Walking towards Maria, Chandler pointed at the several paper bags on the sofa and said kindly, "I bought these for you. I know you can have everything you want with Mr. Xi by your side now, but as your father, I want to be nice to you. Don't refuse."
Maria raised an eyebrow at him and sneered, "What's the catch? What do you want?"
"Nothing. I've just been thinking a lot about the past recently. After your grandfather spoke to me, I realized my mistakes. All this happened because of me and your mom. It's our fault. We shouldn't have treated you like that," Chandler said earnestly.
When Maria didn't respond, he started to feel a little awkward. He was not good at apologizing or having such honest conversations, so he cleared his throat and said, "Well, if there's nothing else, I'll leave now."
When he turned to walk to the door, however, Maria finally spoke up. "Take all these things with you."
"They are all for you. They might not be very expensive, but I put my heart into them."
"No, thanks, Mr. Song. I don't need anything from you, especially father's love!" Maria retorted. Then, she turned around and stalked back to her office without giving him a chance to respond.
After Chandler left, Maria's assistant walked to her office with the paper bags that Chandler had brought. "Ms. Song, these things..."
Without bothering to even raise her head to look, Maria said, "Send them to Song Group and tell Carolina that her father bought these things."
"Yes, ma'am."
In Song Group, Carolina stared at the bags of luxury goods in front of her and let out a deep sigh. She could guess what had happened.
In order to make it up to Maria, her father must have bought all these valuable things according to her preferences to please her. However, as expected, Maria must have refused.
Pinching the space between her eyebrows, Carolina told her secretary, "Set these bags aside for now."
After the secretary left, the office was quiet for a while. Then, Carolina picked up her phone and dialed a number. As soon as the call was answered, she said, "Maria, it's me."
"Wow, today is a special day, isn't it? First, your father came to me, and now I'm getting a call from you. Are you having a problem with paying back the loan from HL Group?"
"No. Everything in the company is going well, and we have been paying off the loan regularly. I called you to talk about Dad," Carolina answered tiredly.
"Stop! Don't make me block your number," Maria said impatiently.
"Maria, I know you are angry. I'm not trying to put in a good word for him. I just wanted to tell you that he's going to divorce Mom. It turns out that he has a mistress, and they have a child together. The boy is only a few years old." Hearing this, Maria didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. What a joke! She and her two sisters were already old enough to have kids of their own, but now, they suddenly had a half-brother who was a kid.
"What does that have to do with me?" she asked coldly. This news had only worsened her impression of Chandler. She felt that on top of being a bad father, he was a bad husband as well. He was absolute scum!
"Nothing, forget it. You can carry on with your work. I don't have anything else to say," Carolina replied. She knew what kind of person Maria was. If she kept pressing the matter, she would end up getting on Maria's nerves, so she chose to let it go instead.
Maria hung up the phone without bothering to say anything else.
Thinking of the gifts Chandler had brought her earlier, she scoffed. She wasn't moved by his gesture at all. If anything, she found it ridiculous.
She absent-mindedly looked out of the window and found that it was snowing.
The Spring Festival was approaching. She wondered how James would want to celebrate it.
Now that the year was ending, the two of them were both very busy. James went on three business trips in a single week, and Maria also flew abroad once.
After nearly a week of being separated from each other, Maria went to the airport to pick up James, who had just returned to the city from a business trip.
As soon as she laid eyes on the familiar man, there was a flicker of happiness in her heart, but it promptly died out after seeing the woman by his side.
The woman was wearing a loose, dark brown down jacket, and a large pair of sunglasses on her face. She was holding the handle of a small suitcase and wheeling it behind her.
Maria had almost forgotten that James had made a promise to Alina. The two of them must have kept in touch all this time.
The moment James saw Maria, a smile appeared at the corners of his mouth. When he was close enough, he pulled her into his arms and planted a kiss on her lips. "Mia," he whispered happily in her ear.
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