Chapter 473
Chapter 473:
“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, a sound that felt like the end of everything.
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,” 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.
𝖀ρ𝓭α𝗍𝖾𝗌 𝗈𝗇ɩү 𝗈𝗇 ɢ𝖺ⅼ𝗇𝗈ν𝖊𝗅𝘀․ⅽ𝑜𝗆
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.
.
.
.