Divorced the Cheat Married the Fleet (Camilla and Lance) novel Chapter 219

Barnard’s nerves were shot. Camilla’s defiance sent his temper flaring, and Davina’s presence in the other room only made it worse. With the smell of fresh blood hanging in the air, his heart raced and his thoughts grew wild.

He ignored Laura’s question. Instead, he stared hard at Camilla. “Do you really hate me this much? Did you call Davina here on purpose? Did you set this up just to ruin me?”

He stepped closer and grabbed Camilla’s wrist, as if she owed him an answer.

Camilla almost laughed at how absurd he sounded. “Don’t flatter yourself,” she shot back. “Davina came here looking for you, not because of me. Since when am I responsible for your mess? Did I force the two of you to get together? Barnard, you were the one who lost your own child. Now you can’t handle the guilt, so you go looking for someone to blame. That’s just pathetic.”

Honestly, she’d been blindsided seeing Barnard at the party. What happened last night had made her a victim too. Yet here he was, flipping the whole thing on her without a shred of shame. Camilla didn’t even know what to say back.

Barnard’s jaw clenched, the tension showing in the veins at his temples.

Suddenly, Davina came staggering out from the hallway. She looked like a ghost, her legs barely holding her up. Her eyes were puffy and red, hair tangled all around her pale face. Pure hate burned in her gaze as she looked at Camilla. “It was you. I have the call log—I know you told me Barnard invited you to the party. That’s why I came.”

When their eyes met, Davina hesitated for a moment, but then she hurled herself at Camilla. “You took my child from me. It’s your fault. You ruined everything!”

Calvin, who’d been quietly fuming, suddenly found another angle. As Davina sobbed and shouted, his expression shifted. He turned to Camilla. “So this is how it is. When you wanted a divorce, I thought you just wanted to end things peacefully. We did everything you asked. Never thought you’d turn out so malicious, going behind our backs just to hurt my grandson. The Carter family won’t let this slide.”

Davina’s eyes lit up when Calvin referred to her child as his grandson. She jumped in right away, eager to agree. “Exactly! She tricked me into coming here. She can’t just get away with this!”

He had more than one solution in mind. If Barnard married Davina, that could help. But there was another option: bring Jasper back. As long as Camilla stuck around to play the dutiful wife, the family could pretend everything was fine, blaming all the problems on Barnard. They could dump Barnard, find a new heir with Carter blood, and shove Camilla and Jasper aside without a second thought.

Camilla had seen this tactic before. Barnard once used the same trick. Calvin’s manipulation didn’t surprise her at all—she saw through him right away.

Her lip curled with sarcasm, but before she could fire off a response, Davina jumped in first, more desperate than ever. “Calvin, you can’t do this. If Jasper comes back to your family, what happens to me? Barnard promised to marry me. I was pregnant with his child. I—”

Calvin’s glare darkened, and Barnard quickly reached out, grabbing Davina’s arm to hold her back. He kept his voice low, trying to calm her down. “Davina, take it easy. This is just a way to buy us some time.”

But even as Barnard tried to talk her down, he was already coming up with a new plan of his own. Maybe Calvin was onto something. If they took Jasper back, Camilla would be forced to come with him. Maybe that was the answer he’d been searching for all along.