Rise of the Formidable Ex-wife (Lucia and Alex) novel Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Marco arrived home to find the living room in chaos. Pillows were scattered across the floor, a lamp lay shattered in the corner, and Margaret was pacing back and forth like a caged animal. Her hair was disheveled, her expensive dress wrinkled, her heels clicking harshly against the hardwood. Every inch of her screamed rage.

He had gotten the call from school security just an hour earlier and left work immediately. By the time he arrived, Margaret had already been banned from campus. Monica had been in tears. Lucas had been furious: The principal had been apologetic but firm.

“Mrs. Hart assaulted a student and destroyed property,” the principal had said. “We have no choice. She is banned from school grounds permanently.”

Now Marco watched his wife tear through their living room as though the furniture itself had wronged her. The way she had destroyed Monica’s artwork, he realized, was only a fraction of the storm that was Margaret.

“They humiliated me!” Margaret screamed, spinning around to face him. “They treated me like a criminal! In front of everyone! Parents! Teachers! Students! Like I was nothing! Like trash!”

“You hit Monica,” Marco said, his voice flat, tired. “You destroyed her art in front of the entire school. What did you expect would happen?”

“I expected support!” she shrieked, picking up a decorative vase and hurling it across the room. It smashed against the wall, shards scattering like stars. “I expected you to defend me! To understand why I had to stop that… that embarrassment!”

“It was art,” he said quietly, running a hand through his hair. “A thirteen–year–old’s project. And you attacked her for it.”

“It wasn’t art!” Margaret spat, her eyes wild. “It was garbage! Literal trash she pulled from where I threw it! She used your ex- wife’s things to make some statement about me! About how I’m the villain! About how Lucia is some saint who was wronged!”

Marco sank onto the couch, exhausted. “Maybe she was wronged. Maybe we… maybe I wronged her.”

“Don’t you dare,” Margaret hissed, storming toward him. “Don’t you dare defend that woman now. After everything. After building a life with me. After choosing me!”

“I chose you because I was selfish,” Marco said, lifting his head to meet her gaze. “I chose you because you made me feel young. Excited. Alive. But now I’m starting to see… starting to understand what I actually chose.”

“What does that mean?” she demanded.

“It means Lucia would never have done what you did today. She would never hit Monica. She would never destroy her artwork. She would never humiliate us publicly like that.”

Margaret’s face flushed red, then paled. “You’re comparing me to her?” she spat. “After everything I’ve done? After everything I’ve tolerated from your ungrateful children? You’re… you’re comparing me to the woman who abandoned them?”

“She didn’t abandon them,” Marco said firmly. “They abandoned her. We both know that now.”

“We know nothing!” Margaret screamed, grabbing another vase. Marco rose and caught her wrist, but she wrenched free.

r “Stop destroying things!” he said. “Stop acting like… like this. Like someone I don’t recognize.”

“You don’t recognize me?” Margaret’s voice shook with fury. “I have always been this person! Strong! Assertive! Someone who doesn’t let people disrespect me! You said you loved that about me! You said Lucia was too passive, too weak, too boring!”

“I was wrong,” Marco said simply. “Lucia wasn’t weak. She was kind. She was stable. She wasn’t boring. She could handle conflict without throwing a tantrum or destroying things. She could protect her children without violence. She was mature enough to survive chaos without becoming it.”

Margaret’s laugh cut through the room, sharp and bitter. “Oh, so now Lucia is perfect? The woman who told your children to wait five years is the saint you worship? The one who is systematically destroying your company?”

Marco froze. “What?”

“You think it’s a coincidence?” she demanded. “Stone Maritime sold randomly? Those files ended up at Panda by accident? Someone isn’t targeting you deliberately, Marco. And you’re too blind to see it! Too stuck on some fantasy of who she used to be!”

Marco’s mind spun. Could it be true? Could Lucia, gentle, kind, the woman he had humiliated and turned against him, be behind everything falling apart? Could she be taking revenge for all the years he had failed her?

“No,” he said to himself. “She’s not like that. She would never… never hurt anyone deliberately.”

Chapter 60

But the thought lingered. People changed when pushed far enough. Joshua had warned him not to underestimate a geoned woman with resources. And Margaret Margaret was proof of what happened when someone was pushed too far, when chaus beeame their language.

Even if Lucia were behind all of it, Marco knew one thing: it did not excuse what Margaret had done today. Hitting Monica. Destroying her art. Embarrassing the family. None of it was acceptable.

“My behavior?” Margaret laughed, hysterical. “You think my behavior is the problem? Not your children disrespecting me? Not their constant worship of a woman who rejected them? Not their rebellion? Their ingratitude?”

“They are children,” Marco said, standing now. Monica is thirteen. She made art about her feelings, about her pain, about processing the past. And you attacked her for it. That is not behavior a mother shows. That is not maturity.”

“I defended myself!” Margaret screamed. “I defended our family! I defended against being painted as the villain while your ex–wife is a victim!”

“Maybe you are the villain,” Marco said softly, his voice steady. “Maybe I am too. Maybe we both destroyed someone who didn’t deserve it. Someone who was everything we needed but didn’t excite us enough. Didn’t thrift us. Someone we threw away for our selfish desires.”

Margaret stared at him, disbelief in her eyes. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do,” he said quietly. “I see it now. I see what we did. How I destroyed a good woman, a good mother, a good wife, for… for this.” He gestured vaguely at the room, at her chaos, at the life they had built together.

Margaret’s hands curled into fists. “For what exactly? For me? Is that what you mean?”

Marco did not answer. His silence spoke volumes.

She struck him across the face. Hard. The sound of skin meeting skin reverberated in the room. “Don’t you dare compare me to her,” she said, voice trembling. “Don’t you dare regret choosing me. Don’t you dare regret what we have together.”

“What do we have?” he asked, touching his cheek, his voice calm but cutting. “A failing company? Children who despise you? A marriage built on destruction? What exactly is worth defending?”

“We have each other,” she said desperately, clutching at him. “Love. Passion. Everything Lucia couldn’t give you. Everything you said you needed. Everything you chose me for!”

“I chose you because I was bored,” Marco admitted, voice heavy. “Because I wanted excitement. Because you made me feel alive in ways she never did. But Margaret… that excitement… that passion… it’s not worth what it cost. Not worth what we destroyed to have it.”

Margaret’s lips trembled. “So you regret me?”

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I just know what you did today… hitting Monica, destroying her art, humiliating our family… that was not love. That was not care. That was not what I wanted in a partner or a mother for my children.”

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