SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 159

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."

we lock down this floor," Alexander decided. "No one in

into her limbs, making her feel heavy and slow. Rose had found a way to

parents," Camille said suddenly.

Alexander assured her. "I doubled their security team this morning, before this message came in. Standard precaution

a poisonous weed. "What about you?" she

crossed the room and took her hands in his. "I can take care of myself, Camille. I've been doing it for

Camille insisted. "You don't understand

pretty good idea after the bombing," Alexander said gently. "But I'm not going anywhere. We face

despite her weakened state. "Call Agent Chen,"

and stepped away to make the call. Camille resumed her pacing, unable to stand still with the energy of fear coursing through her

tone leaving no room for argument. "You're

body tense as a drawn

Victoria agreed. "Or until she

Rose wouldn't stop. Not ever. Not while

Camille whispered, the realization settling over her

countered. "Even Rose's obsession.

hand, at the message

family that Rose had manipulated? A husband Rose had seduced? A life Rose had tried repeatedly to destroy? In Rose's twisted mind, these were thefts, not

take "everyone" from her. Not something. Everyone. The people she loved. The people

Alexander. Her parents. Anyone who

the air too thin. Camille struggled to breathe, her chest

through the fog of fear. "Look at

meeting Victoria's

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

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

won't," Victoria promised. "We're prepared

Chen is sending a

then?"

"No one enters this floor without biometric verification and direct approval from me.

my parents?" Camille

FBI agents to supplement

a safe house

these concrete measures. But the knot of fear in her stomach remained, hard and

inside his jacket where

we've completed the first sweep of the floor. All clear. Additional teams are arriving now to establish the expanded

"Any updates on the

the message was routed through multiple servers. They're

men both reassuring and somehow terrifying. They

the window, looking out at the city below. Somewhere out there, Rose was watching. Waiting. Planning her

said, coming to stand

replied, her voice hollow.

entire country is looking for her. Every law enforcement agency.

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

does she want?" Alexander

her eyes haunted. "To see me suffer. To take away

simply. "We protect each other. We

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