Rise of the Formidable Ex-wife (Lucia and Alex) novel Chapter 248

Chapter 248

*** Marger

pige meant tær people w

to the wall, the volume controlled by whoever held the remote that week, Our cow women watching it because she had learned weeks ago that standing at the

Maristes all the ke

Margers whole body wed

weichuud he mother’s eyes gasten on cue, watched the careful tremor in her hands, watched her speak words that bore ****ndhak to anything that had actually happened in that visiting room. The miscarriage. The threats. Lucia dearing her marriage of walousy Marco’s children turning him against her from the beginning.

None of it was *****

All of # was being said in her nATE

Margaret’s chest nghtened until breathing became a conscious act, something she had to remember to do rather than

her body simply managed on its own. Around her the other women murmured, some glancing her way, the story now public enough that her face had become recognizable even here.

She turned and walked back to the phones.

There were two of them mounted on the wall outside the common room, scratched plastic, a queue that moved slowly because everyone had someone they needed to reach. Margaret waited eleven minutes. She dialed the number she still knew by heart despite everything

Claire answered on the fourth ring.

“Leaw it” Margaret said, before Claire could speak. “The video/Mum’s video.”

“Good, Claire said. “It’s working. The narrative has shifted completely in the last six hours.”

“It’s a he” Margaret’s voice cracked on the word, the first crack she had allowed herself in this conversation. “I never told her any of that. There was no threat. There was no miscarriage caused by anyone but me and Marco. You know that. You all know that?

What I know? Claire said, her voice flattening into something cold, “is that we have nothing left because you gave it all away. What I know is that this family has spent everything we had trying to survive what you did to us. This is the only weapon we

Margaret said. “Please: Stop thib”

“Wercjest geting started? Claire said, and behind her Margaret could hear Josh’s voice, indistinct but present, agreeing with

Blamarsit showed with the receiver still pressed to her car for several seconds after the dial tone began, the plastic cold against

skin, by owu breath boud in the small space.

archi when lie mswered, de particular carefulness of a man who had learned to expect difficult

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Chapter 34N

need in speak to the press Margaret said. “Properly On the record. I need you to arrange in

“Margarer I would advise against

Lam not asking for advice,” she said. Her voice was steady now, steadier than it had been on the phone with Claire. something settling into place inside her that felt almost like relief. “I am asking you to arrange it. Whatever needs doing A written statement, read aloud, recorded, whatever format makes it count. I need the truth on record before my family destroys what’s left of anyone’s ability to believe anything real ever again!

The statement was arranged the next day, conducted through the prison’s media liaison, Margaret seated across a table a single camera and one journalist who had been vetted and approved through the proper channels.

She had written it herself. No lawyer’s careful phrasing, no softening, no protective language.

“My name is Margaret Hart,” she said, looking directly into the lens. “I am the person responsible for everything that has happened to this family. Not Lucia Kane. Not her children. Me.”

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Her hands were flat on the table, not shaking, though everything inside her was.

“I pursued Marco Hart while he was married,” she said. “I knew he had a wife and three children. I knew exactly what I was doing and I did it anyway because I wanted him and I told myself wanting something that strongly made it acceptable to take it. Her voice did not waver. “I destroyed his marriage. I am responsible for that. Nobody manipulated me into it Nobody coerced me. I made that choice with full understanding of what it would cost other people.”

The journalist did not interrupt.

“I killed my husband,” Margaret continued. The words came out plainly, no flinching, the sentence she had practiced in her cell until she could say it without her voice breaking. “I shot him in a basement after planning the kidnapping of two teenage girls, Monica Hart and Lena Kane, neither of whom had done anything except exist in a family I had decided to destroy. I held a gun on a thirteen-year-old child. Her father died protecting her from me.”

Her eyes were wet now but she did not stop.

“My family has spent the last several days telling lies about Lucia Kane and her children,” she said. “Claiming Lucia caused a miscarriage that was entirely the result of my own husband’s actions and my own choices. Claiming I was threatened in prison into giving away my assets. Claiming the children turned Marco against me. None of that happened. I am telling on the record, in my own words, that every accusation my family has made publicly against that family is false.

She paused.

“I gave Monica Hart sixty-four million dollars because she is the person I hurt the most.” Margaret said “Not to since her Not to pay her off, as though money could purchase forgiveness for what I did to her childhood fe it to her becau was the right thing to do, the only accounting I had left to offer, and because I trusted her to use it for unething that mattered. She donated every dollar to charity. She has used what I gave her to help other children survive what I put bes through. That is not an attention seeker. That is the bravest thing I have witnessed in this entire ordeal

Her voice cracked properly now.

Thave already given my Landy everything else I had left” she said. Seven and a half mulher cullan, My apartment Marco bought me. It is gone. There is nothing more to give and

never owell anything from the in the first place

She looked ducatly wan the came

“To pry family in sand plear wop Wear I am begging your Whatever anger. are owed, sopchurug people who did nothing to desene a stephusting children should ever have to w

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Chapter 248

The tears were falling freely now and she did not try to hide them.

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