A Vengeful Ex-Wife novel Chapter 25

Colby explained, "Fosun Entertainment has been growing by leaps and bounds. They've expanded into real estate, finance, and hospitality. If you think about it, it makes sense. Why would you not want venues that carry your own movies or concerts? Forays into finance would yield returns that fund these venues. And you'd want hotels that cater to your own stars, right?"

While the men were talking about business, Maria only focused on food. She wanted the crab, but the legs were served uncut. She had to keep an elegant image in front of all the businessmen. Besides, her nails were just manicured, so it was inconvenient at best to dine on crab without help.

She couldn't help but complain inwardly about the service here. Why didn't they score or split the crab legs? And at a dinner party? Right away, she decided to blacklist this restaurant.

Noticing her gaze, Summer understood Maria's desire for the crab legs. She snickered.

Summer reached for the plate of the crab legs, picked up a few for her own plate, put on gloves, and began to peel the crab legs. She took one part of the leg, cracked it in half, and pulled the shell off to slide the meat out.

Watching Summer doing this, Maria rested her chin in her hand. She envied Summer so much. If she had known this, she wouldn't have had her nails done. That way she could enjoy crab too. Her stomach grumbled.

A few minutes later, after shelling the crab legs, Summer put them on a clean plate. When no one noticed, she passed the plate to Maria.

Seeing the plate, Maria was a little surprised. Then she looked at Summer.

Summer winked.

Maria understood what she meant and felt warm in her heart. She took the plate and accepted her kindness, enjoying the succulent crab meat.

Both women thought they were being sly, but they didn't know that they were being watched.

James couldn't help wondering, "Summer and Maria haven't seen each other for six years.

How could they still be so close?'

After finishing the crab meat, Maria was full and her feet were hurting. Her new high-heeled shoes she bought didn't fit well. The backs of her heels felt like they were on fire.

She looked around and no one was paying attention. She quietly kicked off one of her shoes to relax her feet.

'Very low-class, Maria. Some people were just born that way, I guess,' James thought with disdain. It didn't escape his notice.

His eyes flashed. Next, he took the wine decanter and filled his glass. Suddenly, he stood up and raised his glass in a toast.

As soon as he got to his feet, others at the table had to stand as well. Maria was no exception.

Thanks to James, she didn't even have time to return her shoe to her foot. It wasn't for lack of trying —she searched under the table with her foot for a bit before finally getting to her feet.

She had no choice; she had to stand on one foot.

She only hoped that James could finish his speech quickly so that she could sit down soon.

The man of few words not only decided to propose a toast, but also talked a lot. Maria wondered if he did that intentionally.

Two minutes had passed, but James wasn't done.

A few minutes later, when Maria was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he continued, "Join me in raising a glass to everyone here." Everyone cheered, then took a drink. "Mr. Zheng, would you like to share your opinions with us?"

And Colby began to propose his own toast.

No one knew how embarrassed Maria was. She had been standing on one foot for five minutes, and there looked to be no end in sight.

When she looked over at James, that was when she saw it. The man was looking at her, obviously gloating.