Rise of the Formidable Ex-wife (Lucia and Alex) novel Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The first week nearly broke her.

5 AM. Every morning. The trainer arrived before sunrise.

His name was Dieter. Former military. Hard face. No sympathy.

“Get up,” he said. First morning. Standing over her bed. “Training starts now.”

Lucia had never exercised properly. A yoga class here. A walk there. Nothing serious.

This was serious.

They ran. Around the lake. Her lungs burned. Her legs screamed.

“Keep going,” Dieter said. Not even breathing hard.

She wanted to stop. Wanted to collapse.

But she thought about Marco. Celebrating his engagement.

She kept going.

After the run. Weights. Core work. More running.

Her muscles tore. Rebuilt. Tore again.

Every night she could barely climb the stairs.

By the third week, she stopped wanting to quit.

By the fifth week, something shifted.

But not in the way she expected.

They were running. Early morning. Mist over the lake.

Her foot caught a root. She went down hard. Hands scraping gravel. Knee splitting open.

Blood ran down her leg.

Dieter stopped. Looked at her.

“Get up,” he said.

She tried. Her knee buckled. She fell again.

“Get up.”

“I can’t.”

“You can.”

“My knee is bleeding.”

“Your knee is fine. Get up.”

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14:18 Sat, May 30

Chapter 10

KHEA

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She stayed on the ground. Hands shaking. Knee throbbing.

Something inside her cracked.

“Why am I doing this?” The words came out broken. “What’s the point? I’m running around a lake every morning. Lifting weights. For what?”

Dieter stared at her.

“I’m forty years old. I left everything. My kids don’t want me. My husband threw me away. And I’m here. Bleeding on a bath Pretending exercise is going to fix something.”

“Are you done?” Dieter asked.

“Maybe I am. Maybe this is pointless. Maybe I should just. Accept that I lost. That they won.”

Dieter crouched down. Met her eyes.

“They haven’t won,” he said. Low. Quiet. “They think they have. That’s different. Right now, you’re on the ground. Bleeding Feeling sorry for yourself. You can stay here. Or you can get up and make them regret the day they underestimated you.”

She looked at him. At his hard face. No pity.

“Pain is temporary,” he said. “Regret is permanent. Your choice.”

She thought about Marco. Margaret. The kids laughing.

She thought about giving up. Going home. Being nothing.

Then she thought about walking back in. Watching their faces. Seeing them realize what they’d done.

She got up.

Knee screaming. Blood running.

She finished the run.

After that morning, something changed. Not her body. Her mind.

The pain stopped being punishment. It became purpose.

Every burning muscle was proof she was changing.

Every gasping breath was distance from who she used to be.

Suffering became fuel.

Alex started teaching her in the afternoons.

They sat in his study. Books everywhere. Screens showing markets. Numbers. Charts.

“This is where power lives,” Alex said. First lesson. “In information. In money. In understanding systems.”

Lucia knew nothing. Less than nothing.

She’d never paid a bill. Never managed an account. Never understood investments.

Marco handled everything.

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Chapter 10

“Teach me,” she told Alex. “Everything.”

He started with basics. Bank accounts. Credit. Interest.

Then stocks. Bonds. Markets. How money moved.

Then companies. Structure. Control. Power.

Her brain hurt. Numbers swam.

Some nights she wanted to scream.

One evening. Week six. She threw her notebook across the room.

“I can’t do this,” she said. “It’s too much. I don’t understand any of it.”

Alex picked up the notebook. Set it on the table.

“Yes you can,” he said. Calm.

“I’m not smart enough.”

“You’re plenty smart. You’re just learning something new. That’s always hard.”

“Marco said I wasn’t good with numbers. Said it was better if he handled things.”

Alex’s jaw tightened. “Marco said a lot of things. Most of them were designed to keep you dependent on him.”

Dependent. Yes. That’s what she’d been.

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“You’re not dependent anymore,” Alex said. “You’re learning. It’s slow. It’s frustrating. But every day you understand more than the day before.”

She looked at the notebook on the table.

Every day.

That’s all it took. One day at a time.

She picked it up. Kept studying.

Week seven. They studied Marco specifically.

Alex pulled up files. Documents. Reports.

“His offshore accounts,” Alex said. “Cayman Islands. Shell companies. He’s been moving money for years.”

“Away from me.”

“Yes. When the divorce settles, he’ll claim far less than he has.”

“Can we prove it?”

“With the right evidence. The right timing.”

“When?”

“Not yet. Rush it and he’ll cover tracks.”

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Chapter 10

Patience. The hardest lesson.

Week eight. Alex taught her about influence.

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“Power isn’t given,” he said. “It’s taken. No one hands it to you because you deserve it. You claim it. Through knowledge. Through position. Through force.”

“Force?”

“Economic force. Social force. Knowing things others don’t want known.”

Leverage.

“Marco has secrets,” she said.

“Everyone does. The question is which ones matter.”

“The affair. The hidden money.”

“Those are defensive. They protect you. What we need is offensive power. Something that threatens his position.”

“What would that be?”

Alex leaned back. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”

The days blurred. Training. Learning. Pushing.

She fell asleep with numbers in her head. Woke thinking about strategy.

Some nights she dreamed about the party. About Monica laughing. About Lucas saying everyone knew except her.

She woke from those dreams sweating. Heart racing.

One night. Week nine. She couldn’t sleep at all.

She went to the kitchen. Found Lena there. Late night snack.

“Can’t sleep either?” Lena asked.

Lucia shook her head.

“What’s wrong?”

Everything. Nothing. She didn’t know.

“What if they don’t care?” Lucia said. “What if I go back and. They still don’t want me. What if nothing changes.

Lena was quiet for a moment.

“Then at least you’ll know you tried,” she said. “You’ll know you didn’t just roll over. You’ll know you’re someone who fights.”

Someone who fights.

Was that who she was now?

She thought about the woman who arrived here. Broken. Bleeding. Ready to give up.

That woman was gone.

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Chapter 10

This one. The one standing in this kitchen at 2 AM. This one was different.

Not just physically. Something deeper.

Lena looked at her. “You’re going to be fine, you know. Better than fine.”

“How do you know?”

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“Because I’ve watched you. Every day. Getting up before dawn. Training until you can barely walk. Studying until midnight. You don’t quit. That’s rare.”

Rare.

Maybe. Maybe she was.

Alex found her on the balcony the next evening. Looking at the lake.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Ready. Almost.”

“Almost?”

“I need to understand something first.”

“What?”

She turned to face him. “You’ve been watching Marco for eight years. You own shares in his company. You know his secrets. His weaknesses.”

“Yes.”

“So why haven’t you done anything? Why wait for me?”

Alex was quiet. Choosing words.

“Because destroying Marco isn’t my goal,” he said finally. “He’s a bad person. But he’s not my fight.”

“Then what is?”

He looked at her. Something in his eyes she couldn’t read.

“Helping you get justice. That’s my fight.”

“Why?”

“Because you deserve it. And because.” He stopped. Started again. “Because I should have been there for you eighteen years ago. I ran away instead. Maybe this is my way of making up for that.”

Making up.

She didn’t know if it could be made up. But she understood.

“When do we go back?” she asked.

“Soon. A few more weeks of preparation. Then we’ll be ready.”

Ready.

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Chapter 10