SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 231

Camille sat propped up in her hospital bed, the afternoon sunlight streaming through the window casting warm patterns across the white sheets. Three days had passed since her rescue, and the bruises on her face were beginning to fade from deep purple to yellow-green. Alexander sat in the chair beside her bed, holding her hand as she slowly regained her strength.

"The doctors say you can go home tomorrow," Alexander said, brushing a strand of hair from her forehead. "Victoria's already been discharged. She's at the estate, resting under doctor's orders."

Camille smiled weakly. "Good. She needs to take care of herself. The cancer treatments, the stress from everything that's happened... I was so scared we were going to lose her."

Alexander squeezed her hand gently. "We didn't lose anyone. We're all here, we're all safe, and James is in federal custody facing charges for kidnapping and murder."

"What about Rose?" Camille asked quietly. "Has there been any word about her situation?"

Alexander felt his chest tighten. This was the conversation he had been dreading, the promise he had made to Rose that he wasn't sure how to keep. How do you tell someone that the sister who tried to kill her also saved her life?

"Camille, there's something I need to tell you about Rose. About how we found you and Victoria."

Something in Alexander's tone made Camille look at him more closely. "What do you mean?"

Alexander took a deep breath, knowing that what he was about to reveal would change everything Camille thought she knew about her relationship with Rose. "Rose called me while we were searching for you. She knew where James was holding you and Victoria because James had approached her in prison, asking for her help with the kidnapping."

Camille's eyes widened with shock and confusion. "Rose knew where we were?"

"James went to her because he thought she would help him hurt you and Victoria. He thought their shared hatred of the Kane family would make her a willing ally." Alexander's voice was gentle but clear. "But Rose refused to help him. More than that, she gave us the address where you were being held."

Camille stared at Alexander in stunned silence, trying to process what he was telling her. Rose, who had spent years manipulating and undermining her, who had tried to have her killed, had provided the information that saved her life.

"I don't understand," Camille whispered. "Why would Rose help us? She hates me. She's always hated me."

"She asked me to tell you something," Alexander continued. "She wanted you to know that she helped save you because somewhere inside her, there's still a sister who loves you."

The words hit Camille like a physical blow. She felt tears starting to burn her eyes as she realized the complexity of what Rose had done. Even after everything, even from prison, Rose had chosen to save her sister's life instead of helping destroy it.

"She really said that?" Camille asked, her voice breaking.

her voice I'd never

to remember Rose not as the enemy who had tried to destroy her, but as the sister she had once loved

her tears. "About who she was before everything

back in his chair, understanding that Camille needed to share these memories to make sense of what

with us, I was eleven and she was thirteen too. I remember the day my parents brought her home from the

the memory. "She wouldn't talk to anyone for the first week. She just sat in her room, staring out the window like she was waiting for

Alexander

did. I started sitting with her, not talking, just being there. And slowly, she started to trust me. She told me about the foster

dealing with their own forms of abandonment and fear, finding comfort in each

that was broken. She taught me how to braid friendship bracelets, how to sneak downstairs after bedtime to steal cookies from the kitchen. She

flowing freely now as she remembered the sister she

old sheets and lawn chairs, and we would spend

that

exactly when it changed. Maybe when we started high school and Rose realized that was getting attention from boys and

expecting more from hered

she felt like she was always being compared to

could see the sister I had fallen in love with. When she would help me with my hair before@ dance, or when she would stay up all night listening

cared about you,"

did. But she also resented me in ways I didn't understand at the time. I had been born into the family she had to fight to join. I had security she had

out the hospital window at the city where she had built her new life, where she had found love and purpose despite all the betrayal she had

when we were teenagers, and she told me

in her eyes, something dark and hungry that scared me. I think even then, part of her was already planning to take

me remember that the darkness wasn't all there was. There was real love too, even if

understanding that she was processing not just Rose's recent actions, but years of complicated

think she really meant it?" Camille asked. "When she said

can never be undone or forgiven. But I also think that when James asked her to help him kill you, she chose love over hatred. Maybe for the first time

deeply. Rose had tried to destroy her marriage, had hired men to

read her bedtime stories and built blanket forts in the backyard. Rose had been

to