SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

The morning rain pounded against the windows of Pierce Enterprises as Alexander reviewed the latest energy forecasts. His fingers trembled slightly as he reached for his coffee, the weight of last night's discoveries still pressing down on his chest like a stone. Across the city, Victoria Kane was discovering that someone had been probing her company's deepest secrets.

His phone buzzed against the mahogany desk. Victoria's name flashed on the screen, sending ice through his veins. He let it ring twice before answering, his voice carefully controlled.

"Victoria. Good morning."

"Alexander." Her tone was sharp, cutting through the phone like a blade. "I need to see you. My office. One hour."noveldrama

The line went dead. Alexander stared at the phone, his heart hammering against his ribs. Had they traced the cyberattacks back to him? Had someone discovered his connection to "Guardian"?

He stood and walked to his office window, watching the city blur through streams of rain. Twenty stories below, people hurried along sidewalks, unaware that the foundations of two major corporations were about to shift beneath their feet.

*** ***

Kane Industries' headquarters rose like a steel and glass monument to Victoria's empire. Alexander had been here countless times since marrying Camille, but today the building felt different. Hostile. Like walking into enemy territory.

Victoria's assistant led him through familiar halls that now seemed to stretch endlessly. His footsteps echoed on polished marble, each sound marking time toward a confrontation he'd been dreading since he first opened that envelope months ago.

Victoria sat behind her massive desk, her silver hair gleaming under the office lights. Cancer had made her thinner, but her eyes burned with the same intensity that had built her empire. On the desk before her lay several printed reports, their contents hidden from his view.

"Sit," she commanded, not looking up from the documents.

Alexander took the chair across from her, his hands resting calmly on his knees despite the storm raging inside him. Years of business negotiations had taught him to hide his emotions behind a mask of professional composure.

"Someone has been trying to access our financial records," Victoria said, finally raising her eyes to meet his. "Sophisticated attempts. Professional level. The kind that requires inside knowledge of our security protocols."

Alexander's throat felt dry as sand. "I'm sorry to hear that. Has your team identified the source?"

"Not yet." Victoria leaned back in her chair, studying his face with the intensity of a predator examining prey. "But the attempts have been focused on very specific files. Records related to acquisitions from fifteen years ago."

The air in the room seemed to thicken. Alexander forced himself to breathe normally, to maintain eye contact, to show nothing but appropriate concern for his wife's family business.

"That's troubling," he said. "Do you think it could be connected to the Phoenix Grid expansion? Competitors trying to find weaknesses in your past deals?"

Victoria's expression didn't change, but something flickered behind her eyes. Relief? Suspicion? Alexander couldn't tell.

"Perhaps," she said slowly. "Speaking of the expansion, I understand you've been researching our historical energy projects for the joint venture with Pierce Enterprises?"

Here it was. The moment that would determine whether his cover held or everything came crashing down.

"Yes," Alexander replied without hesitation. "My team needs to understand Kane Industries' approach to major infrastructure projects. Learning from your past successes, and any challenges you faced, helps us avoid similar pitfalls."

Victoria nodded, though her gaze remained fixed on his face. "And you've been looking specifically at the Meridian acquisition?"

Alexander's blood turned to ice, but his voice remained steady. "Among others. Meridian was one of your first major tech acquisitions, wasn't it? The foundation for what became your clean energy division."

"Indeed." Victoria gathered the reports on her desk, aligning their edges with precise movements. "I trust you've found the information useful?"

"Very much so. Your team's approach to due diligence was thorough. Almost aggressive, one might say."

The words hung in the air between them. Victoria's hands stilled on the papers, and for a moment, Alexander saw something raw cross her face-surprise, perhaps, or recognition that he knew more than he was letting on.

"Business was different fifteen years ago," she said finally. "More competitive. Less... regulated."

"Of course. I understand completely."

Victoria stood, moving to the window that overlooked Manhattan. "I'm glad we cleared that up. I was concerned that someone might be trying to dig up old business matters for malicious purposes."

"I can't imagine why anyone would do such a thing," Alexander lied smoothly. "Kane Industries has always conducted business with the highest ethical standards."

When Victoria turned back to face him, her smile was sharp as a knife's edge. "Exactly. Which is why I'm confident this cybersecurity issue will resolve itself quickly."

Alexander rose from his chair, recognizing the dismissal. "I'm sure it will. If there's anything Pierce Enterprises can do to help..."

"Thank you, but no. This is an internal matter."

As Alexander walked toward the door, Victoria's voice stopped him.

"Alexander."

He turned, his hand on the doorknob.

"Give my love to Camille. She's been working so hard on the expansion. I worry she's pushing herself too much."

"I'll make sure she gets some rest," Alexander promised, the words tasting like ash in his mouth.

** **

Back in his own office, Alexander locked the door and pulled the blinds shut. His hands shook as he opened his laptop and accessed the encrypted files "Guardian" had sent him the night before. The documents that had kept him awake until dawn, staring at evidence of Victoria's true nature.

The first file was a copy of an internal Kane Industries memo, dated three weeks before his uncle's suicide. Victoria's signature was clear at the bottom, authorizing an investigation into Richard Pierce's "potential ethical violations" regarding the Whitmore Factory incident.

Alexander scrolled down to read the details, his stomach churning with each word. A factory explosion at one of Meridian's facilities had killed three workers and injured dozens more. The official investigation had cleared Meridian of wrongdoing, ruling the explosion an accident caused by faulty equipment from a third-party supplier.

But Victoria had discovered something else. Richard Pierce had found evidence that the equipment failure was due to cost-cutting measures approved by Meridian's board, measures that violated safety protocols. Richard had been preparing to go public with this information, to accept responsibility for the deaths and implement industry-wide safety reforms.

Victoria had somehow learned of

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Richard's plans. The memo showed her authorizing a campaign to destroy Richard's credibility before he could reveal Meridian's culpability. False accusations of financial misconduct. Planted stories about his mental health. A systematic character assassination designed to make Richard appear unreliable, unstable, untrustworthy.

The second file contained Richard's personal notes, apparently recovered from his home computer after his death. Page after page of anguished writing, describing the pressure from Kane Industries, the threats to his family, the choice between revealing the truth about the factory accident and protecting his nephew from retaliation.

*They've made it clear that Alexander will pay the price if I proceed,* one entry read. *Victoria Kane has the power to destroy his future, his career, his life. I cannot be responsible for that. But how can I live with the blood of those workers on my hands?*

The final entry, dated the day before his suicide, was barely coherent:

*No way out. Truth buried forever. Three families destroyed for corporate profits, and I am too weak to fight. Alexander must never know. He must never carry this burden. Better that I die a coward than live knowing I chose his future over justice for the dead.*

Alexander stared at the screen until the words blurred. His uncle hadn't died because of business failure or financial ruin. He had died because Victoria Kane had threatened Alexander's life to keep him silent about a cover-up that had cost three workers their lives.

All these years, Alexander had been the unwitting weapon used to destroy the only man who had ever truly loved him.

His phone buzzed with a text from Camille: *Dinner at home tonight? I have news about the Chicago implementation.*

Alexander typed back automatically: *Looking forward to it. Love you.*

But love wasn't enough anymore. Not when it was built on a foundation of lies and blood. Victoria Kane had murdered his uncle as surely as if she had tied the noose herself. She had manipulated Alexander's love for Richard to ensure her secrets stayed buried.

Now it was time for those secrets to see daylight.

Alexander opened a new browser window and logged into his private trading account. Kane Industries stock was currently trading at $247 per share, riding high on news of the Phoenix Grid expansion. A strong, stable stock backed by investor confidence in Victoria Kane's leadership.

That was about to change.

Over the next hour, Alexander executed a series of carefully planned trades. Shell companies he had established months ago began short-selling Kane Industries stock in coordinated waves. Anonymous tips went out to financial bloggers about "concerns regarding Kane Industries' historical acquisition practices." Carefully worded questions were planted on investor forums about the sustainability of

the Phoenix Grid's ambitious timeline.

Nothing illegal. Nothing that couldn't be explained as normal market fluctuations. But enough to create doubt, to make investors nervous, to start the slow erosion of confidence that would eventually bring Victoria's empire crashing down.

By closing bell, Kane Industries had dropped eight points, a minor dip that would barely register in the financial press, but significant enough to make Victoria nervous. The first crack in the foundation she had built on Richard Pierce's grave.

Alexander closed his laptop and leaned back in his chair, exhaustion washing over him. This was only the beginning. The campaign to destroy Victoria Kane would take months, perhaps years. Each step would have to be perfectly calculated, precisely timed, completely untraceable back to him.

And each step would bring him closer to the moment when Camille discovered

that her husband had married her not for love, but for revenge against the woman

who had become her mother.

Alexander looked at his wedding

ring, gold band catching the afternoon light streaming through his office windows. Soon he would go home to his wife, kiss her hello, listen to her excited plans fortheir future. He would make love to her

while his mind planned Victoria's destruction. He would whisper words of devotion while orchestrating the downfall of

everything she held dear.

The weight of his double life pressed down like a burial shroud. But Alexander had made his choice the day he opened that envelope. Justice for Richard Pierce.

Truth about the Whitmore Factory workers. An end to Victoria Kane's reign of manipulation and murder.

Even if it cost him everything else he loved.

Outside his window, the rain had stopped, leaving the city gleaming under weak

sunlight. But the storm was just beginning. And when it was over, only one of them would be left standing.