A Vengeful Ex-Wife
Chapter 122 Getting Away With It

Later, Lawrence called James. The CEO could hear the other man quite clearly in the quiet office. "James, is Maria with you now? I have something to tell her, but she turned off her phone." "No, she's not here," James answered.

"All right. I'll go replace her." Knowing how his best friend was, Lawrence was about to hang up the phone.

"Don't bother." James' tone was even.

"Okay, why?" Lawrence realized that James was out of sorts.

James didn't answer him. He leaned back in his chair, and Maria popped into his thoughts. He recalled how she hit on him, raising her eyebrows and winking at him.

When she suddenly showed up in P City and ran towards him, she looked innocent and adorable.

That evening, she cried in his ears, begging for mercy. Her complacent expression annoyed him. That he also remembered.

She always wore dark, backless dresses and shirts, not to mention high-heeled shoes. The way she walked was graceful, elegant. Maria was arrogant, and there was always something behind her smile. And she drove him mad with desire.

'James?" Lawrence prompted him after a long silence. James lit a cigarette. But remembering how charming and sexy Maria looked when she smoked, he suddenly lost the desire to take a drag. "She should be half-dead now, if she's lucky."

It took some serious doing to replace those killers. They wouldn't let him down.

Lawrence was taken aback. He asked, "What did you do to her? Did you finally decide to kill her?"

"Hmm," he admitted. Maria would serve as an example. She was presumptuous. She used him. She threatened him. How could he let her get away with that?

"James! What the hell, man?" Lawrence was borderline hysterical. The man couldn't replace the door fast enough. "You'll be sorry!"

He was going to save Maria if it was the last thing he did.

He couldn't just stand by and watch his best friend make the mistake of a lifetime.

"You are wrong. I won't," James answered firmly, shaking his head. His life would be far less complicated without Maria. He wouldn't be stirred to extremes of joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness. 'Spectators see more than players!' Lawrence wished he would smash James' skull in.

The only reason why James ordered the hit was because Maria got to him. She could make him feel things he didn't want to bother with. That was the only thing that made sense to Lawrence. It was not a good thing for James, the self-styled emperor of the city. But Lawrence didn't think it was a bad thing for his best friend.

Obviously, James refused to listen to him. Maybe he could use reason. Lawrence said in a quiet voice, "You're breaking the law, you know. If something happens to Maria, I won't let you off the hook. I won't let you get away with it, even if you are my best friend!"

James' eyes darkened. "You want to fall out with me over a woman?"

"Stop that. You know that has nothing to do with it. It's the law, old friend. Besides, what if she's not dead? What if she turns up safe and sound? What are you going to do then?"

James was troubled. He had never thought about that. He believed Maria was pretty well screwed this time. He retorted, "Okay, so maybe she lives. But she won't be the same. Maybe she ends up in a wheelchair, or worse."

"Did you forget about Norman? Do you think he'll let you kill Maria?" In fact, when Lawrence made friends with Maria and got closer to her, he wanted to do a background check on Norman.

For James, Norman was another obstacle. He had to be careful and tiptoe around the man to get anything done. James was annoyed by what Lawrence said. "Are you trying to irritate me? Fine. I set up an ambush near JH Street. But I don't think you'll make it in time to help her!"

He hung up the phone and loosened his tie. He really wanted to kill Maria himself at this point.

When Lawrence found the place James mentioned, he didn't see any sinister figures. But there was a lot of blood in a nearby alley.

He squatted down and touched it. It was fresh and still warm.

But there was no one around.

He took out his phone and called James again. "Hey, It's me. There's a lot of blood here. Someone got hurt. If it's Maria, you should tie up any loose ends and turn over your company to someone else." "Whatever!" James hung up on him and gulped down a glass of strong liquor.

He started thinking about his relationship with Lawrence. The man not only conspired with Maria to get him in that hotel, but was considering calling the police on him.

He really wanted to ask Lawrence where his morals were when he decided to side with Maria to trick his best friend? Why was he so righteous now?

Lawrence stared at the phone and shook his head helplessly.

He didn't understand why James was acting like this. James was obviously uneasy about what he did, but he just acted like he didn't care.

Lawrence was busy looking for Maria.

It was getting dark. James walked out of his office. When he passed by the seats of his secretaries, he cast a cold glance at Summer, who was hard at work. He called out her name. Summer nodded, stood up, and followed him.

As soon as she saw James' expression, she knew that something was wrong. Her boss was in a really bad mood now.

She followed him into the elevator. When she smelled the alcohol on him, she felt even more nervous. 'Drinking? During office hours? That's not like him. Things must be really bad!' Summer couldn't help shivering in his icy presence.

"Summer," James called out again. Summer was startled, her legs weakened. "Mr. Xi, what can I do for you?"

"How do you know Maria?" he asked.

"What?" Summer was stunned. She wondered if Maria had done something to make him mad again.

The elevator arrived at the first floor. Without waiting for her answer, James strode out.

Summer trotted to keep up with him. She answered, "I got to know her after you got married and asked me to send her something."

But James seemed to have lost interest in the topic.

He opened the rear door by himself and got in.

Summer sat in the driver's seat. She fastened the safe belt and started the engine. "Mr. Xi, where are you going?"

"Home."

Summer was surprised again. If she weren't mistaken, this was normally quitting time. But not for James. He always stayed late. This was not James' style. But Summer just obeyed without question. "Got it, Mr. Xi!" she answered.

On his way back home, James didn't work on anything like he usually did. He just played with his phone, as if he was waiting for someone to call him.

As time went by, Summer became more and more nervous. A world famous workaholic who treasured time as life was now just farting away his time. She wondered what Maria did to make James like this. When the Harkim was about to turn into James' villa, a figure suddenly appeared in the middle of the road. That was unusual. It was private property. No one was supposed to be there.

Summer couldn't help screaming. She had been tense this whole time and this was the final straw. She reflexively stepped on the brakes, trying to stop before she ran the person down. The tires squealed loudly as the vehicle skidded to a halt.

Summer sat behind the wheel, trying to recover. It was a violent stop.

Frowning, James was about to say something. Then he recognized the figure in the headlights. He kept quiet.

When Summer saw the figure more clearly, she screamed again. "Aaah!"

She wasn't easily frightened, but this was something she'd never seen. The woman that stood in the headlights had her hair down, and was bloody all over. Her feet were bare. This was just too much. After the car stopped, the woman covered in blood slowly walked towards the car. Summer watched and held her breath, her mouth dry.

As she got closer and closer, Summer felt the person looked more and more familiar. Why did she look like Maria?

Soon, there was a gentle knock at the rear door. James pressed a button to roll down the window. It was stained with blood.

The person covered in blood flipped her long hair, revealing her face spattered with blood. "James..."