SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Victoria Kane stood at the head of the Kane Industries boardroom, her hands gripping the mahogany table harder than she wanted to admit. The last three days had been hell. Stock prices dropping. Investors pulling out. Emergency meetings that stretched into the early morning hours.

And now Camille wasn't answering her calls.

"Ma'am, the Henderson Group is demanding answers about the security breach," said Marcus Webb, her chief financial officer. Dark circles ringed his eyes. "They're threatening to withdraw their investment entirely."

Victoria nodded, but the movement made her head spin. The cancer treatments had been going well, but the stress of the corporate crisis was undoing months of progress. Her body felt like it was fighting two wars at once.

"Schedule a call with Henderson's board," she said, her voice hoarser than usual. "Tomorrow morning. I'll speak to them personally."

"Actually, ma'am," Webb continued, his face grim, "they want to meet today. In two hours."

Victoria closed her eyes for a moment. The fatigue was bone-deep, making every thought feel like wading through mud. She hadn't felt this weak since the early days of her diagnosis.

"Fine. Set it up."

The next hour blurred together. Phone calls with angry investors. Damage control meetings with the PR team. Emergency conferences with department heads trying to trace the source of the leaks that were bleeding their company dry.

Through it all, Victoria kept thinking about Camille. Three days ago, her daughter had called in tears, saying she needed to stay at the estate for a while. Something about needing space to think. Victoria had offered to come home immediately, but Camille had insisted she stay in the city to handle the crisis.

Now Victoria wondered if something had happened between Camille and Alexander. The timing felt wrong. The crisis at Kane Industries, Camille's sudden distance, Alexander's increased involvement in their business affairs - it all connected in ways that made Victoria's chest tight with worry.

"The Henderson call is ready," Webb announced.

Victoria stood up from her chair and immediately regretted it. The room tilted sideways, black spots dancing at the edges of her vision. She grabbed the table to steady herself.

"Ma'am? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Victoria lied. She wasn't fine. Her heart was racing, her hands were shaking, and every breath felt like work.

The conference call lasted forty-five minutes. Forty-five minutes of polite accusations and barely concealed threats. Victoria used every ounce of her remaining strength to project confidence, to reassure Henderson's board that Kane Industries was stable and secure.

By the time she hung up, she was soaked in sweat.

"We saved the Henderson account," Webb said with relief. "But there are six more calls scheduled for this afternoon."

Victoria tried to respond, but the words wouldn't come. The boardroom was spinning now, and the tight pain in her chest was spreading down her left arm.

"Ma'am?"

Victoria reached for her water glass, but her hand wouldn't cooperate. The glass fell, shattering against the floor in a spray of crystal and water.

"Call an ambulance," Webb shouted to someone.

Victoria felt herself falling, the expensive Persian rug rushing up to meet her. The last thing she remembered was the sound of her phone ringing and someone saying Camille's name.

*** ** **

Camille burst through the hospital doors like a hurricane, her face white with panic. She'd been in Victoria's garden when Webb called, trying to make sense of her marriage falling apart, when the news hit her like a truck.

Victoria had collapsed. Victoria was in the ICU. Victoria might be dying.

"Where is she?" Camille demanded at the nurses' station.

"Room 314, but visiting hours..."

Camille was already running down the hall, her heels clicking against the polished floor. She pushed through the ICU doors without slowing down.

Victoria lay in the hospital bed looking smaller than Camille had ever seen her. Tubes and wires connected her to machines that beeped and hummed with mechanical life. Her skin was pale gray, her breathing shallow and assisted by a ventilator.

"Victoria?" Camille whispered, taking her hand. The skin felt paper-thin and cold.

Victoria didn't respond. Her eyes remained closed, her face peaceful but frighteningly still.

"She's been sedated," said Dr. Martinez, appearing beside the bed. "The stress caused severe complications with her cancer recovery. Her blood pressure spiked dangerously high, and we had to put her into a medically induced state to allow her body to stabilize."

Camille felt tears burning her eyes. "Is she going to be okay?"

"We're doing everything we can. But the next twenty-four hours are critical. Her body has been through tremendous strain, and the cancer markers are elevated again."

"Can she hear me?"

"It's possible. Many patients in medicated states retain some awareness. You can talk to her, but keep it calm and positive. No stressful information."

After Dr. Martinez left, Camille sat beside Victoria's bed, holding her hand and watching the monitors. This was her fault. Victoria was fighting for her life because Camille had abandoned her during the crisis. Because she'd been so consumed with her own problems that she'd left Victoria to face the attacks alone.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to Victoria's still form. "I should have been here. I should have helped you instead of running away to deal with my own mess." The door opened quietly, and Camille looked up expecting to see a nurse. Instead, Alexander walked in, his face etched with genuine concern.

"What are you doing here?" Camille's voice was ice.

"I heard about Victoria. I wanted to see if she's okay."

"You're not welcome here."

Alexander moved closer to the bed, his eyes taking in Victoria's unconscious form

and the machines keeping her stable. "How is she?"

"Why do you care? Isn't this what you wanted? Victoria Kane brought down by the stress of defending herself against your attacks?"

"I never wanted her to get sick. I never wanted her to suffer like this."

"Just financially. Just professionally. Just emotionally." Camille stood up, placing herself between Alexander and Victoria's bed. "You've been systematically destroying her company while I was naive enough to think you loved me."

"I do love you. That part was never fake."

"Don't." Camille's voice cracked with pain. "Don't stand in this hospital room and talk about love while the woman who saved my life is fighting for hers because of what you've done."

Alexander's face crumpled. "Camille, if I could take it back..."

"But you can't. You can't undo the surveillance photos or the stolen security plans

or the months of lies. You can't undo using our marriage as a weapon against my family."

"She destroyed my uncle. She covered up deaths and ruined his life."

"According to who?" Camille's voice rose, then immediately dropped as she remembered Victoria needed quiet. "Who told you that, Alexander? Who gave you this information that made you decide revenge was more

important than the woman you claimed to love?"

Alexander was quiet, his jaw set in stubborn lines.

"Tell me who convinced you to destroy our marriage for a dead man's vendetta."

"It doesn't matter who..."

"It matters to me!" Camille's whisper was fierce. "It matters because whoever it was manipulated you into breaking my heart. It matters because someone used your grief to turn you into a weapon against Victoria."

"The evidence speaks for itself."

"What evidence? Anonymous documents? Convenient timing right before our engagement? Someone wanted you to believe Victoria was guilty, Alexander. Someone who benefited from you attacking Kane Industries."

Alexander stared at Victoria's unconscious form, doubt flickering in his eyes for the first time. "The facts..."noveldrama

"The facts are that you chose to believe the worst about Victoria without ever talking to her directly The facts are that you married me under false pretenses and spent our entire relationship planning to destroy my family." Camille's voice broke. "The facts are that the man I loved doesn't exist."

"That's not true."

"Isn't it? The Alexander I fell in love with would have come to me with his

concerns. He would have trusted me enough to tell me the truth. He would have

chosen our future over his past."

Alexander reached for her, but Camille stepped back.

"Don't touch me. Don't ever touch me again."

"Camille, please. We can work through this. We can..."

"We can't work through anything built on lies and revenge." Camille's tears fell freely now. "You used me, Alexander. You used our love, our marriage, our life together as a cover for your war against Victoria."

"It wasn't supposed to happen like this. My feelings for you became real."

"When? When exactly did you decide you actually loved me instead of just using me? Before or after you installed surveillance equipment to photograph Victoria at our wedding? Before or after you stole Kane Industries' security plans from my

briefcase?"

Alexander had no answer.

"Get out," Camille said quietly.

"Camille...."

"GET OUT!" Her voice carried all the pain and betrayal of the last few days. "Get

out of this room. Get out of this hospital. Get out of my life."

Alexander stood frozen, his face white with anguish.

"If you ever loved me, even a little bit, you'll leave right now and never come back.

Victoria is dying because of the stress you caused. I am broken because of the

lies you told. You've destroyed everything you claimed to care about."

"I can make this right."

"You can't. There is no right anymore. There's just the wreckage of what we used

to have and the reality of who you really are."

Alexander took one last look at Victoria's still form, then at Camille's tear-stained

face. Something in her expression must have finally convinced him, because he turned and walked toward the door.

"For what it's worth," he said quietly, "I am sorry."

"Your sorrow doesn't fix anything. It doesn't bring back Victoria's health or my trust

or the marriage I thought we had." Camille's voice was hollow. "Your sorrow is just another thing you'll have to live with."

The door closed behind him with a soft click.

Camille sank back into the chair beside Victoria's bed, taking her hand again. The

machines continued their mechanical rhythm, keeping Victoria stable while her body fought to recover from the damage stress had done.

"I'm here now," Camille whispered. "I'm not going anywhere. We'll get through this together, just like we always do."

But as she watched Victoria's still face, Camille wondered if some damage could

never be undone. If some betrayals cut too deep to heal. If some fights were too big to win. Outside the hospital room, the corporate war continued. The attacks on Kane Industries hadn't stopped just because Victoria was unconscious. If anything,

whoever was behind them would probably see her hospitalization as an opportunity to

strike harder. Camille squeezed Victoria's hand tighter. She'd failed Victoria once by running

away when the crisis started. She wouldn't fail her again.

Whatever came next, whoever was really behind the attacks on their company,

Camille would face it head-on. For Victoria. For their family. For everything they'd

built together.

But first, Victoria had to survive the night.