Rise of the Formidable Ex-wife (Lucia and Alex) novel Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Breakfast did not feel like breakfast.

It felt like something waiting to explode.

The table was set like always. Food laid out neatly. Coffee hot. Juice poured. Everything looked calm.

But the air was heavy.

Toc quiet.

Marco sat at the head of the table, staring at nothing. His coffee had gone cold. He had not taken a sip. His jaw was bruised, his lip slightly split. He looked like a man who had been dragged through hell and left there.

No one asked him what happened.

No one wanted to know.

Lucas leaned back in his chair, arms folded tight, eyes hard. Monica kept moving her food around without eating. Ria sat still, her fingers twisting in her lap.

Nobody spoke.

Footsteps came from upstairs.

Margaret walked in.

She fooked perfect.

Too perfect.

Hair done. Makeup flawless. Silk robe wrapped around her like armor. Like if she looked put together enough, maybe everything else would fall back into place.

It didn’t.

She sat down slowly and reached for the coffee.

The sound of it pouring into her cup filled the silence.

Lucas let out a sharp breath.

“What is she still doing here?”

The words landed like a slap.

Margaret’s hand paused mid-air.

Marco looked up slowly. “Lucas.”

“No,” Lucas said, sitting forward now. “No, Dad. I’m serious. What is she still doing here? Why is she still in this house?”

“Watch your mouth,” Marco said, his voice low but strained.

Lucas laughed, short and bitter. “You want me to watch my mouth? After everything?”

Margaret set the coffee pot down carefully.

“I am still your stepmother,” she said. “You will speak to me with respect.”

Lucas leaned forward, his eyes dark. “Respect? You want respect?”

“Lucas, enough,” Marco snapped.

But there was no authority in it.

Lucas ignored him.

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“Everyone knows what you did,” he said to Margaret. “Everyone. School. Friends. Teachers. People are talking about it everywhere. And you’re still sitting here like nothing happened.”

Margaret’s grip tightened around her cup.

“And whose fault is that?” she shot back. “Your mother. She exposed everything. She is the one destroying this family.”

Monica looked up sharply. “Mom didn’t destroy anything.”

Margaret turned to her. “Oh, really?”

“She just showed the truth,” Monica said quietly. “That’s all.”

Chapter 74

Silence.

Heavy. Sharp.

Margaret let out a laugh. It was ugly.

“So now you defend her?” she said, “After everything? After you chose me over her?”

Ria swallowed hard. “We were wrong.

That made Margaret go still.

“What did you say?”

“We were wrong,” Ria repeated, her voice shaking but firm. “About Mom. About you. About everything.”

“You ungrateful little…”

“If you were a good person, there would be nothing to expose,” Lucas cut in. “But there was. Because you did those things.”

Margaret stood up so fast her chair screeched loudly.

“How dare you speak to me like that!”

Lucas stood too.

“I’ll speak however I want. You don’t get to act like a victim.”

Something snapped in Margaret’s eyes.

Before anyone could react, she moved.

Fast,

She grabbed Lucas by his shirt, fisting the fabric hard, pulling him toward her.

“You will not disrespect me!” she shouted, her face inches from his.

Ria gasped. “Margaret!”

Monica froze.

Lucas looked shocked for half a second.

Then his face hardened.

“Get your hands off me.”

“Apologize,” Margaret demanded, shaking him. “Apologize right now!”

“Let go of me.”

“APOLOGIZE!”

Lucas shoved her.

Hard.

Margaret stumbled back, her balance breaking, her body tilting dangerously toward the table behind her.

For a second, it looked like she would fall.

Marco moved quickly.

He caught her.

His hands gripping her arms, steadying her before she hit the ground.

The room froze.

Everyone breathing hard.

Marco’s face darkened as he turned toward Lucas.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he snapped.

Lucas’s chest was rising fast. “She grabbed me first.”

“I don’t care!” Marco shouted. “That is your stepmother! You do not push her!”

“She had no right to touch me!”

“And you had no right to shove her like that!”

Lucas shook his head. “I’m not apologizing.”

“You will apologize,” Marco said, his voice turning cold.

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Chapter 74 “No”

#said apologize!”

“Tsaid no!”

The words echoed in the room.

Monica looked like she might ery. Ria stood frozen, torn.

Marco stepped forward. “You will stand there and say sorry. Right now.”

Lucas grabbed his bag.

“I’m not apologizing to her. Not now. Not ever.”

Marco’s jaw tightened. “If you walk out that door without apologizing, don’t bother coming back.”

The threat hung in the air.

Heavy.

Dangerous.

Lucas didn’t hesitate.

“Then maybe I won’t.”

He turned and walked toward the door.

“Lucas!” Ria called.

He didn’t stop.

The front door slammed shut.

The sound echoed through the house.

Silence followed.

Marco stood there, breathing hard, his hands still gripping Margaret’s arms.

Slowly, he let go.

Margaret straightened herself, fixing her robe, her hair slightly out of place now.

Her eyes were burning.

“Look at what you’ve done,” she said, her voice shaking with rage. “Your children are monsters.”

Marco laughed bitterly. “My children?”

“Yes. Your children. Disrespectful. Ungrateful. Just like their mother.”

“Don’t bring Lucia into this,” Marco snapped.

“Oh, why not? She’s the reason for all of this! She turned them against me! She exposed everything! She is destroying us!”

“She exposed what was already there!” Monica said suddenly.

Margaret turned sharply toward her. “You too?”

“You did those things,” Monica said. “No one forced you.”

Ría nodded slowly. “You can’t blame Mom for your choices.”

Margaret stared at them like she didn’t recognize them anymore.

Then she turned back to Marco.

“And you?” she demanded. “Are you just going to stand there and let them talk to me like this?”

Marco looked tired.

So tired.

“I have bigger problems right now,” he said.

Margaret stared at him. “Bigger than your wife being disrespected in her own home?”

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“My company is collapsing,” he said. “I’m being investigated. Everything is falling apart. I don’t have the energy for this.”

“For this?” she repeated, disbelief in her voice.

“For you,” he said quietly.

That hurt.

Chapter 74

She took a step back

You promised, she whispered. “You promised you would protect me.”

“That was before.”

“Before what?”

“Before I realized how bad it really is.

Silence.

Margaret’s chest tightened.

“So that’s it?” she said. “You’re just giving up on me

Marco grabbed his briefcase.

“I’m trying to save what’s left.”

“And I’m not part of that?”

He didn’t answer.

That was answer enough.

Margaret let out a broken laugh.

“Unbelievable.”

Marco walked toward the door.

“I have a meeting.”

“Marco,” she called, her voice softer now. “Don’t leave me alone in this.”

He paused.

For a second.

Then he kept walking.