For a moment, James lost his tongue. He didn't know what to say to Lawrence. In his eyes, Maria was a temptress who seduced his best friend.
Eventually, James hung up the phone in silence. For the time being, he didn't want to hear Lawrence's voice.
The light in his office was off, so it was a bit dark. James opened the phonebook on his phone and looked for Ethan's number. As soon as Ethan answered his call, he said, "Let's have a drink."
"Okay. No problem, James," Ethan answered excitedly.
James heaved a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Ethan was a reliable friend. "I'll wait for you in Leopard Club."
"But James, my credit cards have been frozen. I can't afford to buy you a drink for now."
James couldn't help rubbing his temple. "If you want me to unfreeze them, I'll wait for you in the boxing gym," he said. All of a sudden, he felt like his fists were craving to hit someone.
Ethan panicked at once, regretting that he joked on James. Of course, he didn't want to be beaten up. "No. James, I don't want..."
"I'll give you half an hour," James interrupted. He then hung up decisively without giving Ethan a chance to retort.
Maria was discharged from the hospital even though she hadn't fully recovered yet. She didn't want to be alone in the hospital, so she dragged her unhealed body back to the hotel.
After helping her lie down on the bed, Lawrence sat on the sofa and lit a cigarette. "With regards to the matter in your company, I'm afraid that James will know about it as soon as he looks into it," he said.
The registered capital of Maria's company was eighty million dollars. But the truth was, it was her own money. Lawrence had nothing to do with it.
"Don't worry. He won't," Maria replied. It seemed that she was not taking it seriously.
She knew that James would definitely believe anything that Lawrence said. The eighty-million-dollar investment didn't matter to her. What she wanted was, James had to know that Lawrence invested in her company.
"You sound so certain." Lawrence was amazed by her confidence.
"Of course!" Maria chuckled. "I'm not saying that I know James very well. But at least, I know him more than others do."
"Okay, if you say so. Well, I'm leaving now. Just call me if you need anything."
"Nothing really. I just need you to try your best to convince James that we are really in love with each other. Whenever he shows up in front of me, you must come to me."
"Yes. I know what to do," Lawrence replied with a nod before walking towards the door.
Ethan met James in the boxing gym. But he was not beaten because he was smart enough to hire someone who matched James' boxing skills to fight with James.
After an hour, James went to the shower room, panting. Ethan followed behind him. "James, I heard that Maria is injured. I want to see her. Want to come with me?"
Ethan had heard the news from Lawrence.
Earlier, he called Lawrence for some business matters. Lawrence had mentioned to him that Maria was injured.
It was true that he wanted to see Maria. But his main purpose was to bitch about James in front of her.
"No," James refused decisively.
Ethan didn't insist. He just nodded and said, "Okay. Please lend me some money. I need to bring a gift if I'm going to visit a patient, right?"
"Go ahead. Just send the bill to me," James replied.
Ethan couldn't help heaving a sigh. Now he understood what was going on. It seemed that James' anger on him wouldn't disappear that easily unless he got beaten up.
Ethan thought for a while. Then he decided to ask Maria first if she could reactivate his frozen credit cards. If she could, then he didn't need to be beaten up by James. But if she couldn't, he would return to James so James could beat him up.
His eyes lit up with the idea, and his mood lightened.
Ethan casually waved his hand to James and left the boxing gym right away.
Looking at Ethan's receding back, James wondered what was going on in Ethan's mind. A trace of doubt flashed through his eyes. He had expected that Ethan would keep pestering him to reactivate his credit cards. That was what Ethan normally did to him. Ethan would always negotiate with him by all possible means. But today, Ethan left so decisively. He couldn't help wondering why. When Maria opened the door of her hotel room and saw Ethan, she knew what he was going to say. Besides, his plaintive expression had already told her.
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