Rise of the Formidable Ex-wife (Lucia and Alex) novel Chapter 240

Chapter 240

Chapter 240

They came home with the money already divided in their heads before anyone said a word.

Mr. Harrison had moved fast. The jewellery dealer he had contacted took the collection within two days. The penthouse buyer had been waiting for that building. Seven and a half million dollars, clean and liquid, and the family sat in the living room with the knowledge of it sitting between them like an animal they were deciding how to share.

Josh Junior stood in front of the fireplace.

“Three million to me,” he said. His voice had the flatness of someone who had already decided and was simply announcing it. “I am the only son. I have a pregnant wife, a failing business, and debts that are going to swallow us alive if they are not cleared. Three million.”

Claire’s head came up sharply. “And the rest of us?”

“Two million to you,” Josh said, looking at his sister. “You have a husband with an income. Two million is more than enough.”

Claire’s face went red. “That is half of what you’re taking.”

“Because your situation is half as urgent as mine.”

“You don’t get to decide what my situation is worth,” Claire said, her voice climbing. “I came to that prison with Mum. I went to that lawyer with Mum. I stood in Lucia Kane’s lobby with all of you. I have done everything this family asked and you are handing me two million while you walk away with three?”

“Claire.” Josh Senior’s voice came from the armchair, low and final. “Take the two million.”

Claire looked at her father. Something moved through her face, the old reflex, the one that had been trained into her for decades, and her jaw locked and she looked at the floor.

“The remaining one and a half goes to your mother and I,” Josh Senior said. “That covers the house and the repairs and whatever else.”

The room went quiet in the specific way it went quiet when a decision had been made by the person whose decisions always ended conversations.

“Fine,” Claire said. The word came out like something swallowed badly.

“It is not enough,” Marie said, before anyone could exhale. Her hands were clasped tight in her lap, her knuckles pale. “All of this. The jewellery, the apartment, all of it together. It is nothing compared to what she gave away.”

“We still need the sixty-four million,” Claire said, lifting her head. The money argument had redirected her anger neatly. “That is what Margaret gave Monica. That is what belongs to this family.”

From the kitchen doorway came Stella’s voice.

“No.” She came into the room, her hand resting on her stomach, her eyes moving from face to face. “No to all of it. This is where it stops.”

Josh did not turn around. “Nobody asked you.”

“I’m asking myself,” Stella said, stepping fully into the room. “Because I am the only person in this house who seems to understand that we have just received seven and a half million dollars from a woman who is serving a life sentence and that should be the end of this.” Her eyes found Josh’s back. “Turn around and look at me when I’m talking to you.”

He turned. His expression was not pleasant.

“Your debts are cleared,” Stella said. “With money to spare. My family has already offered you a position. A real one, in a real company, with a real income going forward, something our child can grow up with. You do not need Margaret’s money to survive. You are choosing to want it.”

*I am not working for your father, Josh s

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Chapter 240

“Why not?” Stella’s voice cracked slightly, the first fracture in the control she had been holding for weeks Because it would mean someone helping you instead of you taking from someone? Because it does not feel like winning?”

“Because it is charity,” Josh said, the word landing like an accusation. “And I will not sit in an office your father owns and be grateful for a salary while Monica Hart is living off sixty-four million dollars that Margaret earned.”

“Monica Hart is a thirteen-year-old girl,” Stella said. “A thirteen-year-old girl whose father died in front of her on a basement floor. Whatever you think Margaret earned, she earned it in ways that should make all of us ashamed to be connected to her name at all.”

“Don’t talk about Margaret like that,” Marie said, her voice sharpening. “Whatever she did, she is still my daughter.”

Stella turned to look at her mother-in-law. “Is she? Because from everything I have watched in this room over the past weeks, your daughter was a woman who spent her entire life being told she was worth less than her siblings, and the only person who ever made her feel otherwise was the man she ended up killing.” Her voice was shaking now, not with anger but with something rawer than anger. “That should break your heart. Instead you are sitting here arguing about how to divide up the assets she left you while she coughs up blood alone in a prison cell.”

The room went very still.

Marie’s face had gone white.

“How do you know about that?” Josh asked.

“I called the prison welfare office,” Stella said. “Because somebody in this family should be thinking about whether Margaret is actually alright. Because she is a person. Your person. And nobody here has asked once whether she is eating or sleeping or whether she needs anything except money.”

“She made her choices,” Marie said, her voice not entirely steady now.

“And you are making yours,” Stella said. “Right now. In front of me. All of you.” She looked at Josh Senior, who was watching her from his armchair with an expression she could not fully read. “If I had known what this family was like before I married into it, I would have asked different questions.”

Josh’s face hardened. “That is enough.”

“I am not finished-”

“You are finished,” Josh said. His voice had gone low and cold. “You are my wife and you are carrying my child and I am telling you that you are finished.”

The doorbell rang.

Nobody moved for a moment. Then Josh Junior went to the door. He came back holding a thick envelope, his name on the outside, and the expression on his face had shifted into something unreadable.

He read the first page.

Then he passed it to Claire.

Claire read it and passed it to their father.

Josh Senior read it and put it down on the side table.

It was a restraining order. Filed by Alexander Kane. Five hundred feet. All four of them named individually. Any violation resulting in immediate arrest.

“He thinks a court order stops us,” Josh said.

“It does stop you,” Stella said. Her voice had gone very quiet. “That is what court orders do. They stop people.” She looked at the document on the table. “This is Alexander Kane’s legal team. They could pursue this for twenty years and not feel the cost.”

“They cannot shake us, Josh said, louder now.

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Chapter 240

*Josh.” Stella put her hand on his arm. “My family. The job offer. Please. Just take it. Let the debt go. Let this go. We have a baby coming and I need you to be present for that and not in a courtroom or a jail cell because you violated a restraining order from a trillionaire’s lawyers.”

Josh looked at her hand on his arm. Then he looked at her face. Something moved through his expression that might, in different circumstances, have been the beginning of listening.

Then Claire spoke.

“Margaret slept with my husband,” she said.

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