Ten days had passed since James went to T Country; the two had been giving each other the silent treatment.
Every day, Maria continued to post photos of different wine in her WeChat Moments. If James looked closely, he would recognize the labels as parts of his top-level wine collection he had accumulated for many years.
Both were filled with the burning desire to win, so each one of them was waiting for the other to yield first.
James' refusal to surrender made Maria uneasy. Under the circumstances, it didn't matter whether they loved each other or not. She just wanted to win. She had to grit her teeth to stop herself from reaching out first.
On the other hand, James wasn't faring much better than her, but he was determined to show her that he was putting his foot down.
He was the one who took the initiative to see her when he went back last time, but she still refused to yield.
The two of them remained in a stalemate until the twentieth day of his business trip.
Someone had taken a picture of him with a woman in a hotel in T Country. Later, the news had been taken down before it had become popular.
Even so, Maria still found out about it because there were a lot of people in H City who lived to see her unhappy. Rosa, in particular, relished telling her about it, gloating at her misfortune.
Even though she kept insisting that they had already broken up, Maria would be lying if she said that she didn't care. In fact, both she and James had an unspoken agreement that they hadn't parted ways. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had sex, and James wouldn't have taken her to the company's anniversary party to show off their love. After bearing the discomfort in her heart for some time, Maria asked someone to investigate James.
As it turned out, the woman in the photo was Elina, the head of the company's branch office in T Country.
Maria knew that they were just colleagues, but she was still jealous because she loved James.
She could hardly make it clear that James was hers by making a call or sending a message. So, she flew to T Country.
In T Country
Maria headed straight for James' hotel, which she knew beforehand, as soon as her plane landed.
What she didn't know was that James found out that she was flying to T Country as soon as she boarded the plane.
He rushed back to the hotel after his meeting, but he was still late.
Maria rang the room's doorbell many times, but nobody answered. Finally, she decided to leave her luggage at the reception and went shopping on her own.
In that foreign country, Maria immersed herself in strolling about the city and sampling some local delicacies. She had gotten off the plane for three hours now, but she still hadn't called James.
Upon returning to the hotel, she saw a familiar figure in the parking lot.
All of the anger in her heart was forgotten in her joy at seeing him. Even in her high heels, Maria ran forward to meet him.
He opened the trunk and took out a bunch of flowers -a massive bouquet of purple roses.
They were exquisite.
Well, she could forgive him for the time being, and he had the roses to thank for that.
However, Maria was about to burst from sheer happiness when another woman appeared in front of James.
The woman smiled at the man. After saying something, she took the bouquet from his hands.
'Is this what being stuck by lightning feels like?' Maria wondered absently as her chest tightened at the devastating blow.
The smile on her face froze as joy leaked out of her, leaving her hollow.
Elina was about to say something to James when she caught sight of Maria, who was standing not too far away. Quickly pushing back the bouquet into James' arms, she hastened to explain, "Mr. Xi, your wife..."
James took the roses and turned around.
As expected, Maria was standing not far away, staring at him.
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