A Vengeful Ex-Wife

Chapter 189 Taking Care Of Your Own Wife

James sneered. "Why didn't you thank me back when I personally bathed you?"

Maria blushed. She glanced at the two elders in the living room. Fortunately, they didn't seem to have heard what he had just said. "Grandpa and Grandma are both here. Watch your mouth!" she said in a low voice.

"Why should I? If anything, Grandpa wants me to be more intimate with you so he can have a greatgrandchild as soon as possible."

A great-grandchild... It made Maria think of her Arthur.

She cleared her throat, trying to tamp down the sadness she felt. "A great-grandchild? Dream on. You said you'd dig the baby out of my belly." Maria had thought that bearing a child would make her get what she wanted. Now she wouldn't even dare entertain the thought of getting pregnant. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

James finished putting the Band-Aid on her finger as he smirked. She believed what he said to scare her. How stupid!

Augustine and Charlotte whispered among themselves while Maria and James were dealing with their own business.

They had finally come to a decision and Augustine would take action.

With Tami's help, Maria had made a total of eight dishes for dinner, six of which were all vegetables while the other two were meat-based.

Watching his grandson practically bury his head into his bowl as he devoured his food, Augustine piped up. "How do you like the dishes, James?"

Noticing the cunning glint in his eyes, James swallowed his food before replying. "Grandpa, didn't you teach me not to talk while eating?"

Augustine almost choked on his own food, but then he continued eating.

He wasn't letting James off easily though. After a while, he looked at Maria, who seemed to be picking at her food. "James, Maria's hand is injured, isn't it? Can't you take care of her?"

Her wound was not serious at all, at least compared to her previous injury. Maria hurried to protest. "I—" She was about to tell Augustine that she could take care of herself, but that single word out of her mouth was immediately met with a glare from the old man.

The rest of her words died in her throat. James calmly out down his chopsticks. "You're very sprightly yourself, Grandpa. Why don't you feed her?"

Without missing a beat, Augustine plucked a piece of potato from one of the dishes and placed it in Charlotte's bowl. "I have my own wife to look after. You should take care of your own."

James gaped, speechless. He hated rehashing things over and over with Augustine.

For her part, Charlotte felt caught in between. In attempt to pacify things, she patted Augustine's hand and said, "Just eat. There's no need to school James about these things. He's a grown-up now, he knows what he's doing."

"Humph! And yet he's severely lacking in emotional intelligence. If I don't teach him things here and there, a good girl like Maria might just run away with another man. Well, I suppose we'll see what he does if that ever happens." He remembered the rumors about Maria planning to marry Lawrence.

Unlike James, Lawrence knew what a good woman Maria was.

Touched by the old man's words regardless, Maria's eyes misted.

'Maybe Augustine and Charlotte are the only ones thinking I'm a good girl.'

She smiled at them in gratitude. "Grandpa, Grandma, you are the only people in the world who love me so much."

Her voice cracked at the end, prompting James to turn to her with a frown. He didn't understand why she was so moved by Augustine's words.

Augustine waved his hand. "Not really. Gordon loves you too."

Maria perked up in surprise. "My Grandpa?"

"That's right. Since Gordon has moved in, he sings praises of you whenever we run into each other. I've had to endure several minutes of his monologues before he let me go." A look of disgust crept into Augustine's expression as he talked.

Maria pondered on this new information. She had never expected her grandfather to have thought of her in such a way. This was news to her indeed.

Well, she had always known he loved her, of course. But he had openly favored her older sisters more. Now, it appeared that he might have misunderstood her grandfather all this time.

Picking up on the girl's somber mood, Charlotte nudged Augustine, silently telling him to get back to his food.

Then she gave James a pointed look.

This time, James obliged, picking food from the dish nearest Maria and placing them in her bowl. "Eat!" he ordered.

Maria stared at the braised eggplant in her bowl and felt even sadder. James would never do things like this without his grandfather's coercion, would he?

The meal ended without further events and Maria proceeded to help Tami clean up.

As they left the dining hall, Charlotte handed her grandson a thick red envelope. "Happy birthday, James. I wish you happiness, safety, and good health. This is love from your grandparents. Take the money and buy something for yourself!"

James accepted their kindness openheartedly and thanked his grandparents.

Maria watched from a distance, rubbing her hands together in embarrassment. She hadn't prepared anything for James.

"Maria!" Charlotte called all of a sudden.

Maria walked over to the living room. "Yes, Grandma?"

"Let's go out for a walk. Augustine wants to talk business with James."

"Sure." Maria helped the Charlotte up, glancing quickly at James before heading to the front door.

There was a small park next to the villa, where residents frequented for evening walks. At the moment, there were only a few people around.

Charlotte held Maria's hand tightly before speaking. "Maria, there's something I haven't asked you yet. Where were you these last six years? What were you doing?"

This was a question Maria had never expected to come from the old woman. It wasn't like this was difficult to answer; she hadn't had a lot of places to go after all.

But in order to keep Charlotte from worrying, she decided to make her reply short. "I was mostly

practicing martial arts. I also learned to manage a company, make gourmet coffee, and a host of other things to improve myself." "Oh, really? Who did you learn from?" Charlotte was quite satisfied at what she had just heard. In her opinion, the most important thing for a woman was the constant development of her inner qualities.

Maria hesitated for a moment before saying, "From Norman Shen."

While people might know them to be friends, she personally regarded Norman as a master of sorts.

Charlotte knew the man, of course. He was not her grandson, but Norman was James' half-brother from the same mother.

She couldn't help but sigh at the thought of James' biological mother. "Alas! Judy Lan came between them."

The comment confused Maria, but she assumed that it probably had to do with the Xi family's private affairs, in which case she was in no position to ask about the matter.

"How did you come to know Norman?"

Maria wouldn't hide anything from Charlotte, so her answer was pure and simple. "He saved me."

There was no point in covering things up anyway. Augustine and Charlotte knew a lot of things. More importantly, Maria knew that they would never hurt her.

"I see." Charlotte could sense that there was something more to their relationship. "Are you and Norman...?" Maria knew what she meant.

"Grandma, don't worry. Even though James and I are divorced, you could probably tell that I still love him. So I won't have an affair with another man no matter what." Maria was not a woman with loose morals.

Charlotte believed her words and found some relief.

"Don't be afraid of Alina Tang. She might have gotten engaged to James, but we will never let her marry into the Xi family. But you need to do your best and win James' heart. Do you understand?"

"Yes, got it. Thank you, Grandma."

It was easier said than done, though. How in the world would she win James' heart?

She had her own reasons for not getting rid of Alina right away. Recently, she had gathered memories of what had happened in the past and managed to find clues.

First of all, she realized that James didn't care about her at all.

LARK COLE HIM