A Vengeful Ex-Wife
Chapter 489 Growing Anxiety

Mary's words were enough for James to grasp the situation. "Maria has the final say about everything that goes on in this family. You don't have to come to me for matters like this in the future." After saying that, he rolled up his car window, not bothering to cast her another glance.

As Mary watched the car drive into the manor, her heart was incinerated into ashes. Only then did she completely understand that the true head of this family was Maria.

After a few peaceful days, Coy was punished by James.

There were scratches on James' car. Obviously, someone did it on purpose. The chauffeur had been trying to figure it out for days, but he still couldn't think of the culprit behind the damage done to the car. When he checked the surveillance video, he found that the one who did this was Coy.

The boy circled the car a few times while brushing a small stone against it, leaving indelible marks.

The moment James found out it was him, he unbuttoned his belt and used it to beat Coy. However, he missed.

Coy broke away from his grasp and ran away, screaming.

"Daddy, if you hit me again, I'll tell Maria that you've been mistreating me when she comes back."

James looked at him and scoffed. "If she replaces out about the mischief you caused, she's going to hit you much harder than I did."

His father was right. Fear caused Coy to tremble all over as he bolted his way outside. "I'm so sorry, Daddy! I was wrong. I won't do it again!"

"It's too late to repent!" James ran after the little boy.

Naturally, a toddler could never outrun a grown man. Before long, James caught Coy and slapped his buttocks several times.

The sound of his cries resounded throughout the manor, and James found it annoying. "If you don't stop crying this instant, I will hit you even harder!" The boy saw the aggression in his father's eyes and immediately clammed up, only sobbing from time to time.

Once James was upstairs, a maid brought Coy some fruits to comfort him.

And while he was crying, he took a big bite of an apple and walked out.

"Coy, where are you going?" asked the maid.

As he took another bite of the fruit, Coy replied, "I want to play outside." He was really sad right now, and he didn't want to see James' face.

"Okay. Hang on. I'll go get your water bottle." The maid trotted back to the kitchen.

Coy didn't want to wait for her. If he allowed her to accompany him, she wouldn't let him play anything.

While holding onto the apple, he ran as fast as he could, and soon he disappeared into a corner of the manor.

James was on a video conference in his study. When he heard someone knocking, he said, "Come in."

The maid who entered looked visibly anxious. "Mr. Xi, Coy is missing!"

A look of horror made its way onto James' face. "What do you mean?"

"Ten minutes ago, he told me that he wanted to play outside, so I went back to the kitchen to get his water bottle. But when I came back, I couldn't replace him anywhere. I've been looking for him for the past ten minutes, but I still haven't found him."

After hearing that, James turned off his laptop and called the security room. "Check the surveillance videos."

Thirty minutes later, James and John went to the stable.

They circled the stable a couple of times before they saw the boy nestling on a haystack in the corner. He was sleeping soundly as he held a halfeaten apple.

When James saw Coy like this, his temples started aching.

John couldn't resist the urge to snicker. "Coy is so adorable."

'Yeah, he's so cute that I want to tie him up with a rope and leave him hanging from the ceiling!1 though James.

He then walked around the black horse in the stable to pick Coy up from the haystack. As the boy opened his eyes, he looked at his father in a daze. "Oh! Hi, James," he muttered.

James was rendered speechless. Who on earth taught this boy to call his parents by their first names?

When they returned to the villa, they ran into Bob. He had just come back from school. Upon seeing Coy in his father's arms, he asked, "Daddy, where have you been?" James sighed. Bob's obedience was in stark contrast to Coy's impish nature. "Your brother fell asleep in the stable."

Unbeknownst to him, Bob had been thinking of obtain his assets and giving them to Maria.

"I see!"

In the evening, Cooper dropped by to have dinner with them. He had just dropped Sandra off at the next city for an exam, so he was going to be alone for a few days. And since there were two kids at the dining table, it was rather lively.

After dinner, Cooper looked at the noisy brothers and said to James, "James, aren't you going to hold another wedding ceremony with Maria? How's everything going?" "I'm still preparing for it."

He had left his wedding with Maria halfway. Moreover, Cooper had been the one who picked her up for James, which became part of the growing anxiety in his heart. James needed to hold a new wedding. This time, he would pick up Maria himself, and let the whole world know that she was his lawfully-wedded wife. "Hurry up!"

Raising his eyebrows, James asked, "What's going on? Are you so eager to get married?"

"Honestly, I'm worried that she'll leave me," Cooper said with a smile as he thought of Sandra.

She was a simple, young lady. Whenever she was upset, she would make it apparent, and she would tell him that she wanted to break up with him. Every time it happened, it broke his heart. The only thing he could do to solve this problem was to marry her as soon as possible. And by then, she wouldn't be able to leave him if she wanted to.

"I'll do it as soon as possible." Once all the arrangements had been made for their wedding, James would try both hard and soft tactics. Even if Maria didn't want to marry him, he would make her do it no matte what.

At this moment, something happened to Maria. Last time, she opted not to take the contraceptive pill. And although she hadn't had sex with him since then, she was still pregnant.

Inside the bathroom, she stared at the pregnancy test with widened eyes. There were two bars on the stick.

Powerless to change the situation, she shook her head and touched her forehead. What had she done wrong in her previous life to owe James this much?

This was the fifth time that she had gotten pregnant with his child. It was an utterly horrid fate!

Why did she get swayed by his persuasion that she ended up throwing away the pill?

And why did her heart soften when she heard what James said to Mary that night? That moment of weakness was probably the reason why she was having another child. Such a high price to pay for something so trivial!

As she sat on the toilet, Maria regretted what she had done.

After a long time, she cast aside the pregnancy test stick and rushed to the study, ignoring the fact that James was on his phone.

She punched him with all her might.

Of course, James was taken by surprise. He quickly ended the phone call by saying, "Let's talk about this later."

After putting his phone away, he embraced the angry woman and asked, "What's the matter? Have I done something wrong to upset you again?"

Without saying another word, Maria broke from his grasp and hit him once more.

James fell silent. He tried to think of what he might've done to offend her.

"Bob was the one who wanted to call you today. I didn't urge him to do it." He would be lying if he said that he hadn't used his sons to call Maria, but today, Bob called his mother out of his own volition and asked her to stay with them for the night.

Maria still hadn't said anything until now.

'Is that not the reason she's angry?' James continued to think. After a while, he said, "I've also told my people to give up on that project DS Group wants to handle." Coincidentally, HL Group and DS Group had been fighting for the same project these days. When James found out that their competitor was DS Group, he immediately surrendered.

However, Maria still didn't say a word, and her eyes were still burning with anger.