Chapter 62

Camille’s POV

The morning sun filled my home office, bathing the pristine white furniture in golden light that should have been soothing. Instead, I stared at my tablet screen, my chest so tight I could barely breathe. The headline of the Wall Street Journal’s business section screamed at me in bold black letters:

LEWIS INDUSTRIES TO RESCUE RODRIGUEZ SHIPPING WITH $100M INVESTMENT

The subheading twisted the knife deeper:

Wedding Bells to Follow: Rodriguez-Lewis Union Cements Business Partnership

My coffee cup crashed to the floor as I stood abruptly, hot liquid splattering across imported marble tiles. I didn’t care. The words on the screen burned through my mind, erasing months of careful planning, of systematic destruction, of what should have been complete victory.

“No,” I whispered, my voice trembling with emotion I rarely allowed myself anymore. “No, no, NO!”

I scrolled through the article, each paragraph feeding th