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.

she reached for the package, unwrapping it with

notebooks of different colors and sizes. Her childhood handwriting filled their

asked, though she already

Margaret

us. How we always took her side. How

you for things that weren't

one," Richard said softly.

hesitated, then opened the small green

old self had written:

yelled at me again for making

come to the movies with me and Jenna, and

show up. And when I got home, she told Mom I left without her on purpose. Why doesn't Mom

SMILED. Like

waiting in the lobby for Rose,

feeling knowing what would

home. The helplessness of

are dozens of entries like that,"

many times we took Rose's word over

the journal. "Why are you showing me this

we owe you the truth," Richard said.

now. What Rose did. What

to apologize," Margaret added. "Not because we

deserve to

stared at them, these strangers who shared her blood. She had

moment, confronting them, making them suffer for their

Victoria had trained

remorse, for her proud father with reddened eyes,

composed mother

"When I told you about her affair with Stefan.

"And it will haunt

believed what

"That our perfect family

ugly truths. That our adopted

be capable

then she tried to

Her parents flinched.

know. Not until it was too

for forgiveness, Richard

to come back to us. We know

then?" Camille

Margaret reached across the

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

your terms."

whatever you'll permit us to

“Even if it's just distant acquaintances who meet for coffee

childhood suffering, preserved by

don't know if I can do

understand," Margaret nodded, drawing back her hand. "The journals are

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Chapter 107

quite forgiveness, but something adjacent to it. Recognition, perhaps, that her parents were as human and flawed as she was. That Rose had

need time," Camille said finally. "This isn't something

mother's

the time

Camille continued, "I could perhaps... meet occasionally.

voice hardened on her

like this. Just

relief on her parents' faces was painful

terrible belief that their daughter was

equally terrible knowledge that she had

despise them.

you," Richard said, his voice rough with emotion.

food

them particularly interested in

with new eyes. They had aged years in the months

Gray dominated

now. Lines had deepened around

When the

the uncomfortable silence of people who once

about the Phoenix Grid," her

neutral territory.

bit of pride.

infrastructure completely."

happy, Camille?" her mother asked suddenly,

caught Camille off guard. "With Victoria? With this new

the question, not

need to be. Happiness wasn't the goal at first. Survival was.

now?" Richard

An image of Alexander

his smile,

looked at her as if seeing

might be room for more than

something

You deserve that.

They

When the meal ended, they stood

hesitantly, "may I hug you?

gave a small nod.

scent of

and painful. The embrace

stiff,

had established. "Take care of yourself," he

if... when you're ready."

fragile than the parents who had

behind them, she sat back down, her hands trembling slightly

reached for

one again, flipping

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