Chapter 103
Camille felt sick imagining it. “Your family…”
“Closed ranks around Thomas. Made sure no one knew he’d been drinking. Paid off witnesses.” Alexander’s voice hardened. “My father made it clear that the family reputation was more important than anything, including the truth. I was expected to go along with the story they created. To protect Thomas.”
“That’s horrible,” Camille whispered.
“It was clarifying,” Alexander corrected. “I saw my family for what they really were. The moment I could walk well enough, I left. Took the trust fund money they couldn’t legally keep from me and disappeared.”
He pulled the car to a stop in front of a small brick apartment building. Nothing special, just one of thousands of such buildings in Boston.
“I came to Boston. Rented an apartment in this building. Started over.” He nodded toward the building. “I was determined to make it on my own, to build something my own way. Got a job on the loading docks at Atlantic Shipping. Minimum wage. But I studied every aspect of the business. And at night, I taught myself programming, finance, business strategy.”
Camille tried to picture Alexander, now one of the world’s wealthiest men, living in that ordinary building, working on a loading dock.
“And then came the second accident,” Alexander continued his expression changing. “The one where our paths first crossed.”
He reached into his pocket and removed something small and silver. When he opened his palm, Camille saw the delicate rose pendant on a thin chain, the one she had given him years ago, the one he had returned to her that night he first mentioned their connection.
“You kept it all this time?” she asked, though she already knew the answer.
“It was my talisman,” Alexander said quietly. “When things got hard… and they did, many times, I’d hold it and remember that someone had once seen value in me when I couldn’t see it in myself.”
He started the car again, driving a few blocks to a sleek office building with “Pierce Technologies” emblazoned on the side.
11
“I built my first company here. Developed shipping logistics software that revolutionized the industry. By twenty- three, I was a Billionaire. By twenty six, a Trillionaire.” His voice remained matter–of–fact, without boasting. And when I crossed into trillionaire territory three years ago, guess who suddenly wanted to reconnect?” wanted to reconnect?”
“Your family,” Camille said.
“My parents, yes. Thomas had died by then, ironically in another car accident, this time with no one to blame but himself.” A shadow crossed Alexander’s face. “They reached out through lawyers first.
heal the family rift,‘ they said.”
“What did you do?” Camille asked.
When directly. Wanted to ‘
“I cut them off completely. Told them in no uncertain terms that they had no son, just as I had no parents.” His voice was steady, but Camille could hear the old pain beneath the words. “Family
how people treat you when you have nothing to offer them
‘t just blood, Camille. It’s
The words resonated deeply with her, thinking of how easily her parents had sided with Rose, how quickly Stefan had betrayed her.
“I’ve wanted to tell you all this for so long,” Alexander said turning to face her fully. “From the moment I recognized you at that charity gala, I’ve wanted to explain everything. But I was afraid.”
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Chapter 103
“Afraid of what?” Camille asked softly.
“That you’d think I was using our past connection to manipulate you. To get close to you.” His eyes held hers, vulnerability visible for perhaps the first time since she’d known him. “I wanted to earn your trust on my own merits, not because of something that happened years ago.
The tenderness of this gesture, protecting her from feeling manipulated when manipulation had defined her relationship with Rose, with Stefan, even at times with Victoria, undid something tight and guarde in Camille’s
chest.
She reached forward, taking the pendant from his palm. Their fingers brushed, sending warmth up her arm. “It protected you,” she said softly. “Just like I hoped it would.”
“It did more than that.” Alexander’s voice dropped lower. It led me back to you.”
Camille looked up, meeting his gaze. All the carefully constructed walls Victoria had helped her build, the strategic thinking, the emotional distance, the calculated moves, crumbled in that moment. Not because they were weak, but because she chose to lower them. For him. Only for him.
Her hand rose to touch his face, fingertips tracing the line of his jaw. “Alexander…”
He covered her hand with his, turning his face to press a kiss against her palm. The gesture was so tender, so genuine, that Camille felt tears threatening.
“I thought I would never feel this again,” she whispered. “After Rose and Stefan… I thought that part of me was dead.”
“Nothing dies that completely,” Alexander murmured. “Not when the roots are strong.”
He leaned forward slowly, giving her time to pull away. But Camille didn’t want distance anymore. She closed the final space between them, her lips meeting his.
The kiss was nothing like the tentative, careful moments they had shared before. This was like coming home to a place she hadn’t known she missed. His arms encircled her pulling her closer despite the awkward confines of the car. Her hands slid up to his shoulders, feeling the strength there, the subtle tremor that told her he was as affected as she was.
When they finally broke apart, Camille kept her eyes closed, savoring the moment. Alexander’s forehead rested against hers, their breath mingling.
“I’ve wanted to do that since I saw you walk into that charity gala,” he admitted, his voice rough. walk into that charity gala,” he admitted, his voice rough.
Camille smiled, her eyes opening to meet his. “Just since then?”
His answering smile held a hint of boyishness she’d never seen before. “Well, maybe longer. But I’m trying not to sound obsessive.”
She laughed, a real laugh that surprised her with its freedom. How long had it been since she’d laughed without calculation or strategy?
Alexander’s eyes darkened as he watched her, something almost reverent in his expression. “You’re extraordinary, Camille. Not because of Victoria’s training or your revenge or even your success. Because of who you are underneath all that, the woman with such compassion that she could change a stranger’s life forever with simple kindness.”
The words touched something deep within her, a recognition of her truest self, the part that even Victoria’s careful molding hadn’t erased.
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Chapter 103
“I want to be her again,” Camille said softly. “Not just Victoria’s creation. Not just the woman seeking revenge. I want to be… whole.”
Alexander tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You alreally are. All those parts make you who you are now. The compassion and the strength. The vulnerability and the power.”
He took her hand, placing the silver rose pendant in her palm and folding her fingers over it. “Keep this. It’s completed its journey.”
Camille looked down at their joined hands. “What happens now? With Rose and Herod still out there…”
“We fight them together,” Alexander said simply. “But we don’t let them define us. We don’t let revenge become our only purpose.”
He gazed out at the Pierce Technologies building, then back to the woman beside him. “I built this company to prove something, to my family, to the world, to myself. But the most meaningful thing I’ve done wasn’t making money or building technology. It was finding my way back to you.”
Something shifted in Camille’s heart, not the sharp, vengeful determination Victoria had cultivated, but a softer, truer resolve. She thought of the blueprint sabotage, of Rose and Herod plotting to destroy everything she had built. The threat remained, urgent and real. But now, sitting with Alexander as he shared his deepest truths, Camille understood a fundamental truth of her own.
The strongest response to those who tried to destroy you wasn’t just survival. It was to thrive. To build. To love. “Yes,” she said, closing her hand around the pendant. “Something new.”
As Alexander’s lips found hers again, Camille felt the final piece of her transformation click into place. Not Camille Lewis, the naive wife betrayed by her husband and sister. Not Camille Kane, Victoria’s carefully crafted heir and weapon. But someone new, someone who carried the strength of both while becoming something greater.
Someone who could face Rose and Herod not just with vengeance, but with purpose beyond destruction. Someone who could love without fear.
