A Vengeful Ex-Wife

Chapter 67 The Ring's Size

James did ask Maria not to take pills. She wanted to take some anti-inflammatory pills that night. That would help the pain in her knees. But he advised her not to.

Maria knew the best path to revenge was to find out what the other party cared about and wanted most. She must hit a nerve to reach the goal.

Since birth, Alina had been spoiled. She did whatever she wanted. Anything she wanted she got. Anything except for James, who became her lifelong obsession.

The more she worked to gain James' heart, the more Maria wanted to use him to hurt Alina. She was the nerve she wanted to strike. So she made it look like she and James were having an affair— that would definitely anger Alina.

She wasn't going to have Alina beat her to it.

Alina had the magazine in a death grip. She wanted to tear the offending page in that issue to pieces. "No way. I don't—" She didn't believe what Maria said.

"Don't believe me? Isn't that what you were going to say?" Maria took out her phone and tapped on the screen a few times. Then she found a few photos and sent them to Alina on WeChat. She left right after that.

The new message tones on Alina's phone sounded. She picked it up and swiped to unlock her screen.

As promised, Maria had sent her something. First up, some pics of Ronald's orgy. The next two photos were of James. It was a rainy night and the camera captured him as he headed into the hotel where Maria was staying, carrying her in his arms.

Alina was on the verge of a breakdown. She wanted to scream, but she couldn't do that in public. She had to struggle to maintain control.

The ferocious expression on her face still revealed her hatred.

Alina couldn't do anything though. She couldn't go to James every time Maria pissed her off. That man was always uncaring and cold. The only thing her fit would do was annoy him.

Alina asked herself why she hadn't poisoned Maria to death.

Maria hadn't left the cafe yet. Instead, she wandered around until she found a private booth and sat down. She opened the WeChat app on her phone and sent James an angry message. "I won't bug you anymore. Get engaged to whoever you want!"

Maria was patting herself on the back for her bravery. At this moment, she hated James to the core. How could he trash talk her like that to Alina?

As she expected, James didn't answer back.

Maria had no way to vent her anger, and gradually calmed herself down.

That evening, her phone buzzed. Maria picked it up. The number on the caller ID meant business. "Ms. Song, our project in T Country hit a snag. The CEO of HL Group is negotiating with them personally, but they're still not committing to anything."

Maria thought for a bit and realized that it was necessary to bring Mr. Wang in on this. After all, he was in charge of the project.

After hanging up, she called Mr. Wang. "Good evening, Mr. Wang. Do you remember me? It's Maria."

She smiled, and but she was cursing the man inwardly.

"Oh, Ms. Song! Long time no see!" The man on the other end of the line pretended to be earnest and spoke very politely. Maria guessed that someone was with him.

She continued in a gentle tone, "Indeed. Mr. Wang, I have something to discuss with you."

"Go ahead!"

She talked about the charity project with him. The next day, Maria was out of her mind. She opened her WeChat app again and sent a few more words to James. "I'll keep bugging you. If I don't, I can't even survive in H City. I don't want that."

The man who saw the message just thought she was just a drama queen, and ignored it. He really wanted to delete her from his WeChat contact list.

But he remembered Arthur, and decided not to.

A famous jewelry house was hosting a banquet in town. The premiere was slated for Italy, but instead was held in H City when a fire damaged the venue where it was originally meant to be held. The guests were celebrities worth many millions of dollars.

Alina was invited, not to mention James. He was always invited to such events.

In order to match her tailored evening dress, Alina went to a jewelry shop to choose a necklace.

After paying the bill, she took a brocade box from her handbag. "I need to you resize this ring, please."

"Okay, Ms. Tang. Please wait a moment. I'll take your measurement."

Alina took out her phone and sent a message to James. "James, are you free tonight? I'd like to have dinner with you." As soon as she tapped the "send" button, a familiar voice rang in her ear. "Alina, what a coincidence!"

Alina's face immediately darkened. She put away her phone and said coldly, "Coincidence? Hardly. This is a pretty small city."

Maria didn't mind her attitude. She smiled, pointed at a set of jewelry in the display case, and told the saleswoman behind her, "I'd like to try it on. Can you arrange that?"

"Yes, one moment please."

Glancing at the price of the jewelry set chosen by Maria, Alina sneered, "Check the price tag first. That's tens of millions. Can you afford that?"

"Not on my own. But..." Maria approached her and whispered softly, "Someone else could buy it for me, like your fiance-to-be."

Alina glared at the complacent woman, biting her lower lip. Her chest was burning with rage. How she wished she could tear Maria's face off! Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Feeling her rage, Maria chuckled and picked up the diamond ring in the brocade box next to her.

"Don't touch that!" Maria put the ring on her ring finger, and Alina was too late to stop her.

"Aww, I'm just trying it on. I'll give it back. You're so paranoid! Is this new? It fits me perfectly!" Maria really didn't know where the ring came from. If she knew it was Alina's engagement ring, she would have been much snarkier.

Looking at how well the diamond ring fit on Maria's finger, Alina fell silent.

Why did the engagement ring James bought her fit Maria so perfectly?

Alina wondered if James had done it on purpose to piss her off.

Maria didn't know anything about it. If she'd known it was from James, she would be less casual about this. She took it off and put it back into the box. Without looking at Alina again, she turned around to try on the jewelry set that the saleswoman had taken out for her.

When taking the measurement on her ring finger, Alina remained silent with a straight face. It was obvious she was holding back her rage. In fact, she really wanted to throw the ring away, but she couldn't.

After all, it was the engagement ring she got from James. If she told him it was lost, he might think she never appreciated anything he bought her.

Alina felt sick the rest of the afternoon, as if she had swallowed a fly that was still buzzing around inside her. Then she watched Maria calmly swipe her card to pay for the high-end jewelry set she had just tried on. Alina believed what Maria had whispered in her ear. James was always generous with his money. After divorcing Maria, he even gave her three hundred million dollars in alimony. Now that the two were hanging out again, James was spending money on her like it was going out of style.

The sales clerk offered to mail it to her, but Maria turned her down. She took the set home with her. Before leaving, she waved at Alina and said, "See you tomorrow night, Alina!"

Tomorrow night? Alina frowned. That was when the jewelry banquet was. Was Maria going too? Then who had invited her? Norman or James?

Alina never believed that Maria would get an invitation. Maria wasn't a woman worth hundreds of millions. That was what Alina thought, anyway.

Meanwhile HM Group was holding a meeting in one of their conference rooms. Colby was upset.

He'd already blown his top once, and the senior executives were cowed by his rage.

Hands on his hips, he turned his back to the attendees. He looked at the business plan and virtual products on the screen and glowered. This was not going well, and things might get worse before they got better.