Chapter 35

ALEXANDER POINT OF VIEW

The soft hum of my car's engine fills the silence as l watch the gallery entrance. Rain taps against the windows, turning the city lights into blurred stars. My thoughts keep returning to her - to the moment she collided with me outside that powder room, to the brief flash of raw emotion in her eyes before her careful mask slipped back into place.

Camille. Even her name feels different on my tongue now.

My security team thinks I'm obsessed. Maybe they're right. I've spent a year tracking her transformation,gathering every scrap of information about who she was before Victoria Kane molded her into this new creation. The photos tell a story Victoria doesn't understand, a story of survival, not victimhood.

I pull up an old photo on my phone. Camille Lewis at her engagement party, standing slightly behind Rose while Stefan's attention clearly drifted toward her sister. Even then, something in her eyes spoke of quiet strength. They never saw it. Never recognized what they were trying to break.

But I see it. I've always seen it.

The gallery doors open, spilling light andlaughter onto the wet sidewalk. The city's elite emerge in their designer clothes, diamonds catching streetlight as they hurry to waiting cars. I watch them with the detachment years of wealth have taught me. Their social games seem small now, measured against the chess match unfolding between Victoria Kane and her created heir.

Movement catches my eye, a flash of emerald silk.Camille appears in the doorway, and my breath catches despite myself. She moves with deliberate grace, each step precisely placed. Victoria's training shows in her posture, her gestures, the careful way she acknowledges the society matrons calling goodnight.

But there's something else. Something uniquely her own that shines through the polish and refinement.I lean forward slightly, studying how the rain mists her face. She declines her driver's offered umbrella, tilts her head back slightly to feel the water. Such a small act of defiance, but it reveals everything Victoria's careful programming hasn't erased.

The real Camille still lives beneath the surgical alterations and social training. Still burns with a fire they couldn't extinguish.

My mind drifts back to our encounter. The slight tremor in her hands when I steadied her. The sharp intake of breath when I mentioned family reunions.The way her eyes widened for just a moment when l hinted at knowing her true identity. She's fascinating,a study in controlled passion, in strength forged through pain.

Rose and Stefan emerge shortly after, lost in their own world of smug satisfaction. They pass within feet of Camille, never recognizing the woman they destroyed. The woman who rose from their betrayal to become something far more dangerous than they could imagine.

My fingers tighten on the steering wheel. Their casual cruelty, their unthinking arrogance, it awakens something dark in me. Something that recognizes the wounds they inflicted because | carry similar scars.We're alike in that way, Camille and I. We've both learned to transform pain into power.

But Victoria doesn't understand what she's created.She thinks she's crafting a weapon, an instrument of precise revenge. She doesn't see that Camille is becoming something far more significant. Something that transcends mere vengeance.

I've built my empire watching people, reading the patterns others miss. Every facial expression, every gesture, every careful word tells a story if you know how to interpret it. Camille's story fascinates me more than any I've encountered in years.

The way she maintains perfect composure while fire burns in her eyes. How she wields her new identity like armor while keeping her true self carefully guarded.The subtle tells that reveal her struggle between justice and mercy, between the woman she was and the one she's becoming.

Her car pulls up to the curb. Through the rain-streaked window, I watch her check her surroundings one last time, a habit Victoria must have drilled into her. But there's natural vigilance there too,instincts honed by betrayal.

The society papers call her Victoria Kane's mysterious heir. The business world speculates about her sudden appearance and rapid rise. They're all missing the real story. Missing the strength that radiates from her like heat from a flame.

I saw it the first time I encountered her photo in the financial press. Something in her eyes called to me,awakened recognition. I've spent months unraveling her mystery, understanding the intricate game Victoria plays. But my interest goes beyond professional curiosity now.

Every report I receive, every detail my team uncovers,only deepens my fascination. She's not just surviving the transformation Victoria forced on her, she's reshaping herself into something extraordinary.Something that outshines the destiny Victoria planned

The rain falls harder as her car pulls away from the curb. I start my engine but remain parked, watching the red taillights fade into the wet darkness. My security captain would disapprove of this behavior,this personal interest in what should be just another business rival.

But he doesn't understand. None of them do. They see surface details, the surgical changes, the careful training,the calculated revenge. They don't recognize the woman beneath it all. The one who refused to break when everything she loved was stripped away.

Let Victoria play her games. Let Rose and Stefan celebrate their victory, thinking they destroyed her.They don't realize what's coming. What Camille is becoming.

But I do. And I'll be there when she finally understands that revenge isn't enough. That she's meant for something greater than Victoria's careful plans Something I glimpsed in her eyes tonight when our gazes met.

The city blurs beyond my windshield, lights bleeding into shadows. In the quiet dark of my car, surrounded by the soft sound of rain, I make a promise to the woman who has awakened something long dormant in my soul.

"I will protect you with everything that I have got,little Camille."