SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 35

ALEXANDER POINT OF VIEW

The soft hum of my car's engine fills the silence as | watch the gallery entrance. Rain taps

against the windows, turning the city lights into blurred stars. My thoughts keep returning to her to the moment

she collided withoutside that powder room, to the brief flash of raw emotion in her eyes before Camille. Even

her nfeels different on my tongue now.

My security team thinks I'm obsessed. Maybe they're right. I've spent a year tracking her transformation,

gathering every scrap of information about who she was before Victoria Kane molded her into this new c | pull up

an old photo on my phone. Camille Lewis at her engagement party, standing slightly behind Rose while Stefan's

attention clearly drifted toward her sister. Even then, something in her eyes spoke of qui But | see it. I've always

seen it.

The gallery doors open, spilling light and laughter onto the wet sidewalk. The city's elite emerge in their designer

clothes, diamonds catching streetlight as they hurry to waiting cars. | watch them with the detach Movement

catches my eye, a flash of emerald silk. Camille appears in the doorway, and my breath catches despite myself.

She moves with deliberate grace, each step precisely placed. Victoria's training shows

But there's something else. Something uniquely her own that shines through the polish and refinement. | lean

forward slightly, studying

how the rain mists her face. She declines her driver's offered umbrella, tilts her head back slightly to feel the

water. Such a small act of defiance, but it reveals everything Victoria's careful programming hasn't erased.

The

real Camille still lives beneath the surgical alterations and social training. Still burns with a fire they couldn't

extinguish

My mind drifts back to our encounter. The slight tremor in her hands when | steadied her. The sharp intake of

breath when | mentioned family reunions. The way her eyes widened for just a moment when | hinte Rose and

Stefan emerge shortly after, lost in their own world of smug satisfaction. They pass within feet of Camille, never

recognizing the woman they destroyed. The woman who rose from their betrayal to bec

My fingers tighten on the steering wheel. Their casual cruelty, their unthinking arrogance, it awakens something

dark

in me. Something that recognizes the wounds they

inflicted because | carry similar scars. We're alike in that way, Camille and J. We've both learned to transform

pain into power.

But Victoria doesn't understand what she's created. She thinks she's crafting a weapon, an instrument of precise

revenge. She doesn't see that Camille is becoming something far more significant. Something th I've built my

empire watching people, reading the pattern others miss. Every facial expression, every gesture, every careful

word tells a story if you know how to interpret it. Camille's story fascinatesmore th Chapter 35

The way she maintains perfect composure while fire burns in her eyes. How she wields her new identity like

armor while keeping her true self carefully guarded. The subtle tells that reveal her struggle between Her car

pulls up to the curb. Through the rain-

streaked window, | watch her check her surroundings one last time, a habit Victoria must have drilled into her.

But there's natural vigilance there too, Instincts honed by betrayal.

The society papers call her Victoria Kane's mysterious heir, The business world speculates about her sudden

appearance and rapid

rise. They're all missing the real story, Missing the strength that radiates from her like heat from a flame.

| saw it the first t| encountered her photo in the financial press. Something in her eyes called to me,

recognition. I've spent months unraveling her mystery, understanding the intricate gVictoria plays. Bu

awakened interest goes beyond professional curiosity now.

Every report | receive, every detail my team uncovers, only deepens my fascination. She's not just surviving the

transformation Victoria forced on her, she's reshaping herself into something extraordinary. SThe rain falls

harder as her car pulls away from the curb. | start my engine but remain parked, watching the red taillights fade

into the wet darkness. My security captain would disapprove of this behavior, this pe But he doesn't understand.

None of them do. They see surface details, the surgical changes, the careful training, the calculated revenge.

They don't recognize the woman beneath it all. The one who refused to Let Victoria play her games. Let Rose and

Stefan celebrate their victory, thinking they destroyed her. They don't realize what's coming. What Camille is

becoming

But I do. And I'll be there when she finally understands that revenge

isn't enough. That she's meant for something greater than Victoria's careful plans. Something, 1 glimpsed in her

eyes tonight when our gazes met.

The city blurs beyond

my windshield, lights bleeding into shadows. In the quiet dark of my car, surrounded by the soft sound of rain, |

make a promise to the woman who has awakened something long dormant in my soul. "I will protect you with

everything that | have got, little Camille."