Chapter 6

CAMILLE'S POINT OF VIEW

I woke to silk sheets and sunlight. For a moment, I thought I was back in my childhood bedroom,before everything fell apart. But the ceiling above me was unfamiliar, hand-painted cherubs floating in a cloudless sky, framed by gilded molding that probably cost more than my entire wedding.

Pain shot through my ribs as I tried to sit up,memories flooding back. The parking garage.Rose's hired thugs. The mysterious woman with silver hair.

"Careful." A voice from the doorway made me turn."Three bruised ribs and a mild concussion. The doctor said you need rest."

She stood there like something from a fashion magazine, tailored black pants suit, pearls that definitely weren't fake, silver hair swept into an elegant twist. But it was her eyes that held me.Sharp.Calculating.Hauntingly familiar.

"Where am I?" My voice was rough. "Who are you?"

"You're safe." She moved into the room with fluid grace, settling into a chair beside my bed. "As for who l am...my name is Victoria Kane."

The name hit like a physical shock. Everyone knew Victoria Kane, the ruthless CEO who'd built Kane Industries from nothing, the woman Forbes called 'The Queen of Wall Street.' She was worth billions,moved markets with a phone call, and was rumored to be more powerful than most governments.

"Why..." I swallowed hard."Why am I here?"

Something flickered in her eyes, pain, maybe, or memory."Because Three years ago, I saw a photo in a society magazine. A young woman at some charity gala, wearing a dress that didn't quite fit, smiling bravely whle her 'perfect' sister held court."

The gala. One of Rose's many triumphs, orchestrated to highlight the difference between us.

"The photo caught my attention," Victoria continued,"but it was your eyes that made me look closer.They were...familiar."

She reached for her phone, pulling upan image that made my breath catch. A young woman, maybe my age, with my face. My eyes. MAy smile.

"Your daughter?" The resemblance was uncanny.

"Sophia." Victoria's voice softened. "She would have been thirty-two this year."

Would have been. The words hung heavy in the air.

"What happened?"

"Car accident. Ten years ago." Her fingers traced the photo. "Though 'accident' is a polite fiction. Her fiancé's family didn't approve of the match. Brake lines are so easily tampered with."

Ice slid down my spine. "Did they..."

"Face consequences?" A smile that could cut glasS."Eventually. But that's not why you're here."

She set down her phone, fixing me with that penetrating gaze. "After I saw your photo, I had you investigated. Learned about your family dynamics.Your marriage. Your sister's... activities."

"You've been watching me?" It should have felt creepy, but somehow it didn't. "Why?"

"Because I recognized something in you. Something |saw in Sophia. Raw potential, wrappedd in other people's expectations. A diamond they tried to pass off as glass."

My heart pounded. "I don't understand."

"Don't you?" She leaned forward. "I watched you try to fit their mold. Watched you shut away parts of yourself to please them. Watched them clip your wings while convincing you it was for your own good."

Tears burned my eyes. "Like the college acceptance."

"Which Rose sabotaged. Yes, I know about that too.Just like I know about the diary she forged, the jobs she made sure you didn't get, the friends she slowly turned against you."

"You know everything." My voice cracked. "And you just...watched?"

"I waited." She stood, moving to the window. "Waited to see if you'd break or bloom. Waited for the moment you finally saw through their perfect lies."

The confrontation with Rose flashed through my mind."And now?"

"Now?" She turned back to me, sunlight casting her in silhouette. "Now I'm offering you a choice. You can walk away from all of this. I'll set you up somewhere new, comfortable, far from them. Or..."

"Or?"

"Or I can teach you to be what they always feared you might become. Powerful. Independent. Free."

She moved back to my bedside, and suddenly I saw what made her so formidable. It wasn't just the money or the influence. It was the absolute certainty that the world would bend to her will.

"Your sister spent twenty years teaching you about manipulation," she continued. "Let me teach you about power. Real power, not the petty games she plays."

"Why?" I had to know. "Because I look like your daughter?"

"No." Her hand touched mine, surprisingly warm."Because you look like I did, forty years ago. Before |learned that the world doesn't give you what you deserve, it gives you what you have the strength to take."

I stared at our joined hands, seeing the perfect manicure that probably cost more than my monthly salary."And if I say yes?"

"Then I adopt you. Publicly, legally, completely. You become Camille Kane, heir to everything l've built."

Her smile turned sharp. "Imagine your sister's face when she realizes the investor she's been desperately courting is her 'weak' little sister."

The thought sent a thrill through me. "She'd lose her mind."

"That's just the beginning. I'll teach you everything l know. Business. Strategy. Power. In five years, you won't just survive their games, you'll rewrite the rules."

"And what do you get out of this?"

Victoria's eyes met mine, and for a moment I saw/raw honesty. "A chance to finish what Sophia started.A chance to see someone bloom instead of break.And... A pause. "A chance to have a daughter again."

I thought about my life, the careful box they'd put me in, the dreams they'd stolen, the lies they'd fed me.Thought about Rose's smug smile and Stefan's betrayal and my parents' willing blindness.

"When do we start?"

Victoria's smile was like sunrise, brilliant and inevitable. "We already have."

She reached for a folder on the bedside table. "First,we need to establish your disappearance. Make them think their thugs succeeded."

"Let them think I'm..." Understanding dawned. "Let them think they broke me."

"For now." She opened the folder, revealing documents, passports, bank statements. "While you heal, while you learn, while you become who you were meant to be."

I sat up straighter, ignoring the pain in my ribs. "And then?"

"And then?" Victoria Kane, my new mother, smiled like a queen bestowing kingdoms. "Then we show them exactly what happens when you try to cage a wolf in sheep's clothing."

Looking at her, I finally understood what real power looked like. Not Rose's petty manipulations or Stefan's inherited privilege. This was something else.Something primal. Something they'd tried to crush in me.

But they'd failed.

And now they'd pay.

"When can I sign the papers?" | asked.

Victoria's laugh was rich with promise. "That's my girl."

For the first time in fourteen years, those words felt true.