"Where are we going?" Camille asked as Alexander''s car turned onto an unexpected street. They had left Kane Industries after a long day of final preparations for the Phoenix Gridunch. Alexander smiled, eyes on the road. "A small detour. Something I want


    to show you."


    They rounded a corner, and Boston Memorial Hospital came into view, its ss fa?ade gleaming in thete afternoon sun.


    "The hospital?" Camille''s brow furrowed. "Why here?"


    "This ce matters to us," Alexander said simply, parking the car. "Where everything began."


    He


    turned to face her, his expression unusually nervous. "I wanted to bring you back here


    for a reason."


    Without further exnation, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out


    a small ck velvet box. Camille''s heart stuttered in her chest.


    "Alexander," she breathed.


    "I''ve been carrying this


    for weeks." He opened the box, revealing a stunning ring, a brilliant diamond set in a tinum phoenix, its wings


    curving to cradle the stone, tiny rubies forming the eyes.


    "I had it designed to represent who you are, not who you were when we first met, but who you became. A woman who rose from the ashes, stronger and more beautiful than before."


    Camille stared at the ring, emotion making it hard to speak. After everything, Stefan''s betrayal, Rose''s attempted murder, rebuilding her life, this moment felt almost unreal. Someone seeing her, truly seeing her, choosing her.


    "I didn''t n to do this in a parked car," Alexander continued


    with a small smile. "But once I decided to bring you here, to close the circle of our beginning... I couldn''t


    wait any longer."


    He took the ring from its velvet nest. "Camille, will you marry me?"


    Time seemed to stop. Through the windows, hospital staff moved about, unaware of the life-


    altering moment happening nearby. Camille thought of how far she hade, the pain she had endured, the strength she had found, the woman she had be.


    "Yes," she said, her voice steady despite the emotion threatening to overwhelm her. "Yes, I will marry you."


    Alexander''s face transformed with joy as he slipped the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly, the phoenix''s wings catching the light as she turned her hand.


    "But," she continued, "I want to wait until


    after the Gridunch. Until we''ve dealt with Rose and Herod once and for all."


    Alexander nodded, understanding. "The Gridunches next week. We can announce our engagement afterward."


    "Victoria should know first," Camille said. "Before anyone else."


    "Of course." He leaned forward, cupping her face in his hands. "She gave me my fiancée, after all."


    The thought hung between them, how different both their lives might have


    been if Victoria Kane hadn''t discovered Camille that night.


    "Do you think she''ll approve?" Camille asked, suddenly uncertain. Victoria had never criticized her rtionship with Alexander, had even encouraged it when Rose tried to use it against them. But marriage was different, permanent, binding, a potential distraction from the empire Victoria was preparing her to lead.


    "She will," Alexander said with conviction.


    "Not because I''m worthy of you, no one could be that, but because Victoria Kane values strength above all else. And we are stronger together than apart."


    He kissed her then, sealing their promise. Camille felt the


    cool metal of the ring against her skin, the physical manifestation of this new beginning.


    When they separated, Camille looked down at the


    phoenix ring, its diamond catching the fading sunlight. "I never expected this, she admitted. "After Stefan and Rose... part of me believed I would never trust again. Never love again."


    "And now?" Alexander asked, his voice soft.


    "Now I understand that what happened with them wasn''t love. It was performance, maniption. This..." she gestured between them, "....this is real. Built on truth, on seeing each otherpletely." As they pulled away from the hospital, Camille Sessfully unlocked!ists of fate that had brought them together


    and


    reunited them in circumstances neither could have imagined


    "Where to now?" Alexander asked. "Dinner to celebrate?"


    Camille twisted the ring on her finger, still getting used to its weight, its significance. "Actually, I''d like to tell Victoria tonight, if she''s avable. This feels too important to wait."


    Alexander nodded, changing


    "No," Camille decided. "This is something I should do alone. She found me when I had nothing, rebuilt me when I was broken. She deserves to hear this news from me, personally."


    As they drove through the darkening city, Camille watched lights


    begin to appear in buildings and streemps. The Phoenix Grid would power those lights soon, her vision made real through years of work. Now she had a new vision to look forward to, a life with Alexander, a f


    "One


    week," she said softly. "One week until the Gridunches, until we deal with whatever Rose and Herod have nned. And then..."


    "And then we begin," Alexander finished, squeezing her hand. "No more looking back. Only forward."


    Camille nodded, her mind racing


    ahead to the conversation with Victoria. Would she be surprised? Concerned? Approving? Victoria Kane was not a woman who revealed her thoughts easily, even to Camille.


    But somehow, Camille wasn''t worried. The woman Victoria had shaped her to be, strong, strategic, unstoppable, was precisely the woman who could bnce a


    powerful marriage with leading Kane Industries. The woman who could have both love and power, without sacrificing either.


    As they approached Victoria''s building, Camille


    touched the ring onest time before slipping it off temporarily. This news deserved


    its proper moment, its proper revtion.


    "I''ll call you after I speak with her," she promised Alexander as the car stopped.


    He leaned across to kiss her goodbye. "Take all the time you need. I''ll be waiting."


    Camille slipped the ring into her pocket, its weight a secret promise against her thigh as she


    walked into the building. The phoenix would emerge again soon enough, once Victoria understood that this engagement wouldn''t weaken Camille''s resolve, wouldn''t distract her from the final confrontation with Rose.


    If anything, it would make her stronger. More determined than


    ever to secure the future she now knew was possible, a future with both love and power, both personal happiness


    and professional triumph.