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 server left, she reached for the package, unwrapping it with careful fingers.

colors and sizes. Her

pattern?" Camille asked, though

Margaret

all of us.

for things that

one," Richard said softly. "Page

the small green notebook.

old self had written:

again for making Rose feel

come to the movies

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

She SMILED. Like she PLANNED

the lobby for Rose, who

feeling knowing what would

home. The helplessness of not being

are dozens of entries like

her voice hollow with regret. "So many times we took

are you showing me

you the truth," Richard

What we allowed

apologize," Margaret added. "Not because we expect

to hear

these strangers who shared

them suffer for their betrayal, walking

trained her for that

hadn't prepared her for genuine remorse,

composed mother reduced

Camille said, harder than she intended. "When I told you about her affair with Stefan. When I needed

"And it will haunt us

what

added. "That our perfect

truths. That

be capable

then she tried to kill me," Camille

Her parents flinched.

we didn't know. Not until

forgiveness, Richard

to us. We know that's not

then?" Camille asked, steadier than she

Margaret reached across the

of touching Camille's hand. Just... to know

your terms."

whatever you'll permit us to

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

childhood suffering, preserved by the very people

if I can do that," she said

Margaret nodded, drawing back her hand. "The

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Chapter 107

her parents were as human and flawed as she was. That Rose had manipulated

time," Camille said finally. "This

flickered in her mother's

the time you

Camille continued, "I could perhaps... meet

voice

like this.

parents' faces was

the terrible belief that their daughter

equally terrible knowledge that she

despise them.

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

ordered food mechanically,

particularly interested

engaged with the server, Camille studied them with new eyes. They

left. Gray

had deepened

When the

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

news about the Phoenix

finally, grasping for neutral

bit of pride.

infrastructure completely."

happy, Camille?" her mother asked suddenly,

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

the

"I'm... becoming who I need to be. Happiness wasn't the goal at first. Survival was. Then

Richard

An image of Alexander

mind, his smile, his steady presence,

looked at her as if seeing all

might be

something in Camille's tone.

deserve that. You always

They

meal ended, they stood together,

I..." Margaret began hesitantly, "may

a small nod. Her

strange, the scent of

good and

slightly stiff, but

didn't ask for a hug, respecting the boundaries Camille had

if... when you're ready."

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

behind them, she sat back down, her hands trembling

for

the green one again, flipping through pages

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