A Vengeful Ex-Wife

James furiously looked at the phone in his hand. He really wanted to beat the bodyguard up right now. But he suppressed the annoyance in his heart and said in his coldest voice, "Leave Maria Song alone now. I don't care whether she's dead or alive. Don't ever call me again if it's just about her."

"James Xi!" This time, a woman's voice came through the other end of the line. It was soft and pleasant to the ears.

James suddenly fell silent. He couldn't remember a time that his name sounded this good when mentioned by someone else.

When she noticed that James didn't respond, Maria didn't mind and continued in a weak voice, "You know what? It's all your fault that I can't even get up from the bed right now."

This time, James was totally speechless. 'This woman is really unreasonable. How can she blame me for her dysmenorrhea?" he thought to himself.

"When I was single, I never had dysmenorrhea during my period. But I started suffering from it because I was not well taken care of after I gave birth to your son. Didn't you feel guilty at all?" Maria was actually telling the truth. She suffered from dysmenorrhea after she gave birth to Arthur. There was a long silence before James finally uttered, "The baby..."

However, Maria interrupted him at once, "Stop! I know what you're going to say. You will only say that you didn't force me to give birth to the baby. If you really dare say it, you are definitely a scum! And don't forget. If it weren't for Arthur, your grandpa wouldn't give you all the power over HL Group this early."

Back then, James had to get married so suddenly because his grandfather, Augustine Xi, urged him to do so.

And Augustine promised him that he could take over HL Group if he could give Augustine a great -grandson. Otherwise, Augustine would never hand over the company to him.

At that time, James thought that his grandfather's wish was not that difficult to fulfill. After all, he would get married and have a baby sooner or later. It wouldn't do him any harm if he did it earlier than planned. So he agreed to meet the ladies of the Song family with Augustine.

As he was reminded of the past, James' anger subsided. He then said. "I'm not the only parent of that baby." When he remembered his son, the desire to distance himself from Maria came back to him. "Yes, you're right. But a pure and innocent girl married you without hesitation, let you do whatever you wanted, and gave birth to your child."

'Let me do whatever I wanted...' This made James think of those nights he spent with Maria.

He swallowed hard and loosened his tie to smoothen his breath.

"Our son's gone now, and the whole world has punished me. Do you still have the heart to ignore my unhealthy body that was also caused by you?"

Maria's words made sense, but James didn't want to give in to her this way. So he countered, "Don't forget that we are divorced now. I have no obligation to look after you."

"Okay, that's it! Tell your bodyguard to go away. I don't need him!" This time, it was Maria who hung up the phone.

She then returned the phone to the bodyguard, put away the dagger expressionlessly, and said, "You may leave now."

The bodyguard looked at her with a worried expression on his face and said, "Ms. Song, are you sure you're okay to be alone here?" He could see that she was much paler now than earlier. Maria was surprised, and she couldn't help raising her eyebrows. She didn't expect that the bodyguard cared for her. Tears welled up in her eyes as she smiled brightly. "Of course! Don't worry about me." She had never needed other people to rely on. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why she could still survive until now.

She had gone through a lot of difficult days in her life. Such a pain from dysmenorrhea was nothing to her at all. Actually, she called James because she wanted to make him feel sorry for her. But she didn't know if it worked.

It didn't matter. Even if James wouldn't come over, he would probably remember everything she said to him just now. Through those words, she wanted to make him feel uneasy, lose his appetite, and have difficulty sleeping. But it would only happen if he still had some conscience left in him.

As soon as the bodyguard walked out of her room, Maria was left alone. She turned down the temperature of the air conditioner, wrapped her body in the quilt, and closed her eyes to sleep.

"Maria, sleep now. Once you've fallen asleep, you won't feel the pain in your belly anymore," she told herself.

When Maria hung up the phone, James returned to the private room of the restaurant.

This time, he looked very gloomy. He wanted to sit down, but Maria's words kept on resounding in his mind. He couldn't focus and continue with the discussion at all.

A few seconds later, he decisively told Clayton and Alina, "Mr. Tang, Alina, let's wrap this up. I have something urgent to deal with."

Clayton had noticed that James received several phone calls during their discussion. Thinking that it was an urgent business, he was ready to let James go earlier than planned. Anyway, the details of the engagement ceremony were almost settled. And he also had some things to deal with. Hence, he decided to end their dinner.

James didn't need to call and ask Summer. He already knew where to find Maria. With Lorenzo in the driver's seat, his car stopped in front of the hotel. As he looked at the building, he almost couldn't believe that she would stay in such kind of place.

He had never set foot in this kind of low-end hotel before. He only experienced staying in a hotel like this when he went on a business trip to the countryside or a county.

When they were outside Maria's room, James asked Lorenzo to ring the doorbell. But after several attempts, no one opened the door. They didn't hear anything from the inside.

Lorenzo went to the front desk and spoke to the manager, requesting for Maria's room to be opened. He explained that she was sick and alone inside, and James was worried that something might have happened to her.

The manager agreed to his request and opened Maria's room with his spare key. As soon as the door was pushed open, James got in at once. As a sensible assistant, Lorenzo stayed outside the door and waited.

James felt a gust of cold air when he stepped on the wooden floor and walked a few steps inside. Only the bedside lamp was on, so the room was a little dark. In the middle of the thirty-square-meter room was a big bed where a woman was lying, sleeping soundly.

James closed the door behind him. For the time being, he and Maria were in a small quiet world.

He silently walked to the bed and stared at Maria. Since she was sleeping like a baby, she didn't feel his presence, and he was free to watch her. Her messy long hair was casually resting under her head. Her eyes were tightly shut, and her face was deathly pale. There was no other color on her face except for the red lipstick on her lips.

It was his first time to see Maria like this. In the past, she was always full of vitality. But right now, she looked so fragile and pitiful that James couldn't help but want to lovingly hold her in his arms.

He walked over to the air conditioner and adjusted the temperature to make the room warmer. Since she was not feeling well, she might catch a cold because the room was too cold.

James then went back to her bedside and called out her name. "Maria?" There was no response.

He slightly frowned and said, "Stop pretending to be dead."

That night in the Fairview Villa, she was able to notice him before he could even open the bedroom door, so he knew that she was a light sleeper. But now, he was already standing by her bedside, yet she had not reacted. He couldn't help thinking that she was only pretending to be asleep.

Actually, he was right. The moment Maria felt that someone opened the door, she was awakened and secretly fumbled for the dagger under her pillow.

But when she realized that it was him, she withdrew her hand without being noticed and pretended to be sleeping like a log.

The room remained quiet for almost two minutes. James lost his patience, so he reached out and grabbed her wrist.

"Ahhh!" she screamed in a soft voice. It was a kind of cry that sounded flirtatious in the middle of the night.

James' facial expression slightly changed upon hearing it. He knew that she did it on purpose as she was starting to hit on him again.

Maria pretended that she had just woken up and slowly opened her beautiful eyes. The moment she saw James, she put on a pitiful look and complained, "James, I'm starving."

Although he knew that she was only putting an act, James had no choice but to give in. Otherwise, he would only prove to her that he was really a scum. He walked to the door and said to Lorenzo outside, "Go and get some food.

When Maria saw Lorenzo standing outside, she added in a loud voice, "I want to eat lotus-seed porridge from Blooming Restaurant." James turned his head and glared at her. Unfortunately, the room was dim, so they couldn't clearly see each other's facial expression.