A Vengeful Ex-Wife
Chapter 213 Going Bankrupt

Maria chuckled. "No one in the world will treat you well without a reason, unless you are particularly beautiful or on the verge of death."

"No, no, no. Our parents will treat us well no matter what..." Sandra trailed off. She sheepishly looked at the expressionless woman before her and apologized profusely. "I'm sorry, Maria. I didn't mean it." Maria kept on smiling. "There's nothing to be sorry for. You're right, but unfortunately, not all parents are that way. You're lucky your parents are good to you. You should be good to them, too." "Maria..." Sandra felt rather sad. She had already known that the Song family had cut ties with her.

"Why the long face? I'm not sad, you shouldn't be either. " Maria picked up a piece of cooked fish for and put it on Sandra's plate. "I'm happy I left my family."

Although she was not happy all the time, at least she had experienced some happiness in shopping with Sandra.

"Okay." Sandra didn't dare to say anything more and lowered her head meekly to eat.

Afraid that the girl might overthink this, Maria changed the topic. "I'm going to meet a client. Will you be heading back to school?"

"Yes, I have a group study with my classmates in the library tonight."

"What's your major?"

"I'm in the chemistry department."

"That's good. There are a lot of jobs relevant to it in the market. Are you enjoying your major?"

"Yeah." Sandra nodded.

Maria envied Sandra, since she was able to choose any career path she wanted. Maria herself needed to give up her studies in order to marry James.

Over the past six years, she had specially attended a lot of classes to improve herself, and she had also obtained a few certificates, but she always felt that there was something missing in her life. After dinner, Maria drove Sandra back to the school. She left until she saw Sandra disappear behind the school gates.

The property right of the land that Jonathan had won in South District was good for seventy years, but at present, it had fifty years left. Not to mention, it lacked five certificates and two statements that the government had been asking for. As a result, the property was at a standstill as the construction permits were being processed.

Jonathan, who wanted to get things moving, asked his men to look for people on the inside to speed things up. However, he was told that those insiders were either out on business trips or had been transferred away.

Just as he thought things couldn't get any worse, another piece of news came to suffocate him. Apparently, because of the heavy pollution, that land had been closed off temporarily and the lift date was undisclosed.

Once the land was sealed, development would come to a screeching halt. This was bad news indeed. Most of the money of the investors were dedicated to the early stages of the development.

If the seal on the land was lifted in the future, they could at least continue the project. If not, their money would go to utter waste.

For a while, this matter drew its investors' attention. Some found that they couldn't eat in the daytime nor could they sleep well at night.

After waiting quietly for a few days, Judy finally made a move. She approached Jonathan and asked, "Mr. Jiang, can't you think of a way to lift the seal on the land?"

"Mrs. Xi, don't worry." Jonathan smiled helplessly. He really couldn't do anything.

"How can I not be anxious? I withdrew the money from several other projects and invested all of them in this land!" Judy was at a point where she was practically pulling out the hair on her head.

"I tried to have the seal removed, but then I found out that..." Jonathan's voice trailed off and ended in a heavy sigh. "The land is also involved in another lawsuit case, and we can't go through the turnover procedure."

Things seemed to be getting more and more troublesome.

Judy's face fell. "What? Didn't you investigate before you bid for it?"

"No, I didn't." Alas, he had acted too rashly.

He had spent loads of money on this project, and no one in the previous company had informed him that the land was about to be sealed. Even the contract made no mention of it.

He tried to contact the former real estate company, but he couldn't get in touch with the person in charge. To his horror, it turned out to be a shell company.

Seeing that Jonathan was in the dark about everything, Judy couldn't wait any longer and called James.

In her haste, she didn't even bother to greet him when he picked up the phone. "James, I need to ask you something. Remember the land in the South District, next to the welfare house?"

"Yes."

"Didn't you plan to bid on it before? Why didn't you bid for it in the end?"

James fell silent for a moment. He realized that it seemed Maria had succeeded. "There is something wrong with that land," he answered.

Judy's expression darkened. Apparently, he had already known. It was only natural he hadn't warned her; after all, she hadn't informed him that she had invested in the YL Group.

The reason why she didn't choose to cooperate with HL Group was that she was afraid that James might not be willing to give her dividends once they were making profits. If he didn't give her the money, she wouldn't be able to get her investment back. That was why she turned to the YL Group and kept it a secret from James.

However, she pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind and told James everything. "Here's the thing. Mr. Jiang from the YL Group and I invested in that land, but now the land not only lacks permits, it is also closed off. Can you help me ask what's going on?"

"I'll see what I can do." James found that he couldn't refuse her.

Hearing that, Judy heaved a sigh of relief. "Well, thank you, James. Then you can go ahead with your work. I won't disturb you. I'll wait for your call." "Okay."

After hanging up, James stared at his phone, lost in deep thought.

He had always known about Judy's investments. He didn't warn her about this particular investment because she had kept it a secret from him. Moreover, he wasn't a huge fan of how she asked Lorenzo to inquire about his attitude.

Nevertheless, he couldn't refuse his stepmother, so he asked Lorenzo to replace out more about it.

When Judy heard the report from Lorenzo, she practically fainted.

It turned out there was a big problem with the land in South District. Not only was the soil quality poor, the land itself was covered in slopes and potholes. As if that wasn't enough, there was widespread contamination, which was why the land was sealed off in the first place. If they insisted on pursuing developing the land, the foundation would be unstable and might end up collapsing.

If they couldn't continue with the development, they wouldn't be able to get their deposit back, and the investors would lose all their properties.

Judy, Jonathan, the Song family, the Tang family, and all those minor investors had already dedicated all their cards to this project. It didn't take long before the house of cards collapsed, and the first one to go bankrupt was the Song family.

When Carolina heard the news, she sat in her office dejectedly.

Just then, Chandler knocked on her door and let himself in. "How did this happen?"

Carolina was speechless.

It might've all been a trap that Maria had set up for the YL Group, and investors like the Song family were but collateral damage.

Maria had warned her in advance, but she didn't believe her.

Anxious at his daughter's silence, Chandler pressed her.

"What're you thinking about, Carolina? I asked you a question."

"Dad, Maria warned me before, but..." What could she say? She didn't listen, neither did her father.

"Maria?" Chandler was a little taken aback. Then, he suddenly recalled that Carolina had indeed mentioned this to him before, but he'd told her to ignore it.

Carolina looked at him blankly and nodded.

"What exactly did she tell you?"

"She just told me that the land was not suitable for investment." But she had been a fool and chose to ignore the clear warning.

"How did she know about the land?" Chandler asked again.

Carolina didn't say anything. She had guessed what had happened, but it was only a guess, and she wasn't about to share it with her father.