SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 159

The phone buzzed on the hospital nightstand. Just once. A single text message.

Camille glanced at it, expecting another update from Alexander, who had stepped out to take a call from the security team. Victoria was asleep, her breathing finally even after a difficult morning of treatments. The room was quiet except for the steady beep of monitors and the soft hiss of the oxygen machine.

Camille reached for the phone, grateful for the distraction from her worried thoughts. The screen lit up.

Unknown number.

She opened the message and froze.

*You took everything from me twice. Now I'll take everyone from you.*

The words burned into her eyes. No signature. None needed. Camille knew exactly who had sent it.

Rose.

Her hand shook as she stared at the message. The phone suddenly felt hot, dangerous, as if it might explode in her palm. She wanted to throw it across the room, to smash it against the wall, to destroy the link between her and the sister who would not stop hunting her.

Instead, she took a deep breath and pressed the screenshot button. Evidence. The FBI would need it.

Victoria stirred in the hospital bed, her eyes opening slowly. "Camille? What's wrong?"

Camille tried to smooth her expression, to hide the fear that must be written across her face. But Victoria had always seen through her masks.

"Show me," Victoria said, her voice stronger than her frail body suggested.

Camille hesitated, then turned the phone screen toward Victoria. No point hiding it. Not from the woman who had taught her to face threats head-on.

Victoria read the message, her face hardening. "She's desperate," she said finally. "Cornered. The FBI is closing in, and she knows it."

"That makes her more dangerous, not less," Camille replied, her voice tight with fear she couldn't quite hide. "She's threatening everyone I love."

"Which is why we have security," Victoria reminded her. "And why the FBI is hunting her day and night."

Camille stood, suddenly unable to sit still. She paced the small hospital room, the phone clutched in her hand like a grenade with the pin half-pulled. "She found a way to contact me despite everything. Who knows what else she can do?"

The door opened, and Alexander stepped in. One look at Camille's face told him something was wrong.

"What happened?" he asked, closing the door firmly behind him.

Wordlessly, Camille handed him the phone. His expression darkened as he read the message.

"When did this come in?"

"Just now," Camille said. "Can you trace it?"

"I'll have my team try, but if Rose is being careful, she'll have used a burner phone." Alexander was already typing on his own phone, alerting his security personnel. "We need to move you both to a more secure location."

"I'm not leaving the hospital," Victoria said firmly from her bed. "My treatment protocol requires specific equipment that can't be moved."

this floor," Alexander decided. "No

was spreading through her chest, creeping into her limbs, making her feel heavy and slow. Rose had found

said suddenly. "She'll target them

"I doubled their security team this morning, before this message came in.

like a poisonous weed. "What about you?" she asked Alexander, her voice barely audible. "She'll come for

his. "I can take care of myself, Camille. I've been doing it

against Rose," Camille insisted. "You don't understand

have a pretty good idea after the bombing," Alexander said gently. "But I'm not

despite her weakened state. "Call Agent Chen," she instructed. "She needs to know

nodded and stepped away to make the call. Camille resumed her pacing, unable to stand

down, Camille," Victoria said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "You're making me

stopped moving but remained standing, her body tense as a drawn bowstring. "She won't stop,

she's caught," Victoria agreed.

of those words hit Camille like a physical blow. Rose wouldn't stop. Not ever. Not while she breathed. Not

end," Camille whispered, the realization settling over her

Victoria countered. "Even Rose's obsession. Even

Camille barely heard her. She was staring at the phone still in Alexander's hand, at the message glowing on the screen. *You took everything from me twice. Now I'll

life Rose had tried repeatedly to destroy? In Rose's twisted mind, these were thefts, not consequences of

her. Not something. Everyone. The

Her parents. Anyone who mattered to

felt too small, the air too thin.

cut through the fog of fear. "Look at

meeting Victoria's

wants you afraid," Victoria said firmly. "She wants you paralyzed. Reactive. Don't give her that

whispered, the words torn from someplace deep and vulnerable. "I can't lose any

"We're prepared now. We're

and rejoined them. "Agent Chen is sending a team

then?"

tighten security even further." Alexander's voice was calm, matter-of-fact, a counterpoint to the storm of emotion raging inside. Camille. "No one

about my

Chen is sending FBI agents to supplement

moved to a safe house as

in these concrete measures. But the

on the door made them all tense. Alexander moved to answer it, his hand inside his jacket where Camille knew he carried a weapon. He checked the

security, stepped in. "Sir, we've completed the first sweep of the floor. All clear. Additional

said. "Any updates

was

calm of the two men both reassuring and somehow terrifying. They were preparing for war. A war

out

coming to stand beside her. "They always

replied, her voice hollow. "She's patient. Careful. She's been

"And the reality is that the entire country is looking for her. Every law enforcement

stop her," Camille insisted. "Not when she's this

does she want?"

her eyes haunted. "To see me suffer. To take away everyone I love and

we don't let her," Alexander said simply. "We protect each other. We stay together. We deny her the victory