SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 200 Camille sat at their kitchen table, watching Alexander pour coffee into two mugs. His movements were the sas always - careful, precise, loving. He added cream to hers without asking, remembering exactly how she liked it. The small gesture that used to make her heart warm now felt like another piece of evidence in his performance.

She'd barely slept. Every tshe closed her eyes, she saw those photographs of Victoria. The security plans. Richard Pierce's journal entries filled with pain and anger. Alexander's handwritten revenge list with dates that proved he'd planned their wedding knowing the truth about his uncle.

"You're quiet this morning," Alexander said, setting her mug down and kissing the top of her head. Another normal gesture that now felt poisoned.

Camille wrapped her fingers around the warm ceramic, needing something solid to hold onto. "We need to talk." Something in her tone made Alexander pause. He sat down across from her, his dark eyes searching her face. "What's wrong?" For a moment, she almost lost her nerve. This was Alexander. The man who'd held her when she cried about Rose. Who'd stood beside her when Victoria was in the hospital. Who'd promised to love her forever in front of everyone they cared about.

But then she remembered his voice in the darkness last night: *She suspects nothing.* "I found the safe," she said quietly.

Alexander went completely still. The coffee mug stopped halfway to his lips. His face didn't change, but something shifted behind his eyes. The warmth disappeared, replaced by something cold and calculating.

"Which safe?" he asked, but they both knew he was buying time.

"The one in your office. Behind the cabinet. With the surveillance photos of Victoria." Alexander set down his mug with careful control. He stared at the table for a long moment, and Camille could almost see him deciding what to say. How much to admit. How to handle this complication in his plan.

"I can explain," he said finally.

"Can you?" Camille's voice cracked despite her efforts to stay calm. "Can you explain why you have dozens of photos of Victoria taken during our wedding? Can you explain the security plans for Kane Industries? Can you explain Richard Pierce's journal?" Alexander looked up at her then, and she saw something she'd never seen before. Not the loving husband, not the supportive partner. This was someone else entirely. Someone who'd been hiding behind Alexander's face all along.

"Yes," he said simply. "I can explain all of it." Camille had expected him to deny everything. To lie, to make excuses, to try to convince her she'd misunderstood what she'd seen. His calm admission hit her like a physical blow.

"Victoria Kane destroyed my uncle," Alexander said, his voice steady and cold. "She deliberately covered up a factory accident that killed seventeen people. When my uncle Richard threatened to expose her, she systematically destroyed his company and his life." Camille felt the room spinning around her. "That's not true. Victoria would never.." "Seventeen people died because of faulty equipment that Victoria knew was dangerous," Alexander continued, ignoring her protest. "Workers with families. People with children. Victoria chose profits over human lives, and when my uncle tried to do the right thing, she crushed him like an insect." "You're lying." But even as she said it, doubt crept into her voice. She'd seen Richard Pierce's journal entries. The pain in those pages had felt real.

Alexander leaned forward, his eyes burning with intensity. "My uncle lost everything. His company, his reputation, his will to live. Victoria made sure no one would hire him, no bank would lend to him, no business partner would trust him. She isolated him completely." "Even if that's true," Camille said, her voice shaking, "what does that have to do with us? With our marriage?" "I found out the night before our engagement party," Alexander said. "Someone sentdocuments. Proof of what Victoria had done. Evidence that the woman who saved you was the swoman who murdered my uncle." Camille's chest felt tight. She remembered their engagement party. How Alexander had seemed different after talking to someone she didn't recognize. How he'd been quieter, more distant in the days that followed. "So you decided to use me," she whispered.

"I decided to get justice for my uncle." Alexander's jaw tightened. "Victoria Kane has never faced consequences for what she did. She's built an empire on the graves of innocent people, and everyone treats her like skind of savior." "By marrying me? By pretending to love me?" For the first time, Alexander's controlled mask slipped. Pain flashed across his features. "It wasn't pretending. Not all of it." "How much?" The words cout as a sob. "How much of our relationship was real, Alexander? How much of what I felt, what I believed, was actually true?" He was quiet for a long moment, staring at his hands. "I loved you before I knew who Victoria really was. Those first months, everything you felt - I felt it too. When I realized you were connected to the woman who destroyed my family..." "You decided to destroyinstead." "I decided to access information that would prove Victoria's guilt. I married you to get close to her operations, to gather evidence of her crimes." Alexander looked up at her, and she saw genuine anguish in his eyes. "But somewhere along the way, my feelings becreal again. The love I felt for you before I learned the truth it cback." Camille laughed, but it sounded more like a scream. "Real? You call surveillance photos and security plans real love?" "I call staying awake at night worried about you real love. I call choosing to protect you from Rose real love. I call planning a future with you that goes beyond revenge real love." "But you never stopped the revenge," Camille said, her voice breaking. "You never toldthe truth. You letbelieve our marriage was built on something honest while you were photographing my mother and planning to destroy her." "She's not your mother," Alexander said sharply. "She's the woman who adopted you for her own purposes, just like I married you for mine. The difference is that my purposes changed. My love for you becreal." The comparison felt like a slap. "Don't you dare compare yourself to Victoria. She saved me. She gavea family, a future, a reason to live when I had nothing left." "She gave you a life built on the deaths of seventeen innocent people." Alexander's voice rose for the first time. "Everything Victoria Kane has, every dollar in her account, every floor of Kane Industries - it's all paid for with blood." Camille stood up so fast her chair fell backward. "Stop. Just stop talking." "You need to hear this. You need to understand what kind of person you looked up to." "What kind of person who i looked up to?" Camille's voice was getting louder, more desperate. "The kind who foundbleeding in a parking garage and gavea reason to live? The kind who taughtto be strong, to fight back, to never let anyone destroyagain?" "The kind who destroys families for profit. The kind who covers up mass murder to protect her bottom line." "You destroyed our family!" Camille screamed. "You took everything real between us and poisoned it with your need for revenge. You made our wedding day a lie. You made every 'I love you' a calculation. You made our entire marriage part of your plan to hurt the one person who ever truly protected me." Alexander stood too, reaching for her. "Camille, please. Letexplain..." "Don't touch me." She backed away from him, her whole body shaking. "Don't ever touchagain." "My love for you is real now. Everything I feel, everything I want for our future - it's genuine." "Based on a foundation of lies." Tears streamed down her face. "You photographed Victoria at our wedding, Alexander. Our wedding day. While I was dancing with you, while I was promising to love you forever, you were already planning to betray everyone I care about." "I was gathering evidence to expose a killer." "You were using our marriage to get revenge. There's a difference." Alexander's face crumpled. "I know I handled this wrong. I know I should have told you the truth. But if you'd known what Victoria did, would you have believed me? Would you have chosen justice over loyalty to her?" "I would have chosen honesty over deception." Camille's voice was raw with pain.

"I would have chosen trust over manipulation. I would have chosen the man I fell in love with over the stranger standing in front of me." "I am the man you fell in love with." "No." Camille shook her head. "The man I fell in love with wouldn't have marriedunder false pretenses. He wouldn't have used our honeymoon to plan attacks on my family. He wouldn't have letcall him my husband while he was working to destroy everything I care about." She walked toward the bedroom, her legs unsteady. Alexander followed her. "Where are you going?" "Away from you." Camille pulled a suitcase from their closet and began throwing clothes into it. "I can't be here. I can't look at you. I can't pretend this conversation didn't happen." "Camille, please. We can work through this. We can find a way to..."

"To what?" She turned on him, her eyes blazing through her tears. "To trust each other? To build other? To build something real? You spent our entire marriage lying to me, Alexander. You spent our entire marriage planning to destroy the woman who saved my life." "She destroyed my uncle's life."

"Then you should have ctohonestly. You should have toldyour concerns, shownyour m evidence, trustedto help you find the truth. Camille zipped her suitcase with violent force. "Instead, you chose deception. You chose manipulation. You chose revenge over love." "I chose both. I chose love and justice." "You can't have both when one requires betraying the other." Camille lifted her suitcase and headed for the door. "You chose revenge the moment you decided to use our marriage as a weapon. Everything else is just you trying to feel better about what you've done." Alexander blocked her path. "Don't leave. Please. We can figure this out together." "Together?" Camille laughed bitterly. "We haven't been together since the night before our engagement party. Since then, it's been you and your revenge plan, withas an unwitting accomplice." "That's not fair." "Fair?" The word cout as a roar.

"You want to talk about fair? Is it fair that I found surveillance photos of Victoria in my husband's safe? Is it fair that every intimate moment we've shared has been part of your plan to destroy my family? Is it fair that the man I trusted with my heart was using it to break everyone else's?" Alexander stepped aside, his face white with pain. "I love you, Camille. Whatever else you believe, know that I love you." "I know," she whispered, and for a moment her anger cracked to reveal the devastating hurt underneath. "That's what makes this so much worse. You love me, and you still chose revenge over protecting what we had." She walked past him toward the front door, each step feeling like walking through broken glass.

"Where will you go?" he called after her.

Camille turned back one last time, memorizing his face. The face she'd kissed goodnight every evening. The face she'd seen first thing every morning. The face that had hidden so many secrets.

"To Victoria," she said. "To the woman you've spent our marriage trying to destroy.

To the woman whose only family i am." The door closed behind her with a soft click that sounded like the end of everything.