Chapter 3 - Camille de Villeneuve

Camille:

“Oh, my God! Where have you been?” Isa rushed over to me as I walked through the door. I opened my mouth to respond, but she didn't let me and started going on about how Aunt Gabby called, saying she couldn't get through to my phone and suggesting we meet at my father's. I told her I ran into Colette Sterling, and her eyes widened as that finally shut her up.

“She saw you?” she asked, and I nodded. I was still waiting for Lane. He had just sent me a text saying he was finishing up, but just as I finished reading the text, I heard a voice speak behind me, and when I turned around, it was none other than Colette Sterling.

“And then?” Isa asked, plopping onto the sofa and patting the spot next to her. I guess time didn't matter anymore.

“I thought we were running late?” I reminded her, placing my purse on the small glass table, but not sitting down before telling her what happened.

“Mrs. Sterling asked me what I was doing there, and I tried to think of something to say but couldn't until I looked up across from us and saw Lane's personalized license plate. I said I was visiting Reed, and girl, it was the most awkward encounter I've ever been in. Reed didn't remember me, understandably, since he was only five the last time we saw each other. So his mother introduced us and left after Reed told her Lane had already left.

I didn't know what to say to him, and he didn't know what to say to me, so I ended up calling the situation what it was and explained to him that I lied to his mother. The explanation was weird, and I know he felt it too, but it would have been weirder if I had just gotten up and left without attempting to explain my presence there, so I had to say something,” I told Isa who was looking at me wide-eyed before asking if she was ready to go. I wasn't going to take long to get dressed.

She said she was, adding that my dress was on the bed. I thanked her for getting it and headed to the room to get ready. After slipping out of my shoes, I walked to the mirror first to check if my hairstyle could be salvaged, and I was glad it could since I had no time to start over. But I caught something out of the corner of my eye just as I turned to walk away.

It was a small gift bag, wrapped in silver and tied with a pale pink ribbon. I felt a rush of anticipation as I walked closer to inspect the package, but just then, a voice spoke, and I looked toward the door to find Isa standing there with a vase of fresh roses in it.

“These came,” she said, and I chuckled, shaking my head at how she went ahead and put them in water for me. “What? It's not like you were going to turn them back,” she added, and my smile widened as I responded she was right. I reached for the gift bag as she stopped next to me, and a gasp escaped her lips. Inside, nestled in a bed of tissue paper, was a beautiful set of diamond earrings and a matching necklace. They sparkled in the light, casting a rainbow of colors across the room.

My heart swelled with love as I grabbed the note that accompanied the jewelry, knowing who it was from. In the note, he told me how proud he was of me and how much he admired my strength and determination. He congratulated me on my special day and expressed his love and support for me.

I placed the earrings next to my ears and asked Isa, who was still complimenting them, if they would go well with my dress since they had a blue sparkle, and my dress was also blue. She replied that they would be perfect, and my smile grew bigger as I put them down. However, the smile didn't last long when I heard the next words out of her mouth.

“I wish he wasn’t married,” she said, before quickly apologizing and saying she didn't mean to upset me. But I cut her off, telling her there was no need. She wasn't lying.

Lane Sterling was married, and as much as I wished he wasn’t, it didn’t change the fact that he was. I put the jewelry down and my eyes trailed to the marks on my neck from our steamy session in the car. My eyes drooped closed as my memories came flooding back, coaxing a moan from my lips as I recalled his hands all over my body, exploring my curves while his lips on my neck littered my whole body with goosebumps. But just then, Colette’s voice asking what I was doing there echoed in my head, snapping me out of the daze and reminding me of the bitter reality.

Lane and I had been seeing each other for almost two years, and every day it grew more complicated as I fell more in love with him with each passing second. It wasn't supposed to happen, and sometimes I still woke up and asked myself how I got here.

Three years ago, my father got into a terrible accident that left him bedridden. It was thought that he would never recover, so he gave my brother the reins and put him in charge of our family business. I had just started my own company in France, where I lived with my aunt.

My mother died when I was nine years old, and my father wasn't coping after her death, so my aunt took care of me. Months later, I heard that he was already seeing someone and had another child who was two years younger than me.

It soon became apparent that he was seeing the person even when my mother was alive, and as I grew, I came to resent him for it. That made me keep my distance from him and refuse his visits. He never stopped trying to mend our relationship, and it was only ten years later that I finally decided to give him a chance and hear his explanation.

Before my mother died, she had been sick with a terminal illness for four years. My father admitted to the affair and told me that my mother knew about it—that she set him up with the woman. I didn't understand it, so I didn't believe it, and I felt like he was making excuses and using my mother's name for them. I cut things off with him again. Like before, he kept reaching out and trying, but I didn’t want to hear it until one evening when a call that shook me to my core came through, saying he had been in a terrible accident.

Suddenly, all that anger vanished, and I blamed myself for not giving him a chance. What had happened, happened, and it was never going to change or change the fact that I loved him and needed him as my father. I went back home, and we worked things out. Isabella and I were business partners, and I left her in charge of our business and moved to care for my father.

He put my half-brother in charge of everything, and for a while, it seemed he was doing okay until it came out that he was just making a mess of things. My father had spent years grooming him, but he still knew nothing. All he understood was flashing money and fucking women.

At first, I tried to keep the news of what he was doing a secret from my father because I didn't want him to worry about it on top of everything he was already going through. I reached out to my aunt and uncle for help and Lane, who was my father's partner.

We worked together and cleaned up the messes he made, but because he still held the power, he kept messing things up. Eventually, the truth came out to my father. Lane told him, and he put me in charge. My father listened to him, so I took over. From there, the businesses thrived, and tonight my father will be naming his successor. My brother left after everything that happened, and I have never heard from or seen him since then.

My father also made a full recovery and is working again. When he called for this dinner, he never said he was going to name his successor, but Lane told me. He told me that was what the dinner was for, and I have never been so happy. Ever since I returned here, I have put my blood and sweat into this business. It was my mother's inheritance that started this whole thing, and this is her legacy. It was wrong of me to just forsake everything because I was angry at my father, and I'm glad I came to my senses when the accident happened and I returned. My place is here.

This business is also what brought Lane Sterling and me together. After my father put me in charge, I realized that I wanted to be my father's successor, and I deserved to be. However, I was still threatened by my brother. I saw how my father's eyes still lit up at the mention of his name, even after he had failed him. The proud look never left his eyes when he thought of him.

That made me paranoid, and I confessed to Lane about it. He assured me that he would back me up, and his support meant everything. He wasn't just friends with my father, but he was his partner, which meant he had a say in the business decisions my father took. I believed him, but it was still not enough. I felt like I needed to have a hold of him, something that would motivate him to push even harder, so I seduced him. He tried to resist, but I didn't let up, and he eventually gave in. It started as just sex, but it quickly became something more, the more I got to know him and about his miserable marriage.

Lane's marriage to Colette was a product of circumstance rather than love. At the beginning of their relationship, Colette was merely looking for entertainment and never imagined that it would lead to marriage. However, an unexpected pregnancy and pressure from her family pushed her to marry Lane, even though she had no deep affection for him.

Despite both of them coming from wealthy families, there was a notable difference between them. Colette's family was incredibly influential and funded their business. They even bailed Lane's family out of financial trouble. This created an imbalance in their power dynamics. Colette, as the primary breadwinner, had more control over their finances, and this caused considerable strain on their marriage.

Her behavior towards her husband was one of superiority and disdain, making it evident that she resented being forced into the marriage. She would constantly remind him that her family's money paid for everything, which added to the tension between them. This emotional distance created a rift in their marriage, and it made Lane miserable. He told me they were just living under the same roof, but nothing was tying them together except for their children.

The day he told me all of this, I asked him why he had stayed in the marriage. He replied that he did it for his kids, but now they are grown. I told him that they would understand if he left, and surely, they wanted him to be happy. Reed is twenty-four, and Ethan is twenty; they understand how love and relationships work now. He said he hadn't thought about that.

However, he has since informed me that he is going to leave Colette, and that day can't come soon enough. I am tired of hiding.

Today, we almost got caught. If Colette had arrived just a few minutes later, she would have found us together.

While I was still seated with Reed in his office, a message came through from Lane telling me that he was on the sixth floor. When I got there, he told me that he saw his wife just as he was about to leave and took the elevator up instead of down. He apologized, but I told him it was okay, and we laughed about my awkward encounter with his son.

I missed Lane and wanted to see him before we had to pretend to be nothing more than business associates at dinner tonight.

"Perfect," I muttered, giving myself a once-over before heading out of the room. It was about to be the happiest night of my life. I was about to become the leader of the de Villeneuve clan and soon Mrs. Sterling.