SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 199

Camille stood in Alexander's home office, holding the quarterly reports she'd come to collect. The afternoon sun streamed through the tall windows, casting long shadows across the mahogany desk where her husband spent most of his evenings. She'd offered to grab the Pierce Enterprises files while he attended his board meeting, wanting to help prepare for their joint presentation tomorrow.

The office felt different when Alexander wasn't here. Quieter. Almost cold. She noticed details she'd never seen before, the way his books were arranged by height rather than subject, the single family photo turned face-down on the shelf, the small silver key that had fallen behind his laptop.

Curious, she picked up the key. It was old, ornate, nothing like the modern electronic locks throughout their penthouse. She turned it over in her palm, wondering what it might open.

Her eyes swept the room and stopped at the antique wooden cabinet in the corner. She'd always assumed it held old business files or legal documents. But now she noticed the small keyhole just below the brass handle.

She shouldn't. She knew she shouldn't. But something deep in her chest pulled her forward, some instinct she couldn't name.

The key slid in perfectly.

Inside the cabinet, behind stacks of legitimate files, her fingers found something unexpected. A metal safe, small enough to hide but large enough to hold secrets.

The safe door stood slightly open, as if Alexander had been in a hurry during his last visit. Camille's heart began beating faster as she pulled it open completely.

The first thing she saw made her breath catch. Photographs. Dozens of them. All of Victoria.

Victoria leaving Kane Industries. Victoria at restaurants. Victoria at the hospital during her cancer treatments. Victoria at their wedding, smiling as she watched her daughter dance. Victoria at family dinners, at business meetings, at quiet moments when she thought no one was watching.

The photos were professional quality, taken with a long lens from hidden positions. All were date-stamped from their wedding day and after. Recent photos. Photos taken while Alexander was building their life together.

Camille's hands shook as she flipped through them. Each photo felt like a punch to her stomach. Why did Alexander have surveillance photos of Victoria? Why had he been watching her during their marriage?

Beneath the photos lay a thick folder marked "Kane Industries - Security Protocols." Her fingers felt numb as she opened it. Inside were detailed blueprints of Kane Industries' building, including restricted areas she'd never seen. Emergency exit plans. Security camera locations. Server room layouts.

Information only someone with high-level access could obtain. Information that could be used to destroy the company from within.

At the bottom of the safe lay a leather journal, its pages yellow with age. The name embossed on the cover made her blood turn to ice: Richard Pierce.

With trembling hands, she opened to a random page and began reading:

*Victoria Kane is destroying everything I built. She planted those safety violations. She bribed the inspectors. She's turning my own board against me with lies about financial misconduct. My company is finished, and she's the one holding the knife.*

Camille flipped to another entry:

*The banks are calling in our loans. Victoria's influence reaches everywhere. She wants Meridian Technologies dead, and she's willing to destroy innocent lives to get it. My employees, their families - none of it matters to her. She's a monster wearing a business suit.*

The final entry was dated the day before Richard Pierce's death:

destroy what my father built. If I can't save the company, I'll make sure the world knows

blurred as the words sank in. Richard Pierce. Alexander's uncle. The man who'd died by suicide after losing his

his uncle. Alexander thought Victoria was a

had married her for

safe contained one more item. A single sheet of

1: Gain

Access Kane Industries

destruction of company

4: Public exposure of Victoria's

Complete

bottom, in red ink: *For Uncle Richard. Justice will be served. Started two days

the journal still clutched in her hands. The engagement party. That was when everything

touched her, held her during those early months - that had been real. But after their engagement party, after someone told him about Victoria's role in his uncle's death, everything became

you" since that night. All of it had been

who'd held her while she cried about Rose's

worse. So much

had loved her first. She'd felt it, seen it in his eyes, known it in her bones. But then someone had poisoned that love with lies about Victoria. Someone had turned the man who truly cared for her into a weapon

ver

days together, the way he'd made her feel safe after Rose's betrayal - all of that had been genuine love. But their engagement, their wedding, their marriage

hallway.

through her as she realized what she'd done. The safe door was open, papers scattered across the

replaced exactly as she'd found it. She slammed the safe shut and locked the

the doorway, she was standing by the window with the quarterly reports in her hands, looking out at the

same as always. "Sorry I'm early.

turned to face him,

stranger. How

sometimes went cold

he

thought she wasn't watching?

managed. "I just grabbed

and kissed her forehead, the

before. It felt like

gesture he'd done

the best," he murmured. "I don't know what I'd

have made her heart flutter now made her want to vomit. She knew exactly what he'd do without her. He'd find

asked about her day, refilled her wine glass when it emptied. The

her part too. She smiled at his jokes, asked questions about his projects, let