Rise of the Formidable Ex-wife (Lucia and Alex) novel Chapter 68

Chapter 68

Dinner used to mean something in this house. Laughter. Noise. Small arguments over food. Monica complaining about vegetables. Ria checking her phone under the table. Lucas teasing everyone. Marco pretending to be strict but smiling

anyway.

Now it felt like a punishment.

No one touched their food.

The plates sat there, steam long gone. Rice turning dry. Meat stiff. Glasses sweating onto the table like something alive was slowly dying between them.

Marco sat at the head like always. Straight back. Hands folded at first, then restless, then still again. He looked tired. Not just tired. Worn down. Like something inside him had started to crack but he was trying to hold it together by force.

Ria sat to his right. Arms folded tight across her chest. Eyes sharp. Watching everything. Not a child anymore. Not soft. Not forgiving.

Monica sat to his left. Smaller. Quieter. Her fingers kept twisting the edge of her napkin until it almost tore.

Lucas sat across from Marco. Silent. His face had changed over the past few days. Harder. Colder. Like something in him had shut off.

No one spoke.

The silence stretched until it felt heavy in the air. Thick. Hard to breathe.

They had been avoiding this. Avoiding sitting together. Avoiding looking at each other. Avoiding the truth sitting in the

middle of the table like rot.

But tonight, Marco had insisted.

“We can’t keep pretending everything is fine,” he had said earlier.

Now no one knew where to start.

Footsteps came from upstairs.

Slow.

Dragging.

Margaret appeared at the doorway.

For a second, no one moved.

She didn’t look like herself.

Her hair was messy, not brushed. Her makeup was gone except for dark smudges under her eyes. Her face looked swollen like she had been crying for hours or screaming or both. Her clothes were wrinkled. The same ones from yesterday.

She looked… small.

Not powerful. Not polished. Not untouchable.

Just broken.

୮

She walked in without greeting anyone and sat down at the far end of the table. As far from Marco as possible.

Her eyes stayed on her plate.

No one welcomed her.

No one asked if she was okay.

The silence came back again. Worse this time.

Ria couldn’t take it anymore.

“We need to talk,” she said.

Her voice was tight. Controlled. But it shook underneath.

“This can’t keep going. Everyone knows. Everyone is talking. At school. Online. Everywhere. People are sending videos. Screenshots. Comments. They’re tagging us. Laughing. Sharing everything.”

She swallowed.

“I walked into class today and people stopped talking when I came in. Then they started whispering. Teachers too. Even teachers.”

Chapter 68

Marco rubbed his face slowly.

know I’m handling it.”

“How?” Ria snapped. “How are you handling it? There are videos everywhere. There’s proof. Pictures. Messages. Everything. You can’t hide this. You can’t fix it with one statement.”

“We’ll get professionals,” Marco said. “PR team. Crisis management. We’ll-”

Monica laughed.

It was soft. But it broke something.

“Crisis management?” she said.

Her voice trembled.

“I got surrounded today. At lunch. A group of girls. They wouldn’t let me leave. They kept asking me questions.”

Marco looked up fast. “What kind of questions?”

Monica looked down at her hands,

“They asked if Margaret taught me how to steal someone’s husband.”

Silence.

“They asked if I’m going to grow up like her.”

Her voice cracked.

“They asked if our whole family is like that. If Dad cheats too. If we’re all liars.”

Marco stood halfway from his chair. “That’s unacceptable. I’ll call the school. I’ll-”

“Stop,” Monica said.

She shook her head.

“You can’t fix this. You can’t call a principal and make people forget. You can’t erase what’s already out there.”

Her eyes lifted. Red. Wet.

“You can’t protect us from the truth.”

That word hung there.

Truth.

Margaret’s hand slammed on the table.

The sound made Monica flinch.

“ENOUGH!” Margaret shouted.

Her voice was rough. Like she had been screaming all day.

“I am tired of this. Tired of all of you acting like I am the only one suffering here. I lost everything. Everything My career. My reputation. My contracts. My life is falling apart and you sit here talking about school like it’s the end of the world.”

“It is our world,” Ria shot back.

“You think you’re the only one hurting?” Margaret said. “You think this is easy for me? You think I wanted this? You think I wanted my life exposed like this? Picked apart by strangers?”

“You made the choices,” Ria said.

The room went quiet again.

Margaret stared at her.

Cold.

“You think you’re better than me?” she asked.

“I think you’re responsible,” Ria said.

Marco stepped in. “Enough. Both of you.”

He looked at Margaret.

“Don’t yell at them. They didn’t create this situation.”

Margaret turned slowly to him.

Her eyes changed.

Chapter 68

Hurt.

Shock.

“You’re taking their side?”

“I’m asking you to calm down Marco said.

“I am your wife,” Margaret said. “Your wife. And you are sitting there defending them while they attack me?”

“They are not attacking you. They are reacting to what’s happening.”

“To what is being DONE to me, Margaret snapped. “Someone is destroying me. Leaking things. Twisting things. You think this is normal? You think all of this just appeared out of nowhere?”

Marco didn’t answer.

That silence said everything.

“You believe it,” Margaret whispered.

“No,” Marco said quickly. “I’m just saying the evidence is-”

“Real?” she finished.

He didn’t speak.

Her laugh came out broken.

“Of course. Of course you believe it.”

Lucas finally spoke.

His voice was calm.

Too calm.

“Can I ask something?”

Marco nodded.

“If it was Mom,” Lucas said, “would you act like this?”

Marco frowned. “What do you mean?”

“If it was Mom sitting here instead of Margaret. If all of this was about her. If she was the one being exposed. Would you defend her?”

Marco froze.

Lucas kept going.

“Would you stand by her? Protect her? Tell us not to judge her?”

No answer.

Lucas nodded slowly.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Lucas-”

“No,” Lucas said. “Answer it.”

Marco opened his mouth.

Closed it.

Nothing came out.

Lucas let out a breath.

୮

“You wouldn’t,” he said quietly. “You would have used it as an excuse to leave her. To say you were right about her. To throw

her out.”

“That’s not true,” Marco said, but his voice lacked strength.

“It is true,” Lucas said. “Because you didn’t need proof to leave her. You didn’t need anything. You just decided she wasn’t enough.”

His voice started to shake now.

“But now you have proof. Real proof. And you’re still here. Still defending”

He looked at Margaret.

Chapter 68

Then back at Marco

That says everything.”

Marco ran a hand through his hair.

“The situations are different

“You’re right,” Lucas said. “They are.”

He leaned forward.

“Mom never cheated. Mom never lied. Mom never destroyed anyone. She loved you. She raised us. She stayed loyal.”

His voice broke.

“And you threw her away.”

Silence.

Lucas stood up slowly.

“Margaret did everything you would have accused Mom of if you had even the smallest reason. And you’re still choosing

her.”

Marco stood too. “Lucas, sit down. We can talk about this-”

“No,” Lucas said.

His eyes were full now.

“You don’t get to fix this with words.”

He looked around the table.

“We all see it now. We see you.”

Then he walked out.

The sound of the door closing echoed through the house.

No one moved.

Margaret stood suddenly.

“I’m not staying here to be judged,” she said.

Her voice was shaking again.

“I am not your enemy. I am not the only one at fault here. You all act like I walked into your lives and destroyed everything. Like I forced him. Like I planned this.”

She looked at Marco.

“You chose me.”

He didn’t deny it.

That hurt her more than anything.

Ria spoke softly.

“You proved Mom right.”

Margaret flinched.

Then she turned and walked out.

Her steps were heavy on the stairs.

The bedroom door slammed so hard the walls shook.

Upstairs, something crashed.

Then another.

Glass breaking.

A scream.

Raw. Loud. Full of rage and pain.

Downstairs, no one moved.

Marco sat back down slowly.

He looked older.

୮

Chapter 68

Smaller.

Monica wiped her face quietly.

Ria stared at the table.

No one touched the food.

Upstairs, Margaret tore the room apart.

She grabbed a vase and threw it against the wall. It shattered into pieces.

She pulled clothes out of the closet and flung them across the room.

Shoes. Bags. Makeup. Everything went flying.

“Stop!” she screamed at no one.

“Just stop!”

Her chest rose fast.

Her hands shook.

Her phone buzzed.

Once.