A Vengeful Ex-Wife

When Cooper was only sixteen, he took part in the Olympic Mathematics competition abroad.

One evening, on his way back to his hotel room, something unexpected happened. Several foreign men barred his path, mugged him in a secluded alley and beat the living daylights out of him. Just when a fist was about to land on his face, a girl shouted, "The police are coming! Police! They're over here!" The sound of her voice was loud and clear enough for the gangsters to hear. Since their position had been compromised, the gangsters ran away with their tails tucked between their legs.

The girl quickly ran towards Cooper, grabbed his wrist, and dragged him away without hesitation. "Run!"

He couldn't see her face clearly, but he decided that he needed to prioritize his safety and ran with her.

Moments later, the gangsters realized that something was amiss. When they turned around, they found that there were no policemen after them.

By the time they returned, the girl and the boy were already gone.

The gangsters cursed their own luck and foolishness, and decided to give up.

Cooper followed the girl along, and they didn't stop until their legs had no more strength to move forward.

She then put her hands on her knees, gasping for breath.

Only then did Cooper see her face clearly. She was neat, good-looking, and easy on the eyes. "Thank you for saving my life," he said.

"You're welcome. Now, hurry up. You need to go!"

"What's your name?"

"It's Maria Song. I'm from H City," she answered.

Cooper smiled at her. "What a coincidence! I'm also from H City. Nice to meet you, Maria. My name is Cooper Xi."

Back then, he was only sixteen, and Maria was nineteen years old.

Neither of them had imagined that they would soon meet once more. They met each other once more in the Xi family's manor, right when Maria was about to be his sister-in-law. They were both amazed that they saw each other again.

At the time, Cooper was really into Maria. But of course, he only like her in the simplest sense of it.

He was really happy for his elder brother, knowing that she was going to be his brother's wife.

To Cooper, Maria was like a sister. He always spoke to her whenever he was free. And under pressure from Judy, he would always do his best to help Maria.

However, unbeknownst to them, as time went by, rumors about the two of them were spreading.

Some people were saying that Maria was seducing Cooper whenever her husband wasn't at home.

Most of the rumors were harsh, and Cooper felt really guilty about them. He was afraid that his presence would stain his brother and sister-in-law's relationship, so he decided to stay abroad and study for a long time.

When he found out that his nephew had died in an accident, he didn't even dare to call Maria to comfort her. He was wary that rumors about them would spread again.

He thought that it was best to not contact her at all. And as a result, in Maria's most trying moment, he knew nothing about her hardships.

This was the biggest regret in his life. Had he known that something bad would happen to Maria, he would've contacted her instead of standing idly by.

After she departed the Xi family, Cooper wanted to look for her, but he didn't have enough power or resources at the time. He tried his best, but he never found her whereabouts, so he had no choice but to give up.

Fortunately, she reappeared years later. Cooper tried to set her up with his brother regardless of everything that had happened in the past.

Unexpectedly, through Maria, Sandra broke into his life.

When he first saved Sandra, he had no idea that he would one day fall in love with her.

But compared to Sandra, Cooper was far too scared of falling in love.

She had always been the one who had the courage to move their relationship forward. From the very beginning, he had been too cowardly to face the fact that she had feelings for him. Initially, he was just accepting her help because of Maria.

And in order to save Sandra from further heartache, Cooper told her that he just didn't want to be in a relationship right now.

To his surprise, it didn't faze her. She just became much more enthusiastic ever since he returned to H City.

And perhaps it was due to this persistence and enthusiasm that he gradually developed feelings for her.

He wasn't sure when he started to feel something for Sandra, but he was certain that he now wanted to be with her.

One rainy night, Sandra was feeling depressed about failing her exam. She sought him for comfort, asking him if he could give her a hug. After a long time of hesitation, he finally decided to give in.

Both excitement and sadness ruled her heart, causing Sandra to cry in his harms.

Upon seeing her pitiful face, Cooper was drawn to kiss her lips.

At the time, Sandra was too startled to kiss him back. She just stood there, frozen, and letting him kiss her.

This love was what she had been longing for all this time. But now that it was right before her eyes, it caught her by her surprise.

But just when she thought their relationship was progressing, it went back to how it was before.

It almost seemed like that kiss meant nothing at all.

And after all the disappointment and heartache he had caused her, Sandra finally chose to surrender.

It was far too late when Cooper finally decided to confess.

Of course, Sandra wanted to refuse him, but she was still madly in love with him. Soon, he tore down her walls with his affection, and they were later engaged.

Upon their return to H City, the first thing Cooper did was to arrange a formal meeting between the two families. He had successfully

convinced Sandra's parents tool net

accept him despite their former antagonistic nature against him.

To Cooper, Sandra was the woman he wanted to spent the rest of his life with. Marriage was just a matter of time, so he thought that getting married as soon as possible was the best course of action. Sandra was still panicking because of how fast things were progressing. She wasn't ready to be a wife yet. On top of everything, because of James and Maria's problems, Cooper had to postpone their wedding.

Sometime later, they were finally together. His life had become a little simpler, yet it had become much livelier than it used to be. With Sandra by his side, he was the happiest man on earth. Later, the first thing they did was to get their marriage licenses. Their wedding was held two months after James and Maria's wedding.

Sandra liked to have fun, so Cooper invited many relatives and friends to their wedding.

On the day after their wedding, she found out that she was two months pregnant.

Eight months later, the Xi family's fourth child was born.

Cooper had wanted to have a daughter, but his wish was not granted.

Fortunately for him, their second child was a girl. Now, they had a son and a daughter.

After Sebastian and Gabriela renewed their vows, Norman decided to adopt the surname, Xi. Obviously, he was against it because it was too troublesome. But his elder brother, James, had personally asked him to do so.

Norman wanted to use Maria to persuade his brother otherwise, but James was also aware of his foolish younger brother's Achilles' heel, and that was Mildred.

In the end, Norman reluctantly

agreed to change his surname.

Although he was trying to be low-key

about it, it was a name that he

vel.ne

couldn't hide. Not long after, everyone in H City knew that Norman was also Sebastian and Gabriela's biological son. From then on, Norman Shen no longer existed, for he was now Norman Xi.

Since he was having trouble changing his surname, he left most of his work to Maria.

However, she called him to protest. "Norman, don't you think it's inappropriate of you to treat me like a slave? Tell me, are you on my side or James'?"

"But, we are family now. We look after each other, right?"

His rebuttal left Maria speechless.

She shouldn't have called him.

Strangely enough, Cooper got along well with Norman.

James, on the other hand, was having a hard time doing the same. He and Norman had long been antagonistic of each other.

But after everything that had happened, things were starting to get better between them, especially now that James and Maria's relationship was getting better.

A long time ago, when Norman

started his business, James found

out that they were half-brothers through their mother. Because of that, James did nothing to attack his brother, in spite of Norman's acting against him.

Later, Norman provoked James whenever he could. On the surface, he looked mature and calm. But in reality, he was a wild child. James had to endure it all.

But the only thing James couldn't stand to take was the fact that Norman tried to sow discord between him and Maria. This was the last straw.

As long as Norman didn't involve Maria into their problem, James would try to reach a compromise with him.

Fortunately, now that Norman had become part of the Xi family, and James' relationship with Maria was stabilizing, their brotherhood was becoming much better.

In the past, they were each other's nemesis. But they soon learned to rely on each other. They had also joined hands through joint business ventures, and finally reconciled and formed an alliance.