Chapter 207
Chapter 207:
“And then we begin,” Alexander finished, squeezing her hand. “No more looking back. Only forward.”
Camille nodded, her mind racing ahead to the conversation with Victoria. Would she be surprised? Concerned? Approving? Victoria Kane was not a woman who revealed her thoughts easily, even to Camille.
But somehow, Camille wasn’t worried. The woman Victoria had shaped her to become—strong, strategic, unstoppable—was precisely the woman who could balance a powerful marriage with leading Kane Industries. The woman who could have both love and power, without sacrificing either.
As they approached Victoria’s building, Camille touched the ring one last time before slipping it off temporarily. This news deserved its proper moment, its proper revelation.
“I’ll call you after I speak with her,” she promised Alexander as the car stopped. He leaned across to kiss her goodbye. “Take all the time you need. I’ll be waiting.”
Camille slipped the ring into her pocket, its weight a secret promise against her thigh as she walked into the building. The phoenix would emerge again soon enough, once Victoria understood that this engagement wouldn’t weaken Camille’s resolve, wouldn’t distract her from the final confrontation with Rose. If anything, it would make her stronger. More determined than ever to secure the future she now knew was possible—a future with both love and power, both personal happiness and professional triumph.
Rose stared at the photos spread across the marble countertop of Herod’s penthouse kitchen. Grainy images captured through a long-distance lens, yet clear enough to show what mattered. Camille and Alexander outside Boston Memorial Hospital. His hand holding something small. Her visible shock. Their embrace. And most damning of all, the ring on her finger, distinct and glinting in the light.
“She’s engaged,” Rose whispered, the words burning her throat like acid. “She proposed, and she said yes.”
She’d sent one of their hired men to follow Camille that afternoon, a precaution after Walsh had provided them with the misleading Grid information. She hadn’t expected this.
“Are you certain?” Herod asked, examining the photos over her shoulder. “The quality isn’t great.”
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Rose’s fingernail stabbed at the clearest image. “Look at her finger. That’s an engagement ring.”
Herod squinted. “Could be any ring.”
“It’s not just any ring,” Rose’s voice sharpened. “I know what an engagement ring looks like, and I know my sister’s face. She’s… happy.”
The last word emerged like a curse. Her fingers curled around the edge of the photo, crumpling it slightly.
“Does this change our plans?” Herod asked carefully.
Rose didn’t answer. Her mind raced through images from their childhood: Camille, always the perfect daughter, the talented musician, the brilliant student. Rose, the adopted outsider, working twice as hard for half the recognition. And now, after everything Rose had done to destroy her, Camille was engaged to a trillionaire who gazed at her with undisguised adoration.
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