SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan) novel Chapter 228

Chapter 228

James stepped closer to Victoria, the sharp blade catching what little light came through the broken windows. The metal looked cold and cruel in his steady hand.

"No," Camille whispered, her voice barely audible. "Please, no."

Victoria closed her eyes, trying to prepare herself for what was coming. She had faced many difficult moments in her life - losing her husband, building her business from nothing, defending herself against enemies who wanted to destroy her. But nothing had prepared her for this.

The first touch of the blade against her arm made her gasp. It was just a light pressure at first, not cutting, just letting her feel how sharp it was.

"My father spent his last years in a small, dark cell," James said quietly. "He told me in his letters how the other prisoners would threaten him, how the guards would look the other way when someone wanted to hurt him."

The blade pressed harder against Victoria's skin. She bit her lip to keep from crying out.

"Stop it!" Camille shouted, pulling against the zip ties so hard that blood started to show on her wrists. "He's gone, James! Your father is gone! Hurting her won't bring him back!"

James ignored Camille completely. His focus was entirely on Victoria now, watching her face as fear and pain mixed together.

"Do you know what it feels like to be helpless?" he asked Victoria. "To know that no one is coming to save you?"

The blade moved across her arm, making a thin red line. Victoria couldn't hold back her scream this time. The sound echoed off the concrete walls, making it seem louder and more desperate.

"Victoria!" Camille's voice broke as she watched blood appear on her mother's arm. "Please, James, I'm begging you. Take me instead. Do whatever you want to me, but leave her alone."

"Take you instead?" James turned to look at Camille, and his expression was cold and empty. "You don't understand. This isn't about choosing one of you over the other. This is about making both of you suffer the way my family suffered."

He turned back to Victoria and made another cut, deeper this time. Victoria's whole body shook with pain, but she tried not to give him the satisfaction of screaming again.

"Tell me," James said, his voice soft but dangerous, "what would you do to save your daughter? What would you sacrifice?"

Victoria looked at Camille through her tears. Her daughter was pulling so hard against the zip ties that the plastic was cutting into her skin, leaving bloody marks on her wrists.

"Anything," Victoria whispered. "I would do anything."

"Even confess to crimes you didn't commit?"

"Yes."

"Even destroy your own business?"

"Yes."

"Even die?"

Victoria didn't hesitate. "Yes."

James smiled, but it wasn't a happy expression. It was the smile of someone who had gotten exactly the answer he expected.

"My father would have said the same thing about me," he said. "But when the time came to choose between his family and his business, he chose wrong."

The blade moved to Victoria's other arm. This time, the cut was so deep that blood immediately started running down to her fingers.

"Stop!" Camille screamed so loudly that her voice cracked. "You're killing her!"

"Not yet," James said calmly. "But I could. That's the point. Right now, I have complete control over whether Victoria Kane lives or dies. Just like the justice system had complete control over my father."

Victoria felt dizzy from the pain and blood loss. The warehouse seemed to be spinning around her, and James's voice sounded like it was coming from very far away.

"James," she said weakly, "if you're going to kill me, just do it. Don't torture me in front of my daughter."

"But that's exactly what I'm going to do," James replied. "Because that's what you did to my father. You tortured him by taking away everything he cared about while his family watched."

He made another cut, this one across Victoria's shoulder. The pain was so intense that she couldn't breathe for a moment.

Camille was crying now, tears streaming down her face as she watched her mother being hurt. "Please," she begged. "Please, I'll give you anything you want. Money, information, whatever you need. Just stop hurting her."

"What I want," James said, "is for you to understand that power means nothing when someone else holds the knife."

He moved the blade to Victoria's neck, not cutting yet, just letting her feel the cold metal against her skin.

"One quick cut here, and it's over," he said. "All of Victoria Kane's success, all of her wealth, all of her influence - gone in seconds."

"Don't," Camille whispered. "Please don't."

Victoria could feel her heartbeat against the blade. Each pulse pushed her skin slightly against the sharp edge.

"I'm not afraid," she said, looking directly at James. "If you're going to do it, then do it. But let Camille go first. She never hurt your father. She was not my child when all of this happened."

"She's your child now," James said. "She's part of your empire. She benefits from what you built on my father's grave."

"She's innocent."

"People will look for us," Camille said desperately.

"Will they? Your phones are destroyed. Your car is at the bottom of a lake. As far as anyone knows, you simply disappeared." James picked up his laptop case. "By the time anyone thinks to search for you, this will all be over."

He started walking toward the door, then paused and turned back.

"Oh, and don't bother trying to escape," he said casually. "The zip ties are industrial strength, and this building is locked from the outside. Even if you managed to get free, you wouldn't get far."

Victoria watched him preparing to leave, panic rising in her chest. "James, wait!"

"What?"

"What do you want from us? Really? There has to be something we can give you that would end this."

James considered her question for a long moment. "What I want, Mrs. Kane, is for you to suffer the way my father suffered. I want you to spend tonight thinking about what's coming tomorrow. I want you to feel the same hopelessness he felt in that prison cell."

"And then what? After we've suffered enough, will you let us go?"

"Let you go?" James shook his head. "Mrs. Kane, I think you're still not understanding the situation. This doesn't end with you going home. This ends when I decide it ends."

Camille felt tears running down her face as she realized the true horror of their situation. James wasn't planning to eventually release them. He was planning to torture them until they died.

"My father spent three years in prison," James continued. "Three years of daily torment before his heart finally gave out. I think that's a fair timeline for what's going to happen to both of you."

"Three years?" Victoria whispered.

"Give or take. It depends on how strong you are. Some people break faster than others." James adjusted his laptop case on his shoulder. "I guess we'll find out what you're made of."

He walked to the door and put his hand on the handle. "Get some rest, ladies. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day."

"James!" Camille called out desperately. "Please don't leave us here! Please!"

But James didn't look back. He opened the heavy metal door and stepped through it. The sound of multiple locks clicking into place echoed through the warehouse, followed by his footsteps getting fainter and fainter until they disappeared completely.

Victoria and Camille were left alone in the darkness, bleeding and terrified, knowing that this was only the beginning of their nightmare.

The warehouse fell silent except for the steady drip of water somewhere in the shadows and their own ragged breathing. Both women knew that somewhere out there, James was planning tomorrow's torture session.

And there was nothing they could do to stop him.