarely survive. Because I wanted

there?" Rose challenged, though she already suspected

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

sensation both foreign and familiar. How long had it been since she'd felt genuine attraction, not calculated seduction? With Stefan, with all the others, physical connection had been a tool, a means to

ways that had nothing to do with their revenge

said carefully, "that mixing business

me," Herod replied. "Does it

question was a challenge, and Rose had never backed down from a challenge in her life. She

"No," she said simply.

Herod's eyes, a heat that matched what she felt building within herself. For a moment, they remained perfectly still, connected by that single point

nodded, suddenly certain.

of boundaries crossed, new territories explored. She w Herod appeared in the doorway, two glasses of whiskey in and. The moonlight silvered his bare chest, highlighting the unexpected strength of his body.

shook her head. "No. Surprises, maybe,

"What surprises you?"

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