Rise of the Formidable Ex-wife (Lucia and Alex) novel Chapter 58

The library was quiet, but not peaceful. The soft hum of the air conditioner and the faint sound of traffic outside the windows did nothing to calm the storm in Lucia’s mind. Reports were scattered across the desk, some marked with red highlights, spreadsheets and timelines stacked in careful piles. Every page detailed plans, strategies, ways to dismantle Marco Hart completely. Every plan aimed to ensure he would never recover.

Sarah knocked softly.

Lucia looked up from the laptop, her eyes sharp focused. “Yes?”

“Mrs. Smith,” Sarah said, her voice careful, almost hesitant. “I have news about the Hart Industries board meeting.”

Lucia straightened in her chair. Every muscle tensed, every thought braced for confirmation of her victory. “And?”

“Marco wasn’t removed,” Sarah said, almost apologetically. “The board voted seven to five in favor of removal, but Joshua Bassett intervened. He convinced them to give Marco thirty days probation instead. Thirty days to investigate who is targeting him and to turn the company around.”

Lucia’s stomach dropped. Cold water running through her veins. Thirty days. That was all. Thirty days for Marco to realize who was behind the attacks, thirty days for him to fight back, thirty days to survive.

She had expected him gone. She had expected the vote to be swift, final. The board had the justification, the majority, every reason to cut him out immediately. Yet Joshua had delayed the inevitable.

Lucia leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes for a brief moment. Thirty days to hide. Thirty days to plan. Thirty days in which Marco could trace the files, follow the trail, piece together the puzzle. Thirty days that could ruin everything.

She opened her eyes and fixed her gaze on the ceiling. Her mind raced with possibilities. Would he discover the truth about her? Would he figure out Alexander’s involvement? Would he connect her to the destruction of his empire? She had covered every trace, used anonymous channels, hidden every connection. Yet thirty days was enough for a determined mind to unravel carefully laid threads.

Her fists clenched, the soft leather of the chair biting into her palms. Her anger coiled tighter, sharper. Marco had underestimated her once. He had humiliated her publicly, turned her children against her, laughed at her destruction. Now, thirty days gave him a fighting chance. A chance she was not willing to allow.

Her attention shifted. Margaret. She had been so focused on Marco that she had almost forgotten Margaret. The woman who had helped pack her things while she was still married. The woman who had manipulated her children, turning them against her. The woman who had been active, deliberate, essential in every humiliation, every betrayal.

Margaret remained untouched. Free to continue hurting Lucia’s children. Free to enjoy her life, her control. That ended now. It had to.

Lucia pushed herself out of the chair and walked swiftly toward Alexander’s office. Her heels clicked sharply on the hardwood floors, the sound echoing in the otherwise empty corridor. She did not wait for permission. She knocked once

and entered.

Alexander looked up from the paperwork on his desk. He set down his pen immediately, his gaze sharp, assessing.

r “What happened?” he asked.

“Joshua Bassett saved Marco,” Lucia said, her voice controlled but low and dangerous, “The board gave him thirty days probation instead of removal. Thirty days to investigate who’s attacking him. Thirty days to possibly discover it’s me.”

Alexander leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. “You covered your tracks well. The files were sent anonymously. The trail is buried. He will not find proof. He will not be able to trace it back to you.”

Lucia sat on the leather couch across from him, her fingers brushing against the smooth armrest as she gathered her thoughts. “Maybe. But that is not what worries me. I’ve been so focused on destroying Marco, taking his company, his wealth, his pride. I’ve ignored Margaret. I’ve ignored what she has done, what she is still doing to my children.”

Alexander tilted his head, curious. “Margaret?”

“She destroyed me too. Maybe more than Marco. She helped pack my things. She turned the children against me. She participated in every moment of my humiliation. Every betrayal. And I’ve let her continue, untouched, unpunished.”

Lucia’s hands tightened into fists at her sides, nails biting into palms. The leather groaned softly beneath her. Her eyes were cold fire. “I want investigators. I want her past examined. Every secret, every skeleton in her closet. I want to know everything she’s hiding. Everyone who acts like Margaret has something buried. And she is too confident, too secure. That means something is hidden. Something that can destroy her the way she helped destroy me.”

Alexander nodded slowly. “You think there is enough to find?”

Chapter 58

“I know there is,” Lucia said. Her voice rose slightly, filled with certainty and fury. “No one is as calculating and manipulative as Margaret without having a past she’s desperate tu protect. Something she fears being exposed. I want to dig deep, Uncover everything. Her life before Marco. Her ambitions. Her mistakes. Her lies. I want the truth.”

Alexander picked up his phone, “I’ll make calls. Our investigators who found Marco’s hidden accounts can find whatever Margaret is hiding. They will know where to look and how to stay invisible.”

Lucia’s lips curved in a faint, sharp smile. “Good. Start immediately. Discretion is critical. Margaret cannot know she’s under investigation. She cannot get a warning.”

“Understood,” Sarah’s voice answered crisply on the other end.

Lucia hung up and turned to Alexander. “The investigation starts today.” Her voice was quiet but lethal, the weight of years of pain behind every word.

Alexander studied her carefully. “And what do you hope to find?”

Lucia’s eyes were distant, staring out the floor–to–ceiling windows at the sprawling New York skyline. “I do not know. But whatever it is, it will be enough to destroy her. Enough to make her feel the pain she inflicted on me. Enough to make her lose everything, the way she helped make me nothing.”

She closed her eyes and touched the Sea of Hart diamond at her throat. Its weight reminded her of the life she had once lost, of the humiliation she had endured, of the emptiness she had felt. She had been nothing. Disposable. Discarded. Treated as if she did not matter.

Now, she had power. Resources. Allies. Connections. And she would use every one of them to ensure Margaret paid for her cruelty, just as Marco would pay for underestimating her.

Lucia rose and walked along the windowsill, the city lights reflected in her eyes. Marco had thirty days to investigate, to discover, to attempt to stop her. But she had unlimited time. Investigators were already searching for Margaret’s secrets, piecing together the hidden corners of her life.

When they uncovered the truth, the lies, the skeletons hidden in Margaret’s past, her carefully constructed life would collapse. She would understand what it meant to build someone else’s ruin while pretending to be untouchable. She would suffer.

Lucia turned back to Alexander, her expression icy. “Marco’s probation does not matter. His survival does not matter. What matters is justice. What matters is retribution. What matters is exposing the cruelty that destroyed my life. He will learn too. late, and Margaret will pay even more than he ever could.”

The library, once a place of plans and strategy, now pulsed with her resolve. Her mind was clear. Her focus sharp. The mistakes she had made by targeting only Marco would not happen again. Margaret would be next. And when the investigation revealed everything, when the secrets and lies came to light, there would be no mercy..

Lucia smiled. Cold, determined, unrelenting. The game had changed. The balance had shifted. Marco had thirty days to discover the truth and fight back. But the real war was just beginning, and she held every card.

Margaret Hart had built her life on someone else’s destruction. Now she would experience the same. Slowly, deliberately, completely.

And nothing would stop it.

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Chapter 59

Chapter 59

The gym smelled of polished floors and anticipation. Track lights glinted off the white walls, glancing across panels of student artwork displayed like a gallery. Parents wandered slowly, murmuring under their breath, glancing at the pieces with polite curiosity. Teachers moved among them, explaining each work, gesturing with pride. The annual student art exhibition was supposed to be a celebration, a showcase of talent. For Monica, it was something far heavier.

She stood beside her sculpture, five feet tall, hands pressed to the smooth wooden frame, trying to steady trembling fingers. Her heart pounded so hard it seemed to echo in the room. Every month of preparation, every scrap she had gathered, every moment of fear and courage had led to this instant. The moment when her truth, her mother’s memory, and the past that Margaret tried to erase would stand before everyone.

The sculpture was more than a form. It was a silhouette of a woman, created from fragments of memory. Mom’s blue scarf from her sixth birthday. Carefully salvaged from the trash after Margaret had thrown it away. The family cookbook, filled with Mom’s notes in her looping handwriting, missing pages but carefully restored. A photograph, broken into shards, showing Monica and her mother on a sunny beach, building sandcastles, frozen laughter in their eyes. Margaret had tried to obliterate it. Monica had pieced it back together, each broken corner a testament to resilience.

Each object whispered a story, each fragment a memory. Every piece a symbol of what had been stolen, destroyed, or discarded. Monica had rescued them all and given them new life.

The title card read: The Discarded Woman.

Below, her artist statement said: “This piece represents what happens when we throw away what we should treasure. When we discard gold for trash. When we destroy. When we forget. When we choose wrong.”

Monica’s fingers lingered on the scarf. Its threads smelled faintly of her mother, of warmth and love. This was not just art. This was justice. This was proof.

The gym doors clicked. She froze. Margaret entered, scanning the room. Every movement precise. Hair perfect, designer dress sharp, heels tapping across the polished floor. Her gaze locked onto Monica and the sculpture. A smile slid across her face, practiced, flawless, but Monica knew it was a mask. She had learned to read Margaret years ago.

Margaret stopped at the edge of the artwork. At first, she looked casually, then recognition hit. The scarf. The cookbook. The photo. Her face changed, curiosity shifting to horror, to anger, to rage. Monica could see it. Could feel it radiating. A heat that made her stomach twist.

“What is this?” Margaret demanded, voice low and dangerous. “What did you do?”

“I made art,” Monica said, voice shaking at first, then gaining steadiness. “Mrs. Lowes said it was powerful. Honest. She said it expressed truth.”

“These are things I threw away,” Margaret hissed. “Trash! You went through my things? My home? My possessions?”

“They were never yours,” Monica shot back, voice rising. “They belonged to Mom. You destroyed them. You tried to erase her. You tried to erase us. You turned her memory into nothing.”

Margaret’s hands clenched, fingers tightening around the scarf. “This is unacceptable. Remove this. Now. This humiliation, this…”

r

Mrs. Lowes stepped in, firm and professional. “Mrs. Hart, students‘ work cannot be altered once the exhibition begins. Step away immediately.”

“This is not art!” Margaret screamed. “This is trash! Disrespect! You are disrespecting your family, your father, me!”

“It is honest,” Mrs. Lowes said, her voice calm and deliberate. “This is a thirteen–year–old processing grief and betrayal. She is expressing her truth. That is what art does.”

Margaret spun around, wild and unhinged. “I’ve done everything! I tried to replace someone who abandoned you! I tried to give you a home! I tried to erase the past!”

“She did not abandon us,” Monica shouted. “You did. You destroyed her memory. You made us believe she was nothing when she was everything. You made us nothing too.”

Margaret slapped her. Hard. The sound snapped through the gym. Gasps erupted from parents, students froze, murmurs rose in waves. Monica pressed a hand to her cheek, tasting blood, fury, humiliation, and triumph all at once. Tears ran freely. but not just from pain. They were tears of recognition, of vindication, of finally seeing the truth reflected in the eyes of those who had gathered to witness.

Successfully unlocked!

Lucas appeared, his expression like steel. He grabbed Monica, steadying her. “Do not touch her again,” he said. “You have done enough. You have hurt enough. Step back.”

Chapter 59

Margaret laughed, a wild, unhinged–sound. “I’ve done everything for this family! Everything! I tried to make you forget! I tried to create a home! I tried to…”

“She wanted us,” Lucas interrupted, voice sharp, unwavering. “We did not. Now we understand. Now we see. Now we know what you destroyed. What you could never replace.”

Two security guards moved in, approaching Margaret cautiously. She screamed and struggled, yanking at the sculpture. Glass shattered. Pages fluttered like snow. The cookbook was torn, sheets littering the polished gym floor.

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