Chapter 418 I Wouldn''t Have Married You
Maria didn''t respond to James. She just patted Bob''s butt and said, "Go to your daddy!" She had
retiredtest night, and it was not even seven o''clock in the morning now. She was too sleepy to
get up or pay attention to anything else.
Bob obediently climbed down from the bed and tottered towards James.
Picking the boy up in his arms, James said, "Let''s go have breakfast."
Bob looked over his shoulder at his mother and waved his hand. "Bye," he said softly.
Maria smiled and waved back. "My baby, bye."
Hearing her voice, James turned around and looked at her. "Bye, honey."
Maria simply covered her head with the quilt and ignored him. She didn''t want to say goodbye to
him.
In the afternoon, Maria walked into Tang Group with a folder in her hand.
The manager who received her was none other than Ronald.
She hadn''t seen him since he had gone to prison two years ago. Although it had been several
months since he had been released ande back to work in Tang Group, she hadn''t crossed
paths with him.
The reason why she was meeting him now was because of a project that both theirpanies were
working on. She was in charge of DS Group''s team while Ronald was in charge of Tang Group''s
team.
Maria had been waiting in the meeting room for a few minutes when Ronald, dressed in a blue
casual suit, walked in, followed by a secretary.
As soon as his eyes fell on Maria, he felt a shiver run down his spine. Her aura was getting more
and more imposing. She was wearing a custom-made wine red suit today. Even when she sat down
quietly without saying anything, all eyes would be drawn to her.
The corners of Maria''s red lips raised as she said, "Long time no see, Mr. Tang." There was obvious
mockery in her eyes.
Suppressing the fear in his heart, Ronald smoothed down his suit and nodded to her in greeting.
"Cousin."
Maria pretended to be confused. "Is your cousin also here?"
Ronald smiled awkwardly and said, "Let''s get to the point."
"Okay." Maria didn''t want to talk nonsense with him, so she nodded lightly.
She opened the folder, took out several copies of the contract, and put them on the desk. "We''ve
already finished the preliminary work. Since Tang Group hasn''t expressed any objection, let''s sign
the contract." This was what she hade here for today.
"Okay," Ronald said as he sat down. Although he tried his best to maintain hisposure, his
hands were trembling, betraying how nervous he felt. He turned around and ordered his secretary,
"Go get me a-" "Please sign it!" Maria''s assistant interrupted, cing a pen in front of him.
Ronald nced down at the pen and, without thinking too much, picked it up and signed his name
on the documents one by one.
As Maria watched him sign and seal the documents with her own eyes, the smile on her face
gradually became wider and wider.
James might be upright and straightforward when it came to business, but Maria was not. She was
willing to do anything to win.
The process of signing the contract was finished quickly. In less than ten minutes, Maria stood up
with the signed copy of the contract that belonged to DS Group. "I hope well enjoy our cooperation."
"Sure." Ronald stood up and forced a smile, but he was sweating heavily.
He didn''t realize that he was holding his breath until he saw the woman walk out of the meeting
room and disappear from his sight.
Perhaps he was overthinking things, but why was Maria so easy-going today?
Meanwhile, HM Group had been in deep trouble recently. Colby and Rosa had their tes full trying
to deal with the scandals.
When the third-partypany came to audit thepany, Colby paid them off with a huge sum of
money. It was only after that they agreed to conduct just a few random checks.
Of course, HM Group passed the audit in the end, because Colby had prepared the ounts that
the third-partypany was auditing in advance.
However, although he managed to temporarily solve the problem with money, HM Group had still
been affected a lot. Most importantly, their stock price had plummeted, causing a huge loss to their
shareholders, especially the ones who had been loyal to HM Group since the beginning.
Because of the scandals, HM Group had lost nearly ten billion dors overnight.
What was worse, whoever had orchestrated this whole disaster kept putting more pressure on HM
Group. In the following days, a series of unforeseen mishaps struck thepany. Their capital
chain was broken, and their partners and clients put great pressure on them. In between running
here and there to solve all the problems and keep everyone happy, Colby could barely catch his
breath.
In just the span of a few days, he felt like he had aged several years. Even his hair started to turn
grey as a result of the immense stress he had been under.
In the private room of a restaurant, Maria was waiting for Summer.
To her annoyance, however, it wasn''t Summer who walked in, but James, dressed in a white shirt
and a ck vest.
Staring at the menu, Maria said in a t tone, "Mr. Xi, you''re not wee here. If there''s no reason
for you to be here, you should leave."
"Order the dishes," James said, showing no sign of getting up from his seat.
''He wants to me to order the dishes? Fine!'' stering a sweet smile on her face, Maria told the
waiter, "Fried bullfrogs, fried cicadas, octopuses in brown sauce, cheese durian..." In the end, her
heart softened. "And fried bean sprouts."
James shot an incredulous look at her. He knew that these dishes weren''t to her taste, but she had
ordered them on purpose anyway.
The waiter was so taken aback by the strange order that he repeated the whole list to confirm if he
had heard correctly. When Maria gave the confirmation, he nodded and went to the kitchen to ce
the order.
Once he left, Maria and James were once again alone in the private room. Tapping the table with
his index finger, he said, "Your contract with Tang Group is for a sixty-forty percentage. Won''t DS
Group suffer a loss?"
As far as he knew, sixty percent would go to Tang Group while only forty percent would go to DS
Group.
Since he was asking a work-rted question, Maria decided that it wouldn''t hurt to answer it.
Looking down at her phone, she said vaguely, "It''s not certain who will suffer the loss."
James raised his eyebrows in confusion. "Did you set Tang Group up?"
"No. Why would I?" Maria raised her head and smiled innocently.
James mirrored her smile. "Come on, tell me." He was afraid that she would be defeated instead.
Ronald might be stupid, but yton was not easy to deal with.
The truth was, Maria was too embarrassed to tell James about her n, because her method was
despicable. "I won''t show off in front of you, Mr. Xi."
Since she was so unwilling to tell him, James didn''t press her about it anymore.
He cleared his throat and changed the topic to what he hade here to talk about. "I''ve known
Elina for many years. If I had any sort of feelings for her, I wouldn''t have married you in the first
ce."
Maria stered an artificial smile on her face, but her eyes were cold. "Even if you think so, she
doesn''t seem to think the same."
"I don''t care what she thinks. She has nothing to do with me. You''re the one I care about."N?velDrama.Org owns ? this.
"Is that so? Mr. Xi, you''re really good at coaxing women."
James said, "Don''t eat junk food anymore." Since the two of them had been giving each other the
silent treatment recently, he hadn''t had the chance to talk to her.
"What junk food?" Maria asked in confusion. He changed the topic so abruptly that she couldn''t
keep up with him.
"The junk food you posted in your WeChat Moments," he replied tly. In his eyes, fried chicken,
milk tea, and hotpot could all be ssified as junk food.
"Oh!" A smug smile appeared on Maria''s face. "So you''re paying attention to my updates?"
"Yes." Although James looked a little unhappy, he didn''t deny it.
"Well, then, let me tell you a secret! Those posts are only visible to you. I posted them to make you
angry. I guess I seeded," Maria said, shruggingcently. The truth was, she had only taken
a few bites of the junk food. Some of the photos of the food were sent to her by Sandra.
James felt a little upset after hearing that. This woman was getting more and more unruly.
Soon, the food was served. Looking at the odd variety of dishes on the table, James had no
appetite at all, but Maria sweetly said, "Come on, Mr. Xi. Eat something."
James stiffened. After hesitating for a while, he slowly picked up the chopsticks and took some of
the bean sprouts.