SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 23

CAMILLE'S POINT OF VIEW

The scream ripped from my throat before | was fully awake, my body jackknifing upright in bed. Sweat soaked

through my silk nightgown, heart hammering against my ribs like it might break through. For a mom

Rose's face,

smiling as | drowned. Stefan watching from the shore, doing nothing. Their fingers intertwined as they witnessed

my death, as casual as if they were watching a sunset.

"Ms. Kane?" A knock at my bedroom door. "Do you need assistance?"

The night guard. New guy. Torres or Torrez. | couldn't remember his name. Victoria rotated security personnel

regularly, another layer of protection in her perfectly orchestrated world.

"I'm fine." | called back, voice steadier than | felt. "Just a dream."

"Yes, ma'am. Dr. Reed has been notified as per protocol."

Of course she had. Everything in Victoria's mansion was monitored, measured, reported. Privacy was a luxury I'd

surrendered along with my old identity. | checked the clock 3:17 AM. Another night ruined by memories that

refused to stay buried.

Six months of training. Six months of becoming someone new. Six months of Victoria's relentless program to

transformfrom victim to avenger. And still, my subconscious betrayed me, draggingback into My phone

lit up with a text: My office. 15 minutes. -Dr. Reed*

No sympathy. No option to reschedule. Just a command thinly disguised as a message. Typical of Victoria's

handpicked psychologist.

| shuffled to my bathroom, splashing cold water on my face. The woman in the mirror had changed tically

since Victoria had found me, cheekbones sharper from the surgical refinements, hair styled in an eyes harder

from months of combat training. But in the hours after a nightmare, | still saw traces of the old. Camille beneath

the carefully crafted exterior. Vulnerable. Afraid. Weak.

Dr. Reed would not approve.

Hero

office looked exactly as it always did, clinically organized, dimly lit, with two leather chairs facing each other

across a glass table. No couch. No friendly plants of personal photos to soften the atmosphere. Dr. R surfaces

matched her approach, precise, unforgiving, designed to cut through emotional defenses.

"Sdream?" she asked, silver-

streaked dark hair pulled back in a severe bun, eyes sharp as they assessed my disheveled state. Al fifty-

something, she had the toned physique of someone half her age and the penetrating Paze of someone who

regularly dissected minds for sport.

"Yes" | sank into the leather chair, the cool surface a stark contrast to my overheated skin. "I'm in the car, Water

rising Pose and Stefan watching from the bridge, smiling the door's jammed. | scream for help, bu "Any

variations from previous instances?"

"Rose was wearing my wedding dress this time." The detail had twisted like a knife in my gut, even in sleep..

Dr. Reed made a note on her tablet. "Six months of nightmares. Who told you stopping them was the goal?"

"Isn't that what therapy is for? Healing trauma?"

"Conventional therapy, yes. But you're not receiving conventional therapy, Camille. You're receiving specialized

psychological conditioning designed for Victoria Kane's specific objectives."

"Which are?"

"To weaponize your trauma rather than heal it. Your pain is power if you control it instead of letting it control you.

Do you think Victoria becwho she is by processing her grief in healthy ways? By moving on The bluntness

hitlike a physical blow. She moved to a cabinet, retrieving a virtual reality headset. State-

of-the-art, probably custom-made. Nothing but the best in Victoria's world.

"Put this on," she instructed. "I think you're ready for immersion therapy. Tto control the outcof your

nightmare."

My hands trembled as | took the headset. "You want me

to relive drowning? Voluntarily?"

"I want you to finish what your subconscious starts every night. You wake up at the moment of drowning. | want

you to see what happens after."

The simulation was terrifyingly real, the car interior, the rising water, Rose and Stefan watching from above.

Initially, panic seized me, the memory of that night too vivid, too raw. But something shifted insidethrough

my terror. Hot, clarifying rage.

The water stopped rising. Began to recede. In my mind, | pushed against the car door. It opened. Not possible in

reality, not with water pressure, but this wasn't reality. This was my mind, my rules. | stepped out

| emerged from the river like an avenging angel, dressed in a tailored power suit, hair perfectly styled, makeup

Mlawless, Rose's smile faltered as | stood on the water's surface. When | raised my hand, the bridg

"Please!" Dream-

Rose cried out as she fell, reaching toward me. “Camille, help us!"

| watched, unmoved, as they plunged into the dark water. Dream-

Stefan tried to swim toward the shore, abandoning Rose to save himself. Typical. Even in my imagination, he was

a coward.

"How did it feel?" Dr. Reed asked when | removed the headset, hands shaking.

"Good," | admitted, shand satisfaction warring inside the. "It felt good"

"Then why are you crying?"

| touched my cheek, surprised to find it wet. "Because the person who enjoyed that isn't who | used

to be."

"No," she agreed. "She's who you're becoming. Who you need to be."

She pulled out a manila folder filled with surveillance photos-

Rose and Stefan together

over the past months. At restaurants. Shopping. Entering his apartment. Their happiness documented in cruel

detall. One shot showed them at a jewelry store | recognized, another at the restaurant I'd always w "Study your

enemy's happiness," Dr. Reed said coolly. "It'what you'll take from them first."

| forced myself to look at every photo. Their casual intimacy. The way his hand rested at the small of her back.

Her head tilted toward him in laughter. The tender expression on his face as he brushed hair from h "What do

you feel?" she asked.

"Humiliation," | whispered, the truth finally breaking free. "That everyone can see | was just the placeholder. The

practice wife before he got the

one he really wanted. | knew, you know. Even before the divorce papers. Before | found evidence. A part of me

always knew Rose was the one Stefan truly wanted."

"And beneath that?"

"| stayed because | couldn't bear to admit Rose had won again. That even my marriage was just another

competition she'd bestedin without even trying" The bitterness coated my words. "I thought if | tried "But he

never did," Dr. Reed said simply.

"No. He only marriedbecause he couldn't have her. | was the consolation prize. The easier option. The one

who would say yes when Rose initially said no."

"The nightmares persist because you're still seeing yourself as their victim. Even in your dreams, they stand

above while you drown below. The VR session showed progress, you reversed the positions. But you At the door,

| paused, struck by a sudden curiosity. "What truth were you hiding? When you helped Victoria after Sophia

died?"

For the first time, Dr. Reed's clinical mask slipped. "I was engaged to Victoria's husband before she met him. He

chose her instead. | introduced them. Watched their

perfect life from the periphery. Was the first person Victoria called when the Prestons murdered Sophia."

The confession stunned me. This cold, clinical woman had her own history of being second choice. Had watched

from the sidelines as someone else lived the life that might have been hers. "Does she know you toldthis?"

"Victoria knows everything that happens in these sessions. Her gaze was steady, penetrating. “Because you're

ready to understand that the path forward isn't about what was taken from you. It's about what you With that,

she closed her office door, leavingalone in the dimly lit hallway, clutching the photos of my sister's stolen

happiness against my chest like a shield. Each image a reminder of what they'd taken from