Chapter 605 Something Terrible Has Happened

Chapter 605 Something Terrible Has Happened

After Reese left, James pulled out the Mary White Ointment and told Mary it was a product he'd just developed.

He even cut his own finger right there to demonstrate it, leaving Mary amazed at how well the medicine worked.

With her sharp business instincts, she could tell that once this product hit the market, it would completely dominate the industry — worth at least hundreds of billions.

So she was immediately interested.

When she found out it was called Mary White Ointment, her face turned red, and she agreed to the partnership without a second thought.

She struck a deal with James on the spot — the Smith Corporation would provide the funding and resources, James would provide the formula, and they'd split the profits 70-30. James would get seventy percent, the Smith Corporation thirty.

Mary called in Poppy and the legal team to draft and sign the contract right then and there.

The reason she wanted everything in writing wasn't because she was worried James might back out — it was because she was worried her mother might cause trouble, so she wanted to give James some legal protection.

James signed without hesitation and agreed to write out the formula for Mary as soon as possible. However, he made one thing very clear — the Mary White Ointment project was absolutely not to be handed over to Reese or her people.

The two of them got along well. Once the key details were sorted out, Poppy knocked on the door and came in to let them know the restaurant reservation was ready.

James didn't turn down the invitation and went with Mary and the others to Dream of the South for dinner.

Mary booked the best private room and ordered a table full of food, as if she wanted to make up for everything she'd done in the past.

James didn't hold back either — he picked up his knife and fork and dug right in.

"Slow down, nobody's going to steal your food."

Watching James wolf down his meal, Mary gave him a look, then with a touch of warmth, pulled out a napkin and wiped the corner of his mouth.

"I can do it myself."

James still wasn't used to Mary being gentle with him and instinctively pulled away from her delicate hand.

Mary frowned. "Don't move!"

James had no choice but to let her wipe his mouth.

"I heard you got into a fight with the Gonzalez Family at a bar last night?" Mary brought up a new topic, perhaps feeling she'd been too bossy. "And that you killed some people from the Blood Medical Sect?"

"That's right."

James admitted it honestly, then looked at Mary with a smile.

"Do you think I was being impulsive again?"

The words carried a teasing tone, a hint of resignation, and a quiet sadness.

Mary could sense his disappointment. A flicker of guilt crossed her heart, and she set down the napkin and spoke quietly:

"If this were before, from where I stood, I would have thought that was reckless and careless."

"After all, killing someone in public and getting mixed up with the Blood Medical Sect and the Gonzalez Family — that's not a smart move."

"And of course, more than anything, I'd be worried about you getting yourself killed."

"You could kill a hundred times and walk away ninety-nine of them, but the one time you can't get out, your life is over."

"So unless there's absolutely no other choice, I've always been against you using violence."

She opened up to James in a way she rarely did:

"But after what happened with John's suicide — and especially after my older sister called me out — I tried to look at things from your point of view."

"I still think killing is going too far, but I have to admit, you didn't have many options."

"And even when you showed mercy and let people go, that didn't mean they'd return the favor."

"For people with money and power like them, if you don't make them fear you through death, they'll just keep coming at you without any restraint."

"Because they'll figure that stepping on you costs nothing and carries no consequences."

"So I finally understand why you resort to violence with people like that."

She hesitated for a moment, then looked at James with apologetic eyes.

"James, I owe you an apology. I'm sorry."

"And I also want to say thank you."

The apology was for the way she'd treated him — so many times she'd hurt him, pushed him away, yet he kept protecting her anyway.

The thanks was for everything James had done for her and the Smith Family. Without him, the family would have fallen apart long ago, and she never could have become its head.

James was caught off guard. He hadn't expected Mary to swallow her pride like this. In all the time he'd known her, she had never once backed down like this.

He could also see that she was being completely genuine — both the apology and the thanks.

Thinking about that, and about what he was going to do in the future, a small pang of guilt passed through him. But he quickly pushed the feeling aside.

"We already agreed — what's in the past stays in the past. Let's not bring it up again."

James smiled at Mary. "As long as things are good between us going forward, none of that old stuff matters."

"Alright, no more of that. Come on, let me raise a glass to you."

Mary smiled warmly, poured James half a glass of red wine, gently clinked her glass against his, and drank.

"By the way, I heard you took down Paxton with a wine glass. How did you even do that?"

She looked at him with genuine curiosity, lightening the mood at the same time.

"Simple."

James didn't hide anything from Mary.

"Paxton has a heart condition — a tiny, nearly invisible crack in his heart that he was born with."

"When he was young it wouldn't have caused much trouble, but as he got older, the crack would have kept getting bigger, until it became life-threatening."

"At the scene, I noticed him rubbing his chest a few times, taking medication to control his heart rate, and avoiding sounds at certain frequencies. That's when I figured his heart was the problem."

"So when he came close to me, I tapped the wine glass and tuned the sound to match the frequency of his heartbeat, which caused the crack in his heart to resonate."

"Think about it — if a crack starts resonating, it's basically being torn apart. With that kind of damage to his heart, how could Paxton stay standing?"

James smiled. "So he had no choice but to go down."

Mary's mouth fell open slightly. She never would have imagined that James's medical skills could not only save lives, but also take them down so invisibly.

While the two of them were chatting and enjoying their dinner, Reese was sneaking back into the executive office. She reached behind the single sofa and pulled out her phone.

It was still recording. She quickly turned it off, then slipped back out just as quietly and hurried to the parking garage, climbing into her Audi to listen.

When Mary had told her to get out, she'd gotten curious about what the two of them were talking about. So she'd made excuses to stick around, opened her phone's voice recorder, and hidden it in the gap behind the sofa cushion.

Reese wanted to know exactly what they'd discussed.

"Mary White Ointment? Worth hundreds of billions?"

"Ten to a hundred times more effective than anything on the market?"

"The Smith Corporation puts in the money and resources, James provides the formula?"

"And Alice and I aren't allowed anywhere near the project... That jerk. I swear I'll deal with you one day for cutting me out like this."

Reese listened to the recording, barely able to contain her excitement.

A project worth hundreds of billions — if she could get a piece of that, she'd never have to worry about money for the rest of her life.

But her excitement quickly faded into a frown.

Mary was in charge now and made all the decisions on her own. She'd promised James to keep Reese out of it, which meant there was definitely no room for her.

Thinking about hundreds of billions in profit floating past while she didn't see a single cent made Reese burn with anger.

Then her eyes darted around, and she grabbed her phone and made a call.

"Mr. Morris, we've got a problem..."