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.

for the package, unwrapping it with careful fingers.

five notebooks of different colors and sizes. Her

asked, though

Margaret

her tears. "How Rose manipulated all of us. How we always took her side. How

things that weren't

one," Richard said softly. "Page

opened the small green notebook. Her

old self had written:

me again for making Rose feel unwelcome.

come to the movies with me and Jenna, and she

left without her on purpose. Why doesn't Mom ever believe me? Rose smiled when

SMILED. Like she PLANNED

the lobby for Rose, who

knowing

got home. The helplessness of

of entries like that,"

with regret. "So many times we took

journal. "Why are you showing me this

you the truth," Richard said.

What Rose did. What we allowed her

Margaret added. "Not because we expect forgiveness. We don't

to

stared at them, these strangers who

making them suffer for their betrayal,

Victoria had trained

hadn't prepared her for genuine remorse, for her proud father with

perfectly composed mother reduced to

intended. "When I told you

it will haunt

what

added. "That our perfect family

truths. That

be capable

tried to

Her parents flinched.

whispered. "And we didn't know.

not asking for forgiveness, Richard said. "Or

to come back to us. We know that's

Camille asked,

Margaret reached across the

short of touching Camille's hand. Just... to know you. In whatever way you'll allow.

your terms."

permit us

just distant acquaintances who meet for coffee once

childhood suffering, preserved by the very people who had

I can

drawing back her hand. "The journals are yours regardless. No

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Chapter 107

adjacent to it. Recognition, perhaps, that her parents were as human and flawed as she

"This isn't something I

flickered in her mother's eyes, fragile, cautious

the time

could perhaps... meet occasionally. Not

Not with Rose." Her voice

this. Just to

was painful to witness. It spoke

terrible belief

terrible knowledge that she had survived only to

despise them.

rough with emotion.

food mechanically,

them particularly interested in eating. As

new

Gray

now. Lines had deepened around

When the

silence fell over the table, the uncomfortable silence of people who once knew everything about each other and

about

for neutral territory. "It's an

allowed herself a small bit of pride.

infrastructure completely."

her mother

direct that it caught Camille off guard. "With Victoria? With this new

the question,

be.

now?" Richard

An image of Alexander

mind, his smile, his

looked at her as

there might be

something in

that. You always

They

ended, they stood together,

Margaret began hesitantly, "may I

gave a small nod. Her mother's

scent of her perfume unleashing a flood

good and painful. The embrace

slightly stiff, but

ask for a hug, respecting the boundaries Camille had established. "Take care of yourself," he

if... when you're ready."

smaller and more fragile than the parents who had once loomed so large in her life.

sat back down, her hands

for the

the green one again, flipping

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