Rise of the Formidable Ex-wife (Lucia and Alex) novel Chapter 108

Chapter 108

Chapter 108

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The crash echoed through the Hart house like thunder. Glass shattered against the marble floor as Margaret hurled another crystal vase across the living room. Her face was red and twisted with rage, tears streaming down her cheeks as she screamed at the empty air.

“That witch! That evil, bitter witch!” Margaret’s voice cracked as she grabbed a picture frame from the mantel. It was a photo from their wedding, her in white, Marco smiling beside her. She smashed it against the wall. “She’s destroying everything! Everything I worked for!”

Monica pressed herself deeper into the corner behind the leather chair, making herself as small as possible. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped around them. She watched through the gap between the chair and the wall as Margaret moved through the room like a tornado, destroying anything she could reach.

Another crash. This time it was the expensive lamp from the side table. The shade crumpled as it hit the floor, the base splitting in two.

“Lucia thinks she’s so smart!” Margaret screamed, her voice getting higher and more shrill. “Thinks she can ruin my life with her lies and her money! Well, I won’t let her! I won’t!”

Monica flinched as Margaret kicked over a small table. Books scattered across the floor, their pages fluttering like wounded birds. One of them was Monica’s art book, the one with her sketches inside. Margaret stepped on it as she moved past, her heel tearing through the cover.

“Twenty–eight years old and I’m supposed to be finished?” Margaret laughed, but it sounded more like crying. “She thinks she won? She thinks Alexander Kane and his dirty money can destroy me? I’ll show her what real destruction looks like!”

She grabbed a ceramic bowl from the coffee table, one of the expensive ones Lucia had picked out years ago. Margaret raised it above her head, her whole body shaking with fury.

“This is all her fault!” Margaret screamed as she threw the bowl. It exploded against the brick fireplace. “Every single thing going wrong is because of that jealous, pathetic woman!”

Monica bit her lip to keep from crying out. Pieces of ceramic scattered across the floor, one shard sliding close to her hiding spot. She pulled her feet up higher, trying to make herself invisible.

Margaret spun around, looking for something else to break. Her eyes were wild, mascara running down her face in black streams. Her perfect hair was a mess, strands sticking to her wet cheeks.

“She wants to play games?” Margaret grabbed a crystal wine glass from the bar cart. “I’ll show her games! I’ll make her sorry she ever thought she could mess with me!”

The wine glass joined the growing pile of broken things on the floor. Then another. And another. Margaret worked her way through the entire set, each crash making Monica jump.

“Stupid, ungrateful children!” Margaret suddenly turned her rage toward the stairs where Ria and Lucas had disappeared earlier. “Walking around here like they’re better than me! Looking at me like I’m the problem! Their precious mommy abandoned them, and they blame me?”

She picked up a heavy book and threw it at the wall. It left a dent in the paint before falling to the floor.

gave

them everything! I tried to be good to them! But no, they want their bitter, twisted mother who doesn’t even care enough to call them!” Margaret’s voice broke completely. “Well, fine! Let them see what happens when someone really leaves

them!

Monica’s heart pounded so hard she thought Margaret might hear it. She pressed her face against her knees, trying to block

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Chapter 108

out the sound of breaking things and Margaret’s screaming.

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“Lucia Smith!” Margaret spat the name like poison. “Acting all high and mighty with her new rich boyfriend! Thinks she’s better than me because she’s &ider?/Because she had him first?”

Another crash. This time it was the decorative mirror above the side table. Silver pieces rained down, catching the light like falling stars.

“I’m younger! I’m prettier! I deserve this life more than she ever did!” Margaret’s voice was getting hoarse from screaming. “She had seventeen years to appreciate what she had, and she wasted it being boring and plain! Now she wants to take it all away from me?”

The front door opened with a bang. Marco’s voice filled the house, tired and angry.

“What the hell is going on in here?”

Margaret spun around to face him. Her chest was heaving, her clothes wrinkled, surrounded by the wreckage of their living

room

“Your ex–wife is destroying our lives!” Margaret pointed at the mess around her as if it proved her point. “Look what she’s done to us! Look what she’s made me become!”

Marco stared at the broken glass, the overturned furniture, the holes in the walls. His face went white, then red with anger.

“Are you insane? You destroyed our house!”

“She started it!” Margaret screamed back. “With her lies and her newspaper stories and her rich boyfriend’s money! She’s trying to take everything away from me!”

“So you throw a tantrum like a five–year–old?” Marco’s voice was cold, dangerous. “You destroy thousands of dollars worth of furniture because you’re upset?”

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that!” Margaret stepped toward him, glass crunching under her feet. “This is all happening because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut about your boring marriage! Now the whole world knows our business!”

“My marriage wasn’t boring,” Marco said quietly. His eyes moved around the destroyed room. “It was peaceful. It was stable. It was real.”

Margaret’s face twisted with jealousy and rage. “Real? You told me she was cold! You said she didn’t understand you! You said I was everything she could never be!”

“Maybe I was wrong.”

The words hung in the air like a slap. Margaret’s mouth fell open, her eyes wide with shock and hurt.

“What did you say?”

Marco looked at her, really looked at her. At her tear–streaked face, her wild hair, the destruction she’d caused. “Lucia never broke our things when she was upset. She never screamed at my children. She never blamed other people for her problems.”

“I can’t believe you’re defending her!” Margaret’s voice reached a new pitch. “After everything we’ve been through together! After I gave up my whole life to be with you!”

“You gave up nothing!” Marco shouted back. “You planned this whole thing! You chased after a married man because you wanted his money and his house and his lifestyle!”

Margaret raised her hand to slap him, but Marco caught her wrist.

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Chapter 108

Dont, he warned Ive had enough violence for one day.”

They stared at each other, both breathing hard. Margaret’s hand was shaking in his grip.

“Let go of me,” she whispered.

Marco released her wrist. Margaret stepped back, wrapping her arms around herself.

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“This is all her fault.” Margaret said again, but quieter now. “Everything was perfect until she came back. We were happy.”

“Were we?” Marco asked. “Or were we just pretending?”

Margaret’s face crumpled. Fresh tears started falling. “You love her more than me.”

H%

Marco didn’t answer. He couldn’t. Because looking at the destruction around him, thinking about Lucia’s quiet strength compared to Margaret’s chaos, he was starting to think Margaret might be right.

“I’m going for a drive,” he said finally.

“Marco, wait.

But he was already walking toward the door. “Clean this up before the children see any more of it.”

The door slammed behind him with a sound like a gunshot. Margaret stood alone in the destroyed room, surrounded by broken glass and broken dreams.

From upstairs came the sound of footsteps. Ria appeared at the top of the stairs, her face pale and frightened.

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