A Vengeful Ex-Wife
Chapter 288 Don't Call Me Your Sister-in-law

Maria shot James an angry glare before turning on her heel to check on Sandra. She hurried to the girl's bedside. It wasn't until she saw Sandra's face that her expression softened. "Sandra, are you okay?" Hearing the concern in her voice, Sandra's eyes started to glisten with tears. "Maria, I'm so sorry."

James and Cooper took this as their cue to leave the two women alone, so they quietly exited the ward.

"What are you sorry for? This is all my fault. They wouldn't have done this to you if it weren't for me. Did they...?" Maria trailed off, as though she was too scared to finish the question.

However, Sandra understood what she meant to ask. "No. They were about to, but that man came just in time."

Just then, it dawned on Sandra that the two men outside her ward looked extremely similar. Putting two and two together, she figured the man who rescued her was James' brother, Cooper. "Well, that's good." Maria felt relieved. "Anyway, I've called your parents. They're on their way here."

"Okay."

Maria reached out a slender hand and smoothed out Sandra's tangled hair. She looked at the blue bruises on her face and felt another wave of guilt. "Don't apologize to me, okay? If I hadn't hit Joslyn Zheng, she wouldn't have done this to you."

It never occurred to her that, while she was invulnerable to Joslyn's threats, those around her weren't as untouchable.

"Maria, you were there because I asked you to. If I hadn't insisted on getting that stupid bag, you wouldn't have crossed paths with Joslyn Zheng at all." Sandra's lower lip trembled. She blamed no one but herself for what had happened.

Maria shook her head. "Sandra, you are too naive. Even if I didn't meet you at the mall yesterday, I would've crossed Joslyn's path, sooner or later."

Even if they didn't meet in the mall, they would've met somewhere else in the future. Whatever happened yesterday was meant to happen eventually.

A couple of minutes later, Sandra's parents arrived at the hospital, only to be greeted by the two brothers at the door to Sandra's ward. Recognizing who they were, Sandra's father immediately bowed. "Good evening."

James nodded slightly in response.

Cooper, on the other hand, received them more warmly. Shaking Mr. Shen's hand, he said, "Please, go in and be with your daughter!"

"Okay, thank you. We're going in now."

After excusing themselves, Sandra's parents went inside the ward. When they saw how badly beaten and bruised their daughter was, they felt a wave of remorse washing over them. "My child, who did this to you?"

Sandra's father sighed heavily. He only regretted not being able to protect his own daughter.

"Mom, I'm fine, thanks to Maria and Mr. Xi's brother." Sandra smiled at her parents weakly.

Just as Sandra's parents were thanking Maria for her bravery, Maria explained what had really happened.

However, the Shen couple didn't blame her for what happened. Instead, they thanked her profusely for saving their daughter.

After doting over their poor daughter, the Shen couple went outside to properly thank the Xi brothers.

When Maria saw that Sandra was going to be taken care of, she decided to take her leave.

At the hospital entrance, Cooper had his hands in his pockets and was staring thoughtfully into the night sky. "James and my dear sister-in-law, we're not too far from my place. Let's go to my house and have a drink. Think of it as my own welcoming party!"

Maria chuckled. She had no reason to refuse, not to mention, Cooper had done her a huge favor just now. "Okay, but I didn't drive here. Can I ride with you?"

Cooper hesitantly shot his brother a glance, but James said nothing.

Instead, he got inside his own car and drove off.

With a shrug, Cooper opened the door to the passenger seat of his car and let Maria in. "Cooper, I have something to tell you," she said.

"Go ahead." Cooper spoke nonchalantly and kept on driving.

"Your brother and I divorced a long time ago. Yes, I might have borne him a son, but I have no plans on remarrying him, so please don't call me your sister-in-law from now on."

"I see." Cooper maintained his neutral tone.

Maria heaved a sigh of relief. Changing the topic, she asked brightly, "How long will you be in town?"

"Around ten days, maybe more. I just wanted to see my grandparents and little Bob." Well, I have a coffee shop across your brother's company. Drop by and have some coffee when you're free."

Cooper looked at her from the corner of his eye and smiled. "If you have zero plans to remarry James, why did you open a cafe right in front of his building?"

"Well, at first, I did want to get back with him," Maria said honestly. "I thought that the closer I was to him, the bigger the chance that that would happen. But after a while, I realized your brother had no interest in love and marriage at all. The company interests are of utmost priority; nothing else matters to him. There's nothing I could do to stop him from marrying another woman."

'Another woman?' Cooper figured she was talking about Alina.

When he heard about their engagement, he didn't congratulate them or come back from abroad. After all, he preferred to keep quiet if he had nothing good to say.

Maria smiled sardonically and continued. "Even when he found out that woman was nothing but evil, he still pushed through with the engagement. She bought your grandfather a fake antique for his birthday, for Christ's sake!"

She had proved to James time and time again that Alina was a bad egg, yet he still insisted on marrying her. At this point, she no longer saw the point in trying to change James' mind. It only painted her in a bad light.

Cooper frowned, perplexed. He had heard that James had cancelled the engagement to Alina. Now, he wondered if it was all just hearsay. Was it not because of Maria that his brother had cancelled the engagement?

Cooper decided not to say anything until he knew the facts.

But all the same, he felt the need to comfort Maria.

"Don't worry, Grandpa and Grandma have made it clear that Alina Tang is not going to join our family. As for my brother, he tends to overthink things. I usually can't tell what's on his mind. But I can tell you this: he looks at you differently."

"No surprise there, I'm his ex-wife!" Maria chuckled.

"I didn't mean it that way. You know, my brother hasn't been with any woman besides you, and Alina Tang doesn't count." Ever since the divorce, James had led a squeaky clean personal life, and everyone around him could see forthemselves.

Maria raised one eyebrow. "She counts if she marries him."

"All the same, stop overthinking this, Maria. You have Bob now. If you tell James the truth about the child, he'll marry you in heartbeat."

"But I don't want to remarry him just because I bore his son, and I don't want Bob to be hurt in the process." If word got out that she and James had a child, that child's life would be in danger.

Cooper understood where she was coming from. "Well, if James found out about Bob's true identity, he would definitely go through lengths to protect him." The incident with Arthur was unspeakably painful among the Xi family. No one in their right mind would want to repeat the same mistake.

A hush fell over the car, save for the soft music playing on the radio. Finally, Maria said, "I used to think your brother could protect me and our family, but I turned out to be wrong. Just a few months ago, I was kidnapped. Yet your brother chose to protect Judy and Alina instead of me, just because I know some martial arts!"