SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 107

Chapter 107

The restaurant occupied the entire top floor of a Midtown hotel, overlooking Central Park. Camille arrived fifteen minutes early, a tactic Victoria

had taught her, secure the

position of power, choose your seat, control the encounter from the first moment.

She selected a corner table with her back to the wall, facing both elevators. The

host seated her with a professional smile, leaving her alone with her thoughts and a sparkling water she wouldn't drink.

Camille smoothed her navy dress, a simple design that concealed the tension in her body. The silver rose pendant Alexander had returned to her hung at her throat, a reminder of who she had been before Rose's betrayal, before Victoria's transformation.

Her phone buzzed with a text from Alexander: *Everything okay?*

She typed: *They haven't arrived yet.*

*I'm in the lobby if you need me.*

A small smile touched her lips. Alexander

hadn't questioned her decision to face her parents alone, but he'd

insisted on accompanying her to the hotel. Her shield, waiting in the background.

The elevator doors opened, and Camille's smile

vanished. Her stomach tightened into a knot.

Margaret and Richard Lewis stepped into the restaurant, looking smaller than she remembered. Her mother scanned the space, hands clutched around

her purse. Her father stood slightly behind, his shoulders rounded in a way Camille had never seen before.

They spotted her. Hesitated. Then walked toward her table with careful steps.

Camille did not stand. Did not smile. Did not offer her cheek for the kiss her mother Teaned in to give before thinking better of it.

"Camille," Margaret said, the name catching in her throat. "Thank you for, for agreeing

to meet us."

"Please," Richard gestured to the chairs. "May we sit?"

Camille nodded, her face revealing nothing. Victoria would have been proud.

They settled awkwardly, all the social

graces they'd drilled into her now useless in the face of their broken relationship.

"You look well," her mother tried. "Healthy."

"I am," Camille kept her voice neutral. "Victoria takes good care of

her investments."

Her mother flinched at the word "investments." Her father cleared his throat.

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Chapter 107

"Camille, we..." Richard began.

"Why did you want to meet?" Camille cut him off. Direct. No small talk.

Her parents exchanged glances. Margaret nodded slightly, and Richard reached down for a leather satchel he'd placed beside his chair. He removed a flat package wrapped in blue cloth and placed it on the tab "We wanted to give you these," he said. "They're yours. They've always been

yours."

Camille didn't touch the package. "What is it?"

Margaret's eyes filled with tears. "Your journals. From when you were a girl. Before... Before Rose came."

The words hit Camille like a physical blow. Her journals. The ones

Rose had found

and read aloud mockingly. The ones that had disappeared after her "accident."

"You kept them?" Camille couldn't hide her surprise.

"We found them when we were cleaning out your old room," Richard

explained. "After your... after the news about

your car in the river. We couldn't bear to throw them away."

Camille looked at the package, still not touching it. "And now

you want to return them because you know I'm alive."

"No," Margaret shook her head, a tear spilling down her

cheek. "We want to return them

because we've read them. All of them. And we..." Her voice broke completely.

Richard covered his wife's hand with his own.

"We failed you, Camille. In ways we're only beginning to understand. Your journals, they show a pattern we were tod blind to

see."

A server approached, sensing the tension. Camille requested water for

the table and said they weren't ready to order.

the package, unwrapping it

notebooks of different colors and sizes. Her childhood

pattern?" Camille asked,

Margaret

manipulated all of us. How we always took

things that weren't

one," Richard said softly.

opened the small green notebook.

old self had written:

for making

come to the movies with me

didn't show up. And when I got home, she told Mom I left without her on purpose. Why doesn't Mom ever believe me? Rose smiled when Mom

SMILED. Like she

in the lobby for Rose, who never came.

knowing

got home. The helplessness of not

dozens of entries

regret. "So many times we took Rose's

closed the journal. "Why are you showing

we owe you the truth," Richard

What Rose did. What

want to apologize," Margaret added. "Not because we expect forgiveness. We don't

deserve to

strangers who shared her

them

Victoria had trained

prepared her for genuine remorse, for

perfectly composed mother reduced

than she intended. "When I told you about her affair with Stefan. When

Richard admitted. "And it will haunt us

what we

"That our perfect

truths. That

capable of such

she tried to kill

Her parents flinched.

know.

asking for forgiveness, Richard

to us. We know that's

Camille asked, steadier than

Margaret reached across the

short of touching Camille's hand. Just...

your terms."

permit us to be

“Even if it's just distant acquaintances who meet

her childhood suffering, preserved by

know if I can do that," she said

understand," Margaret nodded, drawing back her hand. "The journals are yours regardless. No

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Chapter 107

her parents were as human and flawed as

said finally. "This

in her mother's eyes,

all the time

"I could perhaps... meet occasionally. Not

Not with Rose." Her voice

this. Just

her parents' faces was

grief, of regret, of the terrible belief that their

that she

despise them.

his voice rough with emotion. "That's more than

ordered food mechanically,

particularly interested in

Camille studied them with new eyes.

Gray dominated her

Lines had deepened around her mother's

When the

the table, the uncomfortable silence of people who once knew everything about each

about the

finally, grasping for neutral territory. "It's an extraordinary

bit of

infrastructure completely."

happy, Camille?" her

off guard. "With Victoria? With this new

considered the

easy lie. "I'm... becoming who I need to be. Happiness

Richard

An image of Alexander

smile, his

as if seeing

"Now, there might be room for

understanding something

You deserve that.

They

When the meal ended, they

"may I

then gave a small nod. Her mother's arms went

of her perfume

both good and painful. The embrace

slightly stiff, but

didn't ask for a hug, respecting the boundaries Camille had established. "Take

if... when you're ready."

than the parents who had once loomed so large in her life. As the

back down, her

for the

green one again,

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