SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan) novel Chapter 213

Chapter 213

Victoria Kane sat in her favorite armchair by the window of her estate's study, afternoon sunlight streaming across the financial documents spread on her lap. Three days out of the hospital, she still moved carefully, her body reminding her with every breath how close the stress had brought her to complete collapse. The cancer treatments had weakened her physically, but her mind remained sharp as a blade.

Camille watched from the doorway, relief and worry warring in her chest. Victoria looked fragile in the oversized chair, her usually commanding presence diminished by the loose cardigan draped over her shoulders and the reading glasses perched on her nose. But her eyes burned with the same intellectual fire that had built Kane Industries from nothing.

"You should be resting," Camille said softly, entering the study with a cup of herbal tea.

"I've been resting for three days. My body might be weak, but my brain is fine." Victoria accepted the tea gratefully, her hands trembling slightly as she lifted the cup. "Besides, someone has been trying to destroy everything we've built. I'm not going to recover while lying in bed ignoring the threat."

Stefan and Hannah sat at the large oak desk across the room, their laptops displaying financial records that painted a complex picture of corporate manipulation spanning fifteen years. The past week of investigation had brought them closer to the truth, but also revealed how sophisticated their enemy really was.

"Show me what you've found," Victoria said, gesturing for them to bring their materials closer.

Hannah carried her laptop over first, settling cross-legged on the floor beside Victoria's chair. The informal seating arrangement would have shocked Kane Industries employees who knew Victoria as an intimidating boardroom presence, but illness had stripped away some of her corporate armor.

"The financial transfers we traced all lead back to shell companies," Hannah explained, her screen showing a web of offshore accounts and dummy corporations. "But Stefan found something interesting about the timing patterns."

Stefan joined them, carrying a stack of printed documents. His jaw still showed a faint bruise from Alexander's punch, but his focus remained entirely on the investigation. "Every suspicious transaction happened within seventy-two hours of Richard Pierce receiving specific pieces of information about Kane Industries."

"What kind of information?" Victoria asked.

"Internal memos about safety protocols. Financial projections for the industrial sector. Details about Kane Industries' bidding strategies." Stefan spread the documents on the side table. "Someone was feeding Richard Pierce inside knowledge about your company's operations."

Victoria studied the timeline Stefan had created, her expression growing darker with each connection. "This proves Richard wasn't making independent business decisions. Someone was guiding his choices, probably encouraging him to take shortcuts that would make his bids more competitive."

"And when those shortcuts led to the factory explosion," Camille said quietly, "the same person made sure Richard blamed you instead of examining his own choices."

Hannah pulled up another screen on her laptop. "But here's the really interesting part. The person feeding information to Richard Pierce had access to Kane Industries internal systems fifteen years ago."

Victoria went very still. "Internal access? You mean someone inside my company was working with Richard?"

"Or someone with legitimate access who was secretly working against you." Stefan leaned forward, his voice intense with discovery. "Victoria, we need to know who had high-level access to Kane Industries financial and strategic information fifteen years ago."

Victoria set down her tea cup, her hands now steady as her mind shifted into analytical mode. "Fifteen years ago, Kane Industries was much smaller. High-level access was limited to maybe twenty people. Board members, senior executives, key department heads."

"Anyone who might have had a grudge against you?" Camille asked.

"Half the business world had grudges against me. I didn't build this company by making friends." Victoria's smile was rueful. "But internal betrayal... that would have required someone I trusted completely."

Hannah scrolled through more financial records. "The shell companies that received the stolen funds all trace back to a single point of origin. A management company called Whitfield Holdings."

Victoria's face went white. "Whitfield?"

"You recognize the name?" Stefan asked urgently.

"James Whitfield." Victoria's voice was barely a whisper. "He was Richard Pierce's business partner before Meridian Technologies was founded. They started their company together, but James sold his share to Richard about six months before the factory project began."

Camille felt ice in her veins. "He sold his share six months before the explosion?"

"I remember because James came to me after the sale. He said he was concerned about the direction Richard was taking the company, that Richard was cutting costs in ways that compromised safety." Victoria's hands were shaking again, but this time from memory rather than illness. "I thought he was just bitter about being bought out."

Stefan was already typing on his laptop, searching for more information about James Whitfield. "Victoria, if James knew about the safety problems but sold his shares before the explosion, he protected himself financially while letting seventeen people die."

"And then he manipulated Richard into blaming me for the disaster he helped create." Victoria's voice carried the weight of fifteen years of guilt lifting from her shoulders. "James knew about the defective equipment because he was part of the decision to use it. When people died, he made sure Richard focused his anger on Kane Industries instead of examining their own choices."

Hannah was pulling up more financial records, her fingers flying across the keyboard. "If James Whitfield was behind the original manipulation, he might still be active. The Guardian that Alexander has been working with could be..."

"James." Victoria finished the thought, her voice full of cold fury. "After fifteen years, he's still trying to destroy me."