SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 97

Rain lashed against the windows of Victoria Kane's office, matching her dark mood. She sat rigid in her leather chair, eyes fixed on the large screen mounted on the wall. The security footage playing before her

Martin, her head of security, stood nearby, his face grim as they watched Rose Lewis slip into a side entrance of an upscale restaurant. The timestamp showed 9:43 PM, two days ago. "Pause it," Victoria commanded.

Martin pressed a button on the remote. The image froze, capturing Rose mid-

step, her face partly hidden by large sunglasses despite the late hour. Even in disguise, the hatred Victoria felt for this woman burned in her stomach

like acid.

"Continue."

The footage resumed. Rose moved through the restaurant, head down, until she reached a private dining area in the back. A walter pulled aside a curtain, revealing a booth where someone already waited. The "Can you get a better view of his face?" Victoria asked, leaning forward.

Martin shook his head. "No, ma'am. We've tried enhancing from every angle. The restaurant's security system isn't positioned to capture that corner clearly. It seems..."

"Deliberate," Victoria finished for him. "As if they knew exactly where to sit to avoid identification."

"Yes, ma'am."

Victoria's fingers tapped against the polished wood of her desk, a habit she allowed herself only in moments of deep concern. "What else?"

Martin changed to another video feed. This one showed Rose and the mystery man leaving separately. First Rose, glancing nervously over her shoulder, then twenty minutes later, the man, still with his back to backed confidence of someone used to command.

"We followed her?" Victoria asked.

"Yes. She went directly to her apartment." Martin hesitated "We tried to track the man, but he had a car waiting Black Bentley, tinted windows, changed license plates twice before we lost him in Queens." Victoria's eyes narrowed. Amateur mistakes weren't made by Martin's team. "He knew you were following."

"It appears so." Martin's professional pride seemed wounded. "Whoever he is, he has resources. And training." Victoria stood, moving to the window. Below, New York sprawled out, glistening wet from the rain, how me the other encounters," she ordered, turning back

Martin pulled up four more video clips, different locations different days. A coffee shop in Brooklyn. A bench in Central Park. The lobby of a hotel. A dock at the marina. Always the same pattern: Rose and the mystery man, faces hidden or obscured, meeting in locations that seemed randeni but Victoria recognized as strategically selected for minimal surveillance.

Chapter 97

"They're planning something," Victoria murmured, more to herself than to Martin.

emergency funds we weren't aware of. Not much, two hundred thousand

we can follow. Which suggests someone

age today, the weight of it pressing down on her shoulders. She had lived

is Camille

the final blueprints for

she was safe, Victoria thought. Protected

team. But

Victoria moved back

desk and pressed the intercom. "Sarah, cancel

car ready

button and looked at Martin. "I want our security doubled at the groundbreaking ceremony. Triple it around Camille without making it obvious. And I want every second of Rose's day tracked, where she goes, who she meets, what she buys." "Yes, ma'am." Martin's expression remained neutral, but Victoria caught the faintest flicker of concern in his eyes. "And the man?" "Find him," Victoria said, her voice going sharp as a blade.

chest surprised her. Victoria Kane did not indulge in regret, it was unproductive, wasteful. Yet lately, watching Camille begin to open her heart to Alexander, seeing glimpses of the woman she had been before Rose's betrayal, Victoria wondered about the

whispered to the empty room. Everything had been necessary. The surgery. The training. The calculated revenge. She had forged Camille into a weapon that could strike back

her.

weapons, once created, didn't always stay in the hands that

buzzed with a message

the Grid blueprints. Minor but concerning. Someone may have tampered with

of a

close. Coming

once more at the frozen image on the screen, Rose and the shadow of a

of course, gave no answer. But Victoria felt something she hadn't experienced in years, a flutter of unease. Not fear, never fear. But a premonition that patterns were shifting, that variables she hadn' For the first time since taking Camille under her

scanner, granting access to the secure communications system built into the wall. "Connect me to Alexander

Alexander's voice filled the

"Can you speak freely?"

Camille is with Hannah reviewing the altered sections

elevator's

been meeting with someone, a man. We can't identify

"Someone helping her target

My security team couldn't track him, he

watched the floor numbers tick down. "Alexander, I've never asked about the full extent of your resources. I know they're

this time. "What exactly

capabilities. They exceed