SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 172

The ICU hallway stretched before Camille, sterile and bright. Her footsteps echoed against the tile floor as she followed the doctor. The smell of antiseptic filled her nose, making her eyes water, or perhaps it was the weight of what waited ahead.

"Five minutes," the doctor reminded her, pausing outside a door. "He's very weak."

Camille nodded, her throat too tight for words.

The doctor pushed the door open, revealing a small room filled with machines. Their steady beeping cut through the silence, marking each beat of Stefan's heart. He lay still in the center of it all, nearly lost among tubes and wires. His skin looked gray against the white sheets, but his eyes were open, alert and watching for her.

"I'll be right outside," the doctor said, and then she was alone with the man who had once been her husband. The man who had betrayed her. The man who had taken a bullet meant for her.

Camille approached the bed slowly. Stefan's shoulder was heavily bandaged, the white gauze stark against his hospital gown. An IV dripped clear fluid into his arm. A monitor tracked his heartbeat in jagged green lines.

"Hey," she said, her voice barely audible.

Stefan's lips curved into a weak smile. "Hey yourself." His words came out raspy, as if speaking required great effort.

Camille moved closer, standing awkwardly beside the bed. She had imagined this moment during the long wait, rehearsed what to say, but now words failed her.

"You look terrible," she said finally, then winced at her own bluntness.

Stefan's smile widened slightly. "You should see the other guy."

The weak joke broke something inside her. Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks before she could stop them.

"Don't," Stefan whispered. "Please don't cry, Camille."

She wiped her face with the back of her hand. "I'm sorry. It's just... you almost died. Because of me."

"For you," he corrected. "Not because of you. There's a difference."

Camille sank into the chair beside his bed, suddenly unable to stand. "Thank you," she said, the words feeling terribly inadequate. "For saving my life."

Stefan's eyes held hers, more serious than she'd ever seen them. "It's what I should have done all along. Protected you. Instead of hurting you."

His gaze was too direct, too honest. Camille looked down at her hands. They still had blood beneath the fingernails, his blood, from when she'd pressed against his wound.

it?" she asked. "You could have stayed behind

quiet for so long that Camille looked up, worried he'd lost consciousness. But

something right," he

beeped steadily between them, counting

he continued, each word coming with visible effort. "Not when we were married. Not when you trusted me." He paused, drawing a labored breath. "But in that moment, when I saw

them back, knowing he needed her strength now,

me

"And the truth is, I was a coward. I let Rose manipulate me because it was easier

reached for her hand. His fingers felt cold against hers, his

something. And you can say no.

waited, afraid of what would

for my sake. For yours. So you can be free of what

matching rings, made promises they thought would last forever.

surprising herself with the truth of it. "When I built my new life. When I stopped letting what happened define

eyes widened

the realization spreading through her like warmth. "I had to. Holding onto that

didn't know,"

"Not until just now. Saying it out

if a great tension had left him. When he looked at her again, there was something new there, not the

me to become the man I should have been,"

to hear herself laugh, a small, fragile sound,

upward. "That's the first time I've heard you laugh in... I

"Me neither."

the beeping monitors a gentle

Stefan said. It wasn't

she answered

He's a better

corrected. "And so am I. We're different people than we were

touch gentle but sure. "You're stronger now. I saw it in

mention of her sister sent a

didn't. You survived. You built

nodded, unable to deny it. The woman she'd been when married to Stefan, trusting, naive,

with new eyes. The selfish, weak man who had betrayed her had become someone