A Vengeful Ex-Wife
Chapter 423 Taking The Blame

The pen Maria's assistant had given to Ronald to sign the contract was a special pen. The writing would disappear when the document was exposed to heat, leaving the paper blank.

After signing the contract that day, Maria had gotten someone to secretly get their hands on Ronald's copy of the contract and imitate his handwriting to write down the new profit split, as well as forge his signature with a normal pen.

"Maria, if you do use underhanded methods like this, no one will be willing to do business with you," James reminded her.

Maria shrugged, looking completely unbothered. "I wanted to make Ronald suffer in a way that he'll be too embarrassed to tell others about. I won't do this to people who sincerely want to do business with me. When you're dealing with a villain, you have to use means that are even worse than his."

James was rendered speechless. Was it really appropriate for a CEO to behave like a gangster?

Soon, there was a rumor spreading around H City that Maria had tampered with the contract and tricked Tang Group. As a result, all the companies that were cooperating with DS Group hastily checked their contracts to see if they had also been tricked by her.

When someone asked Maria about this, she innocently answered, "Mr. Tang couldn't keep up his end of the deal, so he's putting the blame on me. Since he is my cousin, I promised him that I would allow Tang Group to participate in the H Brocade project as long as he was willing to divide the profits between DS Group and Tang Group at the rate of 9:1. After all, the profit split in all the contracts I signed with James was 9:1. And Ronald agreed to it. Maybe Clayton blamed him, and he didn't want to admit it and even put the blame on me. But what can I do?"

When Clayton heard about Maria's response, his head spun, and he forgot how to breathe.

This contract had made Tang Group suffer a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars. In the end, Tang Group had no choice but to halt the production in their factory, so as to force DS Group to terminate the contract with them.

Now that her goal had been achieved, Maria wouldn't let the reputation of her company be put in jeopardy, so she terminated the contract before the matter escalated.

Sitting in the CEO's office of HL Group, James received a few pictures on his WeChat from Maria.

She had specially gone to Augustine's house to visit the unidentified child.

The two photos that were sent to him were a comparison of the baby that had been found at the park, and Bob when he was only a few months old. The photos were followed by a message saying, "He looks exactly like you. You still don't want to admit that he is your son?"

James opened the photo again and checked the photo again and again, but he couldn't replace any similarities between them.

At that moment, he received another message from Maria saying, "Both of you have two eyes, one nose, and one mouth. Doesn't he look exactly like you?"

James couldn't believe his eyes. Didn't everybody have two eyes, one nose and one mouth? He could claim that the baby was her son, since they looked exactly alike, too!

But since he hadn't calmed her down yet, he didn't dare to say anything to upset her. Anyway, the important thing was, she obviously knew that the child wasn't his.

"If you admit that he's your son, then I'll admit that he's mine," he replied.

It was Maria's turn to be dumbstruck. She really hadn't given birth to another baby!

Gary knocked on the door of James' office and walked in. "Mr. Xi, CEOs of seven companies invited you to dinner."

Seven CEOs? James put his phone away and asked, "Did they say why?"

"No."

"I see. Tell them I'll be there. By the way, what happened to Gerald?"

Gerald Zong, the CEO of Zong Group, was the one who had forced Maria to drink and gotten himself to be sent to the hospital in the end.

"Mr. Zong has been transferred to a VIP ward. He is expected to wake up in one or two days," Gary answered.

James took a deep breath. "In that case, carry on our plan. I want to hear good news before he wakes up." "Yes, sir."

As soon as Gary returned to the secretary area, he announced, "Mr. Xi said that we can start now!"

Everyone sitting at their desk began to take action.

In less than two days, Zong Group declared bankruptcy. When the news of that came out, the notorious Mr. Zong, who was best known for drinking and causing a fuss, hadn't woken up yet.

After finishing his first dinner appointment, James asked Summer to accompany him to the dinner arranged by the CEOs of the seven companies.

When he arrived, everyone just chatted about business affairs, but it was clear that they all had some other purpose for organizing this dinner.

Some of the CEOs even casually inquired James about certain projects and products, which he just gave brief answers to.

Just when he was about to lose his patience, one of them finally came to the point. "Mr. Xi, Mrs. Xi promised us that HL Group would cooperate with us."

"Yes, she said that she would give each of us a project," another one said.

"Yes, we were all there when she said that. Are you aware of this, Mr. Xi?"

For a moment, James stiffened.

Was he aware of this? Of course not!

Maria had thrown him under the bus once again. It turned out that this was the reason these CEOs had invited him to dinner.

He knew that these people wouldn't dare to make up stories or lie to him, so the only plausible explanation was that Maria had indeed made a promise to all of them.

Seeing how the men were all waiting for his answer with bated breath, James said lightly, "Don't worry. My wife's word is equal to mine." Even though Maria wasn't present at the dinner, as her husband, he couldn't make her lose face. He would ask her about it when he went back.

Hearing his agreement, the seven CEOs finally relaxed and grinned from ear to ear. "Thank you, Mr. Xi!"

Without any delay, James beckoned to Summer and said, "Well, I'll leave this matter to you. Assign each of their companies a suitable project as soon as possible."

"Yes, Mr. Xi."

Summer inquired about each of the companies and found a suitable project for each of them.

But even as she did her work, she could barely contain her laughter. Maria was really good at setting traps for James.

It was past ten o'clock at night when James finished attending his four business-related dinner appointments. Summer had drunk some wine, but James hadn't touched alcohol at all.

He asked the driver to drop Summer at her house first. Just before she got out of the car, he said, "I won't come to the company tomorrow. Call me if anything happens."

"Yes, Mr. Xi." Summer already knew that he had asked Gary to reschedule all of his work for tomorrow.

"Wait," James said as she was about to leave.

"Where do you and Maria usually go shopping?"

Summer furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Why was he asking? Did he want to go shopping with her?

She answered, "We often go shopping nearby. But Mr. Xi, if you want to go shopping with her, you can go to the pedestrian street in the old town. It's quite far away, so we don't go there often. Maria might like the change of scenery."

Although they were living in the most prosperous place in H City, it was always nice to have a change and venture out of one's boundaries.

"Okay." James nodded.

The driver took James back to his manor.

On the way, James called Maria and said, "Sleep well.

I won't be coming tonight."

For the past week, he had shamelessly come to her apartment and stayed over every single night. Why wasn't he coming today?

Maria felt an inexplicable stab of disappointment, but she pretended to be indifferent and said, "Thank you for not disturbing me, Mr. Xi." "Reschedule all your appointments for tomorrow, and sleep in. I'll pick you up at noon."

"Where are you planning on taking me?" Maria asked suspiciously.

"Wherever you want."

Hearing James' answer, she was confused. What did he mean? "Then don't come. I don't want to go anywhere with you," she said lightly.

James sighed and decided to take the plunge. "I'll go shopping with you. And in the evening, we can take a hot spring bath." "You want to go shopping with me? And take a hot spring bath?" Maria echoed in shock. How did James have the time, let alone the willingness, to do all these things with her?

Besides, who would want to take a hot spring bath in this season?

Winter had already passed!

LARK COLE

Author