Rise of the Formidable Ex-wife (Lucia and Alex) novel Chapter 233

Chapter 233

Chapter 233

The lobby of Hart Industries was glass and marble and the particular hush of a building where everyone moved with purpose.

Marie walked through the revolving doors first, her coat still buttoned to the throat, her face set with the determination of a woman who had decided this morning that she was owed something and intended to collect it. Josh Senior followed close behind her, his shoulders pulled back, his jaw tight. Claire came next, already scanning the room for the reception desk, her eyes hard. Josh Junior trailed last, his hands in his pockets, looking less certain than the rest but moving forward anyway.

The receptionist looked up. Young, polished, the kind of calm that came from managing people who arrived without appointments.

“We need to see Lucia Kane,” Marie said. Clipped. Certain.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No,” Claire said. “But she will want to see us. Tell her it’s about Margaret Hart.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Kane is not available for unscheduled meetings. If you’d like to leave your information—”

“We are not leaving until we see her,” Josh Senior said, his voice rising, carrying across the marble, drawing two security guards from near the elevators.

“Sir, I need you to lower your voice.”

“My daughter is in prison because of this family,” Marie said, sharp and desperate now. “We have a right to speak with her.”

The guards began moving toward the desk. Claire saw them and raised her voice further, talking over everything.

“She took everything from my sister. Now she’s taking the money that should have come to this family. We are not leaving until someone listens to us.”

The elevator doors opened.

Lucia stepped out with Alexander beside her, and the energy in the lobby shifted instantly, the guards stepping back, deferring to the woman who owned the building.

Marie crossed the lobby fast, her heels sharp against the marble.

“You,” she said. “You destroyed my daughter’s life. You spent months tearing Marco apart piece by piece, stripping everything from him in public, and now you’ve taken what little Margaret had left and given it away instead of returning it to the family she actually belongs to.”

“What money are you referring to?” Lucia asked.

“You know exactly what money. The sixty-four million Margaret gave your daughter. Money that should have stayed in our family.”

“That money was given to charity,” Lucia said.

Marie’s face went through several expressions, confusion, then disbelief, then a fury climbing from somewhere deep.

“Charity?” Josh Senior’s voice cracked through the lobby. “You gave it to strangers while my son’s family struggles, while my grandchild is about to be born into financial uncertainty?”

“I gave nothing away,” Lucia said, her voice sharpening now. “My daughter received money from the woman who kidnapped her, bruised her face, and watched her father die in front of her. What Monica chose to do with it was her decision and hers alone.”

“She is thirteen,” Josh Junior said. “Thirteen years old and you let a child give away sixty-four million dollars instead of guiding her toward something sensible.”

“The kind who trusts her daughter’s judgment after everything she survived,” Lucia said. “Which is more than

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your family has ever offered Margaret.”

Claire stepped forward, closing the distance with an aggression that made Alexander shift closer to Lucia. “You are not innocent,” Claire said, her voice low and venomous. “You spent months tearing Marco’s life apart. The company. The reputation he built over seventeen years. You dragged him through humiliation after humiliation in front of the entire business community. You drove him to the edge, and when my sister, desperate and broken, did something unforgivable trying to hold onto the only thing she had left, you act like your hands are clean.”

The lobby had gone completely silent.

“And now Marco is dead,” Claire continued, “and you stand here in the building you stole from him, wearing his company like a trophy around your neck, talking about how proud you are while my sister rots in a cell because of everything you started.”

“I started nothing,” Lucia said. Her voice did not rise, but something underneath it had gone hard as stone. “I took back what was mine after Marco spent years betraying our marriage, fathering nothing with the woman he chose to break our family for, and humiliating me in front of people who once called me a friend. The months I spent reclaiming this company were months he spent making the choice to destroy everything first.” Her eyes locked on Claire’s. “I did not ruin your sister. Margaret chased a married man with three children, continued an affair knowing exactly what it would cost, and when she could not keep him, she planned and executed the kidnapping of two teenage girls. She held a gun on a child. She pulled the trigger that killed Marco while he tried to protect his daughter.” Lucia took one step closer to Claire, refusing to retreat an inch.” You want to talk about clean hands? None of us in this story have them. But Margaret’s are the only ones with blood on them.”

“How dare you,” Marie said, her voice shaking with fury.

“I dare because it is true,” Lucia said. “You raised a daughter who could not handle losing something that was never fully hers, and instead of teaching her to grieve and move forward, your entire family is standing in my lobby demanding money from a child she traumatized. That tells me everything I need to know about where Margaret learned to take what was not hers.”

“You vicious woman,” Josh Senior said, his face reddening.

“Careful,” Alexander said, his voice low and controlled but absolutely firm, stepping fully beside his wife now. “I will not stand here and let any of you speak to her that way. You came into this building uninvited and have spent the last several minutes attacking a woman whose children were kidnapped and whose former husband died because your daughter put a bullet in him. This conversation is over.”

“Careful yourself,” Claire said, turning her venom on him. “You might be the next person she decides to destroy once she’s finished using you for your money.”

“I would suggest you leave,” Alexander said, “before this becomes something none of you want it to become.” “Give us the money,” Marie said, ignoring him entirely, desperation cutting through her anger now. “All of it. We are her family. We have rights.”

“You have no legal claim to anything,” Lucia said. “The transfer was legitimate. The decision was Monica’s. There is nothing here for you, and there never will be.”

Josh Senior stepped forward, his voice booming across the marble. “We will get every penny back if we have to drag this through every court in the country.”

“Do whatever you feel you need to do,” Lucia said. “But hear me clearly. If any of you come near my daughter, if any of you so much as approach her school or her home or her therapist’s office, I will use every resource! have to make the rest of your lives a legal nightmare you cannot afford to fight. I have already buried one threat to my children. I will not hesitate to bury another.”

The lobby went utterly still.

Alexander made a small motion with his hand. The security guards moved forward immediately. “Please escort this family out of the building,” he said.

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The guards positioned themselves on either side, guiding the group toward the revolving doors.

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