SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 232

Camille sat in the back seat of the black sedan as it approached the women's correctional facility upstate, her hands trembling with nervous energy. Two weeks had passed since her rescue, two weeks of thinking about Rose's unexpected act of salvation, two weeks of remembering the sister she had once loved before everything went wrong between them.

Alexander sat beside her, his face showing concern and uncertainty about this decision she had made against everyone's advice.

"Are you sure about this?" Alexander asked for the tenth time since they had left Manhattan. "Camille, you don't owe Rose anything, not even gratitude. She tried to have you killed."

"She also saved my life," Camille replied, her voice steady despite the emotions churning in her chest. "Alexander, I need to see her. I need to look into her eyes and understand who she really is underneath all the hatred and manipulation."

The correctional facility loomed ahead of them, a gray concrete structure surrounded by razor wire and guard towers that spoke of punishment rather than rehabilitation. Camille felt her stomach tighten as she realized this was where Rose had been living for months, paying the price for her crimes against her own family.

The visiting room was stark and institutional, with plastic chairs and metal tables bolted to the floor. Fluorescent lights cast harsh shadows that made everyone look pale and tired. Other inmates sat with their visitors, speaking in hushed tones about family news and legal appeals and the small details of life on the outside.

Camille chose a table near the window, where natural light softened the harsh atmosphere slightly. She had dressed simply in jeans and a blue sweater, wanting to look like herself rather than the successful businesswoman or the Kane Industries heiress. Today, she was just Camille Lewis, coming to see her sister.

When Rose entered the visiting room, Camille felt her breath catch in her throat. Rose looked smaller than she remembered, thinner, with her naturally blonde hair grown out to show dark roots. The expensive clothes and perfect makeup were gone, replaced by the standard prison uniform that made her look younger and more vulnerable.

But it was Rose's eyes that shocked Camille the most. The calculating coldness that had defined her sister for so many years was gone, replaced by something raw and uncertain that looked almost like fear.

Rose walked slowly toward Camille's table, her steps hesitant as if she wasn't sure she would be welcome. When she reached the chair across from Camille, she stood for a moment, just staring at her sister's face.

"You came," Rose said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I didn't think you would ever want to see me again."

"I almost didn't," Camille admitted. "But I needed to understand why you helped save my life. I needed to see you one more time."

Rose sat down carefully, her hands folded in her lap like a child who was afraid of being scolded. For a moment, neither sister spoke, both of them processing the strangeness of being in the same room again after everything that had happened.

"You look good," Rose said finally. "Healthy. Happy. I'm glad Alexander is taking care of you."

Camille studied Rose's face, looking for signs of the manipulation and false sincerity that had characterized so many of their interactions over the years. But what she saw instead was genuine relief, as if Rose was truly glad to see that Camille had survived and was thriving.

"Rose, why did you help us find where James was holding me and Victoria?"

Rose was quiet for a long moment, staring at her hands as she struggled to find words for feelings she had buried under years of hatred and jealousy.

that I had spent so many years being angry at you for

felt tears starting to burn her eyes

the one who sat with me. You were the one who listened when I told you about the foster homes, about feeling like I didn't belong anywhere." Rose's voice cracked with emotion. "You were my sister

Rose? What made you start hating me instead of

keep your love. Fear that Mom and Dad would eventually get tired of me and send me back. Fear that you would

that never

somewhere, the security of knowing you would never be abandoned again." Rose's tears were flowing freely now. "Instead of being grateful

reached across the table and took Rose's hands, feeling how cold and small they were. "Rose, you were my sister by choice. That should have

that now. But back then, all I could see was what I didn't have instead of what I did have." Rose squeezed Camille's hands tightly. "And by the time I realized how much I had thrown

not too late now," Camille

hired men to attack you in that parking garage. I spent years manipulating and undermining you.

hatred was destroying me just as much as it destroyed you. Because I remember the sister who taught me to braid friendship

was

James asked you to help him hurt me, you chose love

to her knees beside the table, looking up at Camille with desperation and hope. "Camille, please," Rose said, her voice breaking. "Please forgive me. I know I don't

of Rose

in Camille's heart. This wasn't the calculating manipulator who had tried to

arrived at their house with

in a garbage

loved

being abandoned.

her own chair and knelt on the floor facing Rose,

face in

at me," Camille

her tear-stained face to meet

simply. "Not because what you did was forgivable, but because you're

each other and crying on the floor of the prison visiting room. Other visitors and inmates watched in silence as the two women who had been torn apart by jealousy and betrayal found their way back to each other through forgiveness and

whispered against Camille's shoulder. "I'm so sorry for everything I did to

know you are," Camille replied, stroking Rose's hair the way she used to when they were teenagers. "I

other for several minutes, both of them crying for the years they had lost, for the pain they had caused each