Chapter 74
Chapter 74
The ballroom fell silent as Camille stepped onto the stage. The crystal chandeliers above cast a glow that seemed to highlight her transformation, her posture straight and confident, her chin raised, her eyes clear and focused. Gone was the woman who had once shrunk herself to make others comfortable. In her place stood someone new, someone forged in fire.
She took the microphone from Victoria, her fingers steady despite the hundreds of wide eyes fixed on her. Whispers rippled through the crowd: “It can’t be…” “She’s dead…” “How is this possible?”
The faces that mattered most to her stood frozen in shock. Her mother clutched her father’s arm, her mouth hanging open. Stefan had gone deathly pale, as if seeing a ghost. And Rose…. Rose’s face had drained of color, her perfectly manicured nails digging into her palms.
“Thank you all for coming tonight,” Camille began, her voice carrying across the stunned silence. “Some of you knew me as Camille Lewis. Others have come to know me as Camille Kane. The truth is, I am both.”
She paused, allowing her words to sink in. Camera phones were raised throughout the ballroom, recording every moment. This was not just a private revelation; it would become public knowledge within minutes.
“Eighteen months ago, I discovered divorce papers on my anniversary. My husband, Stefan Rodriguez…” she gestured toward him, and the crowd’s eyes followed “…..had decided our marriage was over because he had fallen in love with my sister, Rose.”
Stefan flinched visibly, taking a half–step back as if trying to disappear into the crowd.
“What I didn’t know then was that this wasn’t a recent development. You see, Rose and Stefan had a relationship for years before I ever met him. I was simply a placeholder, a convenient detour on their path to being together.” Gasps echoed through the ballroom. Camille took a slow breath, centering herself. She would not rush through this moment she had prepared for so long.
“On the night I signed those divorce papers, something inside me broke. I thought I had lost everything. Little did I know that loss was just the beginning.”
She looked directly at Rose now, whose face had shifted from shock to something darker, a mixture of rage and fear.
“After I left, I was attacked in a parking garage. Men who were hired to deliver a message. They beat me until I could barely stand. They told me to leave New York and never come back, that I wouldn’t survive a second warning.
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Her mother let out a low moan, covering her mouth with trembling hands.
“I would have died that night if Victoria Kane hadn’t found me.” Camille turned to Victoria, who stood like a sentinel at the side of the stage. “She saved me, not just by stopping the attackers, but by showing me that I could transform my pain into power.”
Victoria gave her a subtle nod, her face showing rare public emotion.
“The question, of course, is who would want me gone so badly? Who would pay to have me attacked? Who would benefit most from my disappearance?”
All eyes shifted to Rose, who had begun to back away, looking for an exit.
“Rose Lewis arranged my murder,” Camille stated, her voice cutting through the room like a blade. “My sister,
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the person who claimed to love me, orchestrated an attack meant to frighten me into leaving or…. if necessary… ensure I never spoke again.”
The crowd erupted in murmurs. Security guards subtly moved to block the exits.
“I have evidence,” Camille continued once the noise died down. “Bank transfers, phone records, testimony from the men who were hired. Everything has been provided to the district attorney’s office.”
Rose lunged forward suddenly, her mask of sophistication entirely gone. “You lying bitch!” she screamed, her voice raw with fury. “You had everything! Everything was handed to you while I had to fight for scraps!”
Security moved toward Rose, but Camille raised a hand to stop them. This confrontation had been years in the making. She wouldn’t cut it short now.
“I never wanted to hurt you,” Camille said, keeping her voice steady. “But you plotted against me my entire life. You manipulated everyone around me. You took joy in my pain.”
・
“I only wanted what should have been mine!” Rose shouted, tears streaming down her face now, smearing her perfect makeup. “Do you know what it’s like to watch someone else live the life you deserved? I was the one who fought my way out of foster care! I was the one who clawed my way into this family! And you…. you were always the favorite, the precious daughter, while I was just the charity case they took in!”
The ballroom was utterly silent now, the crowd watching the scene unfold with horrified fascination.
“So yes, I arranged for those men to scare you,” Rose continued, past caring about the consequences of her confession. “You were supposed to run away, not die. And when your car was pulled from the river, I thought….” She stopped abruptly, realizing what she was admitting.
“You thought your plan had worked too well,” Camille finished for her. “You thought I was dead, and you celebrated while pretending to mourn.”
Her mother stepped forward then, her face ashen. “Rose… tell me this isn’t true. Tell me you didn’t try to hurt your sister.”
Rose’s laugh was hollow. “Sister? She was never my sister. She was an obstacle, a roadblock standing between me and everything I wanted.”
“And what exactly did you want, Rose?” Camille asked, though she already knew the answer.
“Everything that was yours,” Rose spat. “Stefan, your family, your social standing. I deserved it all more than you ever did.”
Stefan finally found his voice, stepping away from Rose as if she were toxic. “You told me Camille left because she couldn’t handle us being together. You said she ran away…
“And you believed me because it was convenient,” Rose shot back. “Don’t pretend you’re innocent in this, Stefan. You were all too happy to move on with me the minute she was gone.”
Camille watched the man she had once loved crumble under the weight of his guilt. There was a time when she had dreamed of this moment, of seeing him broken. Now, she felt nothing but a distant pity.
Her father approached the stage, his shoulders hunched with shame. “Camille, my God… we didn’t know. We should have known, but we didn’t see…”
“No, you didn’t see,” Camille agreed, her tone gentle but firm. “You never saw me. Not really. And you certainly never saw who Rose truly was, despite all the signs.”
Her mother was weeping openly now. “Please, Camille. Please forgive us. We can be a family again. We can make this right.”
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For a moment, Camille felt a flicker of her old self, the young woman who had always sought approval, who had always tried to keep the peace. But that woman was gone, burned away in the transformation that had created who she was now.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” she said. “Camille Lewis died that night in the parking garage. The woman who stands before you is Camille Kane. Victoria has legally adopted me, and I am her heir. That chapter of my life is closed forever.”
“You can’t just erase us!” her mother cried, desperation in her voice. “We’re your parents!”
“You stopped being my parents the moment you chose to believe in Rose’s lies rather than seeing the truth that was right in front of you,” Camille replied, sadness coloring her words despite her resolve. “I don’t hate you. I simply don’t need you anymore.”
Stefan moved toward the stage, his eyes pleading. “Camille, I know I can never undo what I did. But I’ve changed. Seeing what Rose really is, understanding what happened to you, it’s opened my eyes. Please, just give me a chance to show you how sorry I am.”
Camille studied his face, remembering how she had once thought he was the center of her world. How small that world had been.
“I forgive you, Stefan,” she said finally. “Not because you deserve it, but because I refuse to carry the weight of hating you any longer. That forgiveness doesn’t mean reconciliation. It means freedom, my freedom from you.” Rose had been watching this exchange with growing fury, her entire body rigid with anger. “You think you’ve won?” she hissed. “You think this grand display changes anything? This isn’t over. You took everything from me, and I’ll make you pay for it.”
Camille met her gaze evenly. “No, Rose. I took back what was mine…. my dignity, my power, my life. Everything else, you lost all on your own.”
Rose looked around wildly, seeing all eyes on her, seeing her carefully constructed world collapsing. Her face contorted with rage as she pointed a trembling finger at Camille.
“This isn’t over,” she hissed, loud enough for everyone to hear. “You think you’ve won? You think you can just come back from the dead and destroy everything I’ve built? I’ll make you pay for this, Camille. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
With that, Rose stormed toward the exit, shoving past guests who quickly moved out of her way. The heavy doors slammed behind her with an echoing finality.
As Rose disappeared, Camille felt a peculiar lightness spreading through her chest. This moment that she had imagined for so long… it wasn’t bringing the savage triumph she had expected. Instead, there was something quieter, something like peace.
Victoria joined her on stage, placing a steady hand on her shoulder. “You did well,” she said quietly.
“Is it over?” Camille asked, suddenly uncertain.
“The revenge is over,” Victoria replied. “But your life….. your real life……. is just beginning.”
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Camille turned back to face the crowd, many of whom were still recording every moment on their phones. The story would be everywhere by morning. There would be legal battles, public scrutiny, endless questions. But for the first time since that night in the parking garage, Camille felt truly free.
“Thank you for coming tonight,” she said to the crowd, her voice strong and clear. “This event marks not just the revelation of the truth, but the beginning of something new. The phoenix doesn’t rise from the ashes to return to what it was. It rises transformed, stronger than before.”
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She felt Alexander Pierce’s eyes on her from somewhere in the crowd, and for the first time, she allowed herself to acknowledge the possibility of a future beyond this moment, a future not defined by the past but open to new possibilities.
“The Phoenix Foundation will provide support for victims of domestic abuse and those who have been betrayed by the people closest to them,” she continued. “Sometimes the deepest wounds come from those we trust the most. But tonight proves that even from complete destruction, something beautiful can emerge.”
As she stepped away from the microphone, the room erupted in applause….. whether from genuine support or simply the spectacle of it all, she couldn’t tell. But as Victoria led her from the stage, Camille knew that whatever came next, she would face it not as the woman who had been discarded and betrayed, but as someone entirely new.
Camille Kane had risen from the ashes of Camille Lewis’s destruction. And unlike the old fairy tales, this phoenix wasn’t interested in happy endings with false princes or fractured families. She was interested in building something true, something that was entirely her own.
The revenge story had ended. Her real story was just beginning
