SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 167

The basement air hung heavy and cold around Camille as she fought to keep her breathing steady. Her wrists burned against the rope that bound her to the metal chair. Four hours had passed since Rose had taken her from their former location to this place, four hours of her sister's twisted games.

Rose circled her now, bare feet silent on the concrete floor. The room was lit only by the harsh blue glow of laptop screens showing footage of the Grand Plaza Hotel bombing on endless loop.

"Watch it again," Rose whispered, her face inches from Camille's ear. "Watch what I did to your precious foundation. To your guests. To everything you built."

On the largest screen, flames erupted through the hotel's glass facade. People screamed, stumbling through smoke. Emergency lights flashed across terrified faces. Camille closed her eyes.

"No!" Rose grabbed Camille's jaw, forcing her head toward the screen. "You don't get to look away. Not until you understand what it feels like to lose everything."

Camille met her sister's gaze. "I already know what that feels like. You taught me that lesson two years ago."

Rose laughed, the sound sharp and wrong. She looked different now, thinner, with dark circles under her eyes. Her once-perfect appearance had crumbled like everything else in her life.

"You think you know loss?" Rose turned up the volume. The screams grew louder. "Alexander was barely scratched last time. Victoria survived. Even your pathetic parents walked away." Her fingers dug into Camille's shoulders. "That was just practice."

"What do you want from me, Rose?" Camille's voice remained steady despite the fear churning in her stomach. "To cry? To beg? Would that finally make you happy?"

Rose moved to a smaller laptop and tapped a key. The screen showed Alexander pacing in what looked like a command center, his face drawn with worry as he spoke urgently to agents.

"He's looking for you. So desperate." Rose smiled, running her finger across the screen as if touching his face. "I've left enough bread crumbs to keep them searching in all the wrong places."

"Leave him out of this," Camille said, fighting to keep her voice level. "This is between us."

"Between us?" Rose's voice rose. "No. You brought them all into it when you turned them against me. When you stole back everything that should have been mine."

She crouched in front of Camille, her eyes bright with an emotion that went

beyond hatred. "Do you know what comes next? After you've had enough time to imagine all the horrible ways I could hurt him?"

Camille didn't answer.

"I'm going to let you watch me kill him. Not quickly, that would be too kind." Rose's words came faster now, her breathing uneven. "I'll make it last. And I'll make sure he knows you're watching. That you can't save him."

The calm Camille had maintained began to crack. Her heart pounded against her ribs. Alexander. The thought of him suffering at Rose's hands tore through her defenses.

"You're going to fail," Camille said, her voice low. "Just like you failed at the hotel. Just like you've failed at everything else."

Rose's hand struck Camille's face, hard enough to snap her head to the side. The coppery taste of blood filled her mouth.

"I didn't fail!" Rose screamed, losing the calculated control she'd maintained. "They lived because they were lucky! Not this time. Not with what I have planned."

sat in her lake house, looking

camera.

Cancer eating from the side." Rose's words dripped with

her restraints, feeling the rope cut deeper into her wrists. The pain helped her focus, helped her push down the

be," Camille said. "Even dying, she's more alive than you are

stared at her, momentarily speechless. Then she laughed, high and brittle. "Look at you. Still fighting. Still thinking there's a way out of this." She walked around the room, touching each screen. "Alexander will die knowing he failed to save you. Victoria will die believing you're already gone. Your parents?" She shrugged. "Collateral damage. They chose you, so they get

everyone is gone, what do

her back to Camille. For a long moment, she stood absolutely still. When she turned, something had

deserved from the beginning. Everything you stole from me." But her voice wavered

"No one to witness your victory.

water from the table and threw it at the wall, where it

Rose. That you've always been alone, even when you were surrounded

I have..." Rose stopped, as if realizing something for the

of when they're no longer useful?" Camille leaned forward as far as her restraints would allow. "That's

cheated? Parents who doubted you? Love is

moved suddenly to Camille's side, pulling a knife from her pocket. The

cheek. "Let's see how strong you are when Alexander is bleeding out in front of you. When Victoria takes her last

pressed against her skin. "Killing them won't make you stronger, Rose. It won't heal whatever's broken

to break the skin. A

hissed. "I see the world exactly as it is. I take what I want. I don't

care so much what I think?" Camille asked. "Why make

The knife trembled slightly in her

to understand. You need to feel what I felt." "When?

cracked. "Every single day when they looked at you with love in their eyes. When Stefan chose you instead of staying with me. When everyone believed you were some perfect, precious daughter while I had

streamed down Rose's face now, her careful

knife hung loosely in

to see me," she whispered. "Just once, I wanted to be

felt something beyond fear and anger, a flicker of pity for the broken woman before her. The girl who had never been enough, who had learned to take because she believed nothing would

angry at her own weakness. "Stop

for you," Camille said quietly. "I understand

understand nothing!" Rose shouted,

what it's like to lose everything and have to build yourself again from nothing," Camille continued. "I understand what it's like when the people who should love you most betray you

her knuckles turning

from our

You chose to

a caged animal, her breath comin "You still don't get it. You never

in uneven gasps.

hands