Rise of the Formidable Ex-wife (Lucia and Alex) novel Chapter 63

Chapter 63

Chapter 63

Saran Lucia’s assistant did not knock.

She walked straight into Lusia’s office with a thick folder held tightly against her chest. Her steps were steady, controlled,

but there was something in her eyes. Something sharp. Something satisfied.

Lucia noticed it immediately.

That look meant only one thing.

They had found something.

“Mrs. Smith,” Sarah said, placing the folder gently on the desk. “We’re done.”

Lucia stared at the file for a few seconds before touching it. Her fingers rested on the cover, but she did not open it yet.

Her heart had already started beating faster.

“Everything?” she asked quietly.

Sarah nodded once. “Everything she tried to hide.”

That was enough.

Lucia opened the folder.

The first page was a summary. Clean. Simple. Organized. Bullet points.

But the words on it were not simple.

They were ugly.

They were heavy.

They were truth.

Lucia read the first line.

Then the second.

Then she stopped breathing.

Fifteen affairs.

She blinked.

Fifteen.

Not rumors. Not guesses. Not assumptions.

Documented.

Proven.

Dates. Names. Locations.

Men with wives. Men with money. Men with influence.

Men Margaret used.

And men who used her right back.

Lucia let out a slow breath, but it did nothing to calm the storm rising inside her.

She kept reading.

Then she saw it.

Jane.

Lucia’s hand tightened around the page.

Margaret’s stepsister.

The report was detailed.

Too detailed.

Two years.

Successfully unlocked!

Margaret had been sleeping with Jane’s husband for two full years.

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Not weeks. Not months.

Chapter 63

Two years.

While Jane was pregnant.

While Jane trusted her.

While Margaret smiled in her face and called her “family.”

Lucia felt something twist deep inside her chest.

Two years.

That was not a mistake.

That was a choice.

A repeated, deliberate, shameless choice.

She turned the page.

Photos.

Margaret and the man.

Hotel entrances.

Private dinners.

A villa.

Hands touching.

Faces too close.

No room for denial.

No space for lies.

Lucia’s stomach turned.

“And she was already seeing Marco then,” Lucia whispered.

Sarah nodded. “Yes. The timelines overlap.”

Lucia laughed.

It was not a happy sound.

“So she was building a relationship with my husband while sleeping with her sister’s husband.”

“Yes.”

Lucia leaned back slowly.

For a moment, she said nothing.

She just stared at the ceiling.

Seventeen years.

That was what Marco threw away.

Seventeen years of loyalty.

Of family.

Of stability.

For this.

For a woman who could lie like breathing.

Who could betray her own blood without blinking.

Lucia closed her eyes briefly.

Then opened them again.

“Keep going,” she said.

Sarah did not speak.

She didn’t need to.

The folder said everything.

Lucia flipped to the next section.

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Chapter 63

More names.

More men.

More proof.

Businessmen.

Brand managers.

Investors.

Every relationship came with a benefit.

Contracts.

Deals.

Access.

Money.

Nothing was random.

Everything was calculated.

Lucia’s lips pressed together.

Margaret did not fall in love.

She hunted.

And then Lucia saw the part that made her hands go cold.

The pregnancy.

Not one.

Two.

The first one during the affair with Jane’s husband.

Lucia felt sick.

Jane had been pregnant at the same time.

Carrying her husband’s child.

While Margaret was carrying his child too.

Lucia shut the file halfway.

Her chest rose and fell too fast.

“That’s…” she started, but couldn’t finish.

Sarah spoke softly. “She terminated it.”

Lucia nodded slowly.

Of course she did.

It would have exposed everything.

Destroyed everything.

Margaret did not destroy herself.

She destroyed others.

Quietly. Carefully.

Lucia opened the file again.

The second abortion.

One month before the wedding.

Lucia froze.

“One month?” she asked.

“Yes.”

Lucia’s eyes moved across the page again.

Kenneth Davis.

Chapter 63

Brand manager.

Some company Margaret had signed with.

Same contract she had bragged about.

Lucia let out a breath that felt like it burned her lungs.

“She slept with him for the deal” Lucia said.

“Yes.”

“And got pregnant.”

“Yes.”

“And got rid of it before marrying Marco.”

“Yes.”

Lucia dropped the file onto the desk.

Silence filled the room.

Heavy. Thick. Almost suffocating.

For a long moment, Lucia said nothing.

Then she laughed again.

Soft this time.

Almost empty.

“This is what he chose,” she said.

Sarah stayed quiet.

Lucia stood up slowly and walked to the window.

The city lights stretched endlessly outside.

Cold.

Distant.

Uncaring.

Marco had destroyed her for this.

Not for love.

Not for something real.

For a woman who could not even stay loyal for one month.

Lucia pressed her hand lightly against the glass.

“Does he know?” she asked.

“No.”

Lucia smiled faintly.

“He will.”

She turned back toward the desk.

Toward the folder.

Toward the weapon sitting right in front of her.

Sarah finally spoke again.

“What do you want to do with it?”

Lucia did not answer immediately.

She walked back to her chair and sat down slowly.

Her fingers tapped lightly against the desk.

Thinking.

Calculating.

Feeling.

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Chapter 63

All at once.

Afirst, anger came.

Hot. Sharp Loud.

Release everything.

Destroy her completely.

End her in one move.

Expose every lie. Every affair. Every secret.

But then something else replaced it.

Something colder.

Something smarter.

No.

Too easy.

Too fast.

Too clean.

Lucia leaned forward slightly.

“If everything comes out at once,” she said quietly, “it ends too quickly.”

Sarah’s eyes sharpened.

Lucia continued.

“One scandal shocks people. But many scandals…”

She paused.

“They destroy a person slowly.”

Sarah understood immediately.

“You want a sequence.”

Lucia nodded.

“Yes.”

Not mercy.

Not hesitation.

Strategy.

She picked up the first page again.

Her eyes went straight to one name.

Jane.

“This one goes first,” Lucia said.

Sarah looked at the file. “The stepsister?”

Lucia nodded slowly.

“Two years,” she said. “Two years of betrayal. While Jane was pregnant. While Margaret smiled in her face. That kind of story…”

She let out a quiet breath.

“People don’t forgive that.”

Sarah’s lips curved slightly.

“And after that?”

Lucia leaned back.

Her expression changed.

Colder now.

More controlled.

Chapter 63

“Then we release the others,” she said. “Not all at once. One by one. Different men. Different timelines. Different scandals.”

Sarah nudded, already thinking ahead.

“Spacing them out will keep attention on her.”

“Yes,” Lucia said. “Every time she tries to recover, something new appears.”

Every time she breathes, she chokes again.

Lucia did not say that part out loud.

She didn’t need to.

Sarah could see it in her eyes.

“What about the abortions?” Sarah asked carefully.

Lucia went quiet.

For a few seconds, she did not move.

Did not speak.

Then she said, “Not yet.”

Sarah waited.

Lucia looked back at the file.

“At the right time,” she added. “When she thinks she has survived.”

Sarah nodded.

That was worse.

Much worse.

Lucia picked up the folder and closed it gently.

“Prepare the first package,” she said. “Jane’s husband. The timeline. The proof. Make it clean. Clear. Impossible to deny.”

“And the source?”

“Anonymous,” Lucia said. “Always.”

Sarah stood straight. “I’ll send it to Meredith Chen.”

Lucia gave a small nod.

“Make sure it reaches her tonight.”

“It will.”

Sarah turned to leave.

Then paused at the door.

“Mrs. Smith,” she said.

Lucia looked up.

Sarah’s voice softened just a little.

“This will destroy her.”

Lucia held her gaze.

“No,” she said quietly.

“This is just the beginning.”

Sarah left.

The door closed.

Lucia was alone again.

The office felt different now.

Heavier.

Colder.

Lucia leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

For a moment, memories came.

Chapter 63

Seventeen years.

Her children.

Her home.

Her old life.

The woman she used to be.

Then Marco’s face.

His betrayal.

His choice.

His blindness.

Lucia opened her eyes again.

That woman was gone.

This version of her did not cry and wait.

She acted.

She planned.

She made sure people felt what they deserved.

Not all at once.

Slowly.

So they understood.

So they remembered.

So they never forgot.

Lucia reached for her phone.

Paused.

Then placed it back down.

No hesitation.

No guilt.

Just clarity.

Margaret would not fall in one day.

She would fall piece by piece.

Truth by truth.

Lie by lie.

And when everything finally came out….

When the last secret broke her completely…

Everyone would see.

Not just who Margaret was.

But what Marco had chosen.

And what he had lost.

Lucia looked at the closed folder one last time.

Then pushed it aside.

The first move had already begun.

And this time…

She was not the one being destroyed.