Rise of the Formidable Ex-wife (Lucia and Alex) novel Chapter 252

Chapter 252

Josh stood in the empty be run for long the te buked at the wardrobe wall but open, the drawer he had never noticed before will airing the wheir tolla bod pofed out berdate. He monetwowed de wardiche and pollent at open fully Tierlothes hung there aloe Here were war All of there ken die maternary Bothes she board brought a month ago when she was still pretending that everything would be okay, that they would work through this thrber

He pulled out his phone to call her and then set it down without dialing

What would he say?

The closet on her side of the bathroom was empty too. He stood in the bathroom and looked the empty shelf where her toiletries had been. Her toothbrush was gone. Her prenatal vitamins were gone. Even the hair stragener she used every morning was gone, the cord neatly, wrapped around it

He went to the bedroom again and sat on the edge of the bed where the sunde bad been. The indentation of her parking was still visible in the bedspread, the fabric slowly rising back to normal as if she had never been there at all.

He thought about the baby. Their baby. Six months along. Almost real. Almost ready to exist in the world. And his wife had just left carrying all of her things with her.

Had she taken everything on purpose? Or had she just grabbed what she thought she would need and left everything else behind because she was too upset to think clearly? He did not know. He did not know his wife anymore. That was the weight of it. He did not know her.

He had spent the last few weeks fighting with her, defending his family, arguing that they were right and she was wrong if she could not understand that then there was something wrong with her understanding. And now she was gone and be understood that he had been fighting the wrong battle all along

He did not know how long, he sat there. It might have been ten minutes or thirty minutes. Inne felt strange dow moving of the wrong speed. The house was very quiet. He had never noticed before how loud Steila was. Not in a b

way that meant life was happening. Doors opening and closing. Her footsteps in the morning. Her vowe on the picker The sound of her crying at night, which he had tried not to hear because hearing it made him have to thank #bour wher she was crying about

carbecause

He went downstairs and looked at the kitchen. She had not left a note. There was nothing that said goodbye as I love you of please call me. There was just absence.

The knock at the front door came, sharp and official

Three raps that had a particular quality of authority before he even opened it

Two officers stood on the step. A third waited by the car parked outle

“Joshua Lowe?” the first officer said

“Yes”

“We have papers for your Claire Lowe Pendiente Joshua Lowe Sunior and Muu Lose” He held on a da weight of it was apparent just from how the officer helt it nou and being served with legal guardings attack! Alexander Kane on behalf of Innert, his wife Lucia Kame, ut the rager +hibits. The charges acluf slander, maliciais falsehood, and hararent. He painot. Itis voke was verytales which are unele water. hit harder We-abulave arrest warrers i com anh thu tidvis graver bilde da se

josh looked at the envelope without taking

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2:07 pm PA

Chapter 252-

That’s a mistake, he said. His voice came out wrong, too thin, stripped of the confidence it had carned through weeks of videos and arguments about money. “We haven’t done anything criminal. It was a misunderstanding. My lawyer?

“Sir, I need you to step outside please!

“My lawyer will-

“Sir. The officer’s voice did not rise but it became very firm in a way that made clear this was not negotiable. “Please step outside”

Behind Josh, his parents appeared at the top of the stairs, drawn by the voices. His father took in the scene below with one long look, his face doing something complicated, the gray exhaustion from earlier hardering back into something more familiar because hardening was what he knew how to do.

“Call our lawyer, Josh Senior said, coming down the stairs quickly.

“I would advise you to comply with the officers,” the first officer said, watching Josh Senior descend. This will be sigruficantly easier if you do.”

Claire appeared in the hallway from the kitchen, her phone already in her hand, already calling someone, already moving to the next crisis before the current one had landed properly. She looked at the officers, at the papers in Josh’s unmoving hands, at the car on the street with its third officer watching the front of the house.

“This is harassment,” she said into the silence. “This is Alexander Kane using his money to silence people who are speaking

the truth.

“Miss Lowe-Pemberton,” the officer said, “there is also a warrant here for you.”

The call in Claire’s hand kept ringing. Nobody picked up.

Josh Senior reached the bottom of the stairs and stood beside his son, his chin up, his hands at his sides, presenting hangi the way he had always presented himself when the world was not cooperating, like a man who had not yet accepted die

outcome.

The officer reached for the handcuffs.

And for the first time, in the cold air coming through the open front door with the neighbors lights beginMERE AF across the street and a police car sitting in the driveway with its lights off like it was trying not to draw attention men, jo t drew everyone’s attention, Josh Lowe understood that he had reached the place his family’s choices had been building toward for weeks.

There was nowhere left to go from here except through it. And standing in his empty house, with

wie gute And C

family about to be arrested and his father pretending that he had not already lost, Josh angkstood that the worm, part way that he had seen this coming. Some part of him had always known where this would ghd. He had jus bed this bloer # ended, his family would stop

They never had.

2:07 pm

A

Chopere 244

Chapter 258

The holding area smelled of custrial creek and de

happened The Love famite had been prozessed and Henry for in

2

personal items in labeled plastic frage siting on the math hate the Dinge Bradl made everyone look like they were drzwly dear Zoe get a draged the a going about its business around them like cheaper Crewneck S

Josh Sentor sat with his arms crossed, paw forward loring a seco

her lap, not speaking, her fingers interlaced so tightly the the kane the

knees and his head down, turning his phone over and thee je sice hoge, bangs te voer HAN VA motion becoming something automatic and desperate Clubes nuk ka a taper

#

moving around the room with the calculating energy the Hennight on your

*

She was already constructing the next move

“This is exactly what they wanted, Claire said, her vowed envering throgh he douxx since the beginning. Every legal step, every maneuver, all of of designet on feet har

Josh Senior’s jaw tightened but he said nothing.

Claire kept talking, the words coming faster now “We have bargains Who Have the v intimidate us into silence”

Marie’s hands tightened further in her lap. She looked at the plushie jag neraming ad sanne like evidence

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