Chapter 166
Chapter 166:
The question caught her off guard. Camille took another sip of wine, buying time as memories surfaced—dreams and ambitions she had buried so deeply she’d almost forgotten their existence.
“I wanted to write,” she said finally. “Not novels or poetry. Journalism. Stories that mattered. I was good at it, too. In college, I won awards for investigative pieces.”
“What happened?”
Camille’s fingers tightened around the stem of her glass. “I met Stefan. He was charming, ambitious, from a ‘good family.’ My parents approved. His career became the priority. Mine became… supporting his.”
“And now?” Alexander prompted. “When this is over, when Rose and Herod are defeated, when Victoria recovers and retakes her place, what will Camille Kane want then?”
The question hung in the air between them. What did she want beyond survival, beyond revenge, beyond proving herself worthy of Victoria’s faith in her?
“I don’t know,” she admitted, the words emerging with unexpected honesty. “For so long, it’s been about destruction—dismantling what Rose and Stefan built, exposing their lies, making them pay. I haven’t thought much about… creation.”
Alexander set his glass aside and moved to sit beside her, close enough that she could feel the warmth of him, yet not touching.
“The Phoenix Grid,” he suggested. “That’s creation, not destruction.”
Camille nodded slowly. “Yes. The first thing I’ve built rather than torn down. It felt… different. Better.”
“What else would you build, if you could build anything?”
The question opened something inside her, a door to possibilities she hadn’t allowed herself to imagine. “A foundation, maybe. Something to help women who’ve been betrayed, abandoned, abused. Not just with money, but with the tools to rebuild themselves. To find their power.”
The words spilled out, gaining momentum as she spoke. “Something that combines what I wanted before—telling stories that matter—with what I know now about survival and transformation.”
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Alexander watched her face, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “I can see it in your eyes. The spark. It’s been missing.”
“What about you?” Camille asked, turning the question back on him. “The great and clever Alexander Pierce, with his empire of ships, tech companies, and energy initiatives. What do you want beyond more zeroes in your bank account?”
His smile faded, replaced by something more vulnerable. “Connection,” he said simply. “My whole life, I’ve been the outsider. The weird kid who was too smart for his own good. The black sheep of the family. The businessman who didn’t play by the rules.”
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