Rise of the Formidable Ex-wife (Lucia and Alex) novel Chapter 284

Chapter 284

The dining mo** Was

ray it had not been for weeks

Candies driven the center of the table, food that was actually being eaten, the ordinary one of x family in the same room without any of it being organized around something wigent Kia was telling Lucas something about the ever planner the had spoken to that afternoon and Lucas was obecting on principle to something he had not yet heard enough about to object to and Lena was eating steadily and ignoring both of them, and Lucia was laughing at something Alexander bi wa the specific laugh that came from genuine surprise, and for a portion of the evening it was simply dinner.

Then Monica put her fork down.

She did it carefully, not dramatically, the way she put things down when she was about to say something that had been sitting with her through the meal,

“Something happened at school today,” she said.

The noise did not stop all at once but it settled, the way a room settled when someone had spoken a sentence that required full attention

Alexander looked at her face. He read it the way he read faces, quickly and completely.

“What happened?” he said.

Monica looked at the table for a moment before she looked at him. “Josh Lowe came to see me.

The room went completely still.

Lucia’s expression changed in the specific way it changed when something required her full resources. Ria stopped mid- sentence. Alexander’s fork was on the plate before he had consciously decided to put it there.

Then he stood up.

“He what,” Alexander said. Not a question.

“Dad, please listen…”

“How did he get near you.” He was already scanning backward through it, the school, the gates, the corridors, the specific geography of the place he had spent significant effort making secure after the schoolyard incident.

“The principal called me to his office,” Monica said. “I didn’t know Josh was in there until I opened the door.”

Alexander turned slightly toward the phone on the sideboard.

“Without calling us,” he said. “A grown man who put bruises on my daughter’s arm was allowed into that school and the principal did not call us first.”

“Alexander.” Lucia’s voice was level.

“He is calling me right now,” Alexander said, and his hand was already moving.

“Dad”

He stopped.

Monica was looking at him with the expression she had worn in the principal’s office and in the gallery and in courtrooms,

expression of semicone who needed to be heard and kicw they had one chance to get the words in the right order.

“Please sit down,” she said. “Just sit down and listen to me.”

He sat.

He did not lower the phone.

“Josh didn’t hurt me,” she said.

“He shouldn’t have been given the opportunity to make that choice,” Alexander said.

“He came to apologize,” Monica said. “He came to say it to my face. Not in a video. Not through a lawyer. He came himself.”

“The method doesn’t….”

“Alexander.” Lucia’s hand came to rest on his arm, the specific gentle weight of it. “She’s safe. She’s right here, she’s safe, and she’s trying to tell you something. Let her tell you.”

He breathed in.

He put the phone on the table.

Monica told them everything.

She told them about walking through the office door and going completely still when she saw who was standing at the window. She told them about the two steps backward she had taken without thinking. She told them about Josh raising both hands and stepping away from her, keeping the distance, keeping his hands where she could see them. She told them what he had said, and how his voice had sounded when he said it, and the moment when he had stopped being able to manage what he was feeling and had just let it happen in front of her. She told them what she had said back to him, and about his baby, and about what it meant to teach a child kindness from the beginning. She told them that when he left he had looked different from how he looked when he came in.

Alexander listened to all of it without interrupting.

When she finished the room was quiet with the particular quiet of people who had just been given more than they expected to receive.

“I’m glad he apologized,” Alexander said. His voice had come down from where it had been. “I mean that. I know what it cost him to come there.” He looked at his daughter. “But he should have spoken to us first. Not gone around us. Whatever he needed to say to you, he should have asked our permission before he said it to you without us.”

“Maybe he thought you would have said no,” Lucia said.

Alexander met her eyes. “Then he should have accepted no.”

Lucia’s mouth curved slightly. She did not disagree.

She grinned. “Because I have genuinely exciting news that I have been waiting to share all evening and merger wege emotionally intense before I get the chance.

“The event planner is available tomorrow,” Ria said. “Your birthday is three weeks away. We need to confirm the verse the charity element, the guest list, the catering.” She looked at Monica. “I need your input on all of it. Starting tomorow

He walked to his desk and opened the top drawer. Inside was a manila folder, the legal documentation from the original restraining order proceedings. He had not opened it in days.

“I should call our lawyer,” he said. “Reactivate the order. Make it explicit that he cannot be within any distance of our direct written consent.”

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