ALEXANDER POINT OF VIEW


    The soft hum of my car''s engine fills the silence as I 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 sh of raw emotion in her eyes before 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 c 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 qui But I see it. I''ve always seen it.


    The gallery doors open, spilling light andughter 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 detach Movement catches my eye, a sh of emerald silk. Camille appears in the doorway, and my breath catches despite myself. She moves with deliberate grace, each step precisely ced. Victoria''s training shows


    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 umbre, 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 I hinte 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 bec


    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 I carry simr scars. We''re alike in that way, Camille and J. 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 bing something far more significant. Something th I''ve built my empire watching people, reading the pattern 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 th Chapter 35


    The way she maintains perfectposure 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 Her car pulls up to the curb. Through the rain-


    streaked window, I watch her check her surroundings onest time, a habit Victoria must have drilled into her. But there''s natural vignce there too, Instincts honed by betrayal.


    The society papers call her Victoria Kane''s mysterious heir, The business world spectes 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 me.


    I saw it the first time I encountered her photo in the financial press. Something in her eyes called to me, recognition. I''ve spent months unraveling her mystery, understanding the intricate game Victoria ys. Bu awakened 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. Some 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 pe But he doesn''t understand. None of them do. They see surface details, the surgical changes, the careful training, the calcted revenge. They don''t recognize the woman beneath it all. The one who refused to Let Victoria y her games. Let Rose and Stefan celebrate their victory, thinking they destroyed her. They don''t realize what''sing. What Camille is bing


    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 ns. Something, 1 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."