The Indifferent Ex-Husband Heartstrings in the Mall of Fate

For the next couple of weeks, she was in and out of consciousness, more often out cold than awake. She was hospitalized for months and only recently got discharged. When she was in the ICU, the blood clot in her brain wouldn't dissolve, seriously threatening her life. She was facing the tough call of undergoing brain surgery-everything was set, the hospital and doctor were on standby, as if her ship had already docked at the port. Luckily, she pulled through on her own, dodging that bullet, but that stubborn clot might be the main culprit behind her amnesia.

Attached are all her medical records and test results since she was admitted. She's been through the wringer, barely clinging to life, and even though she's been nursed back to a semblance of health by doctors and dietitians, her immune system is practically non-existentpared to the average Joe. A simple sniffle could spiral into severe lung infections or myocarditis. Since you've whisked her away, you better take damn good care of her. After all, not everyone gets a second chance like this, and Lady Luck won't always have your back.

Brandon clicked through the hefty stack of medical files and reports.

They detailed the harrowing account of Sophia's rescue, with phrases like 'poison-induceda', 'bruised and blue face', 'ice-cold limbs', 'traumatic head bleeding', 'lungs filled with bloody foam', 'no sign of breathing', 'hemorrhagic shock', and 'vital signs barely there'. The subsequent rescue notes kept mentioning severe lung infections and respiratory failure, along with blood test results that were off the charts.

As Brandon read through page after page of diagnosis, his heart felt like it was being ripped apart, his throat tightened, and he could hardly imagine how Sophia had survived her brushes with death all by herself.

She had battled her way through hell and back, powered by sheer willpower, to return to safety.

In the photos Harvey Ferber had sent, Sophia was sprawled out in the ICU, tubes all over, her brows furrowed in pain, conscious enough to feel it all.

She had endured the agony of the ICU alone and awake.

Brandon was grateful to Harvey Ferber for saving Sophia, but also resented him.

He should have been informed about Sophia being on board the first the set foot on the ship.

While he couldn't take away her suffering, at least he and Theresa could have been there for her during her darkest hours, instead of her facing the loneliness of battling illness and the brink of death all alone.

"Thanks for saving her," Brandon texted Harvey Ferber, "You should have toldsooner." "I intended to tell you about Ms. Yearwood the first tMr. Crawley caboard. He was in a hurry to leave and didn't givea chance," cHarvey Ferber's quick reply. He had given Brandon a chance.

Sophia hadn't woken up before that day.

He didn't know what it was like for her to be conscious and in pain in the ICU.

By the the could have told the truth, the ship was already in international waters and it was too late for the news to mean anything.

When the ship docked, Sophia had already been moved out of the ICU and was doing much better.

It was then that he told Sophia about someone spending a fortune to find her, planning to trade her for a dock. At that time, Sophia had refused the deal, not wanting to reach out to her family.

That made contacting Brandon even less necessary.

As Brandon read Harvey Ferber's nessage, he was suddenly eminded of his first visit to the ship hey had failed to finalize their business deal, and Harvey Ferber offered to show him around the ruise liner, with the tour route assing by the hospital. But just as hey reached the staircase, he eceived a call from Martin Frost vith news about Sophia, prompting im to hurriedly leave the ship. It was a close call...

That near miss choked him up, and his gaze involuntarily shifted to Sophia.

Sophia was still sleeping soundly, curled up on the side facing Theresa, her hair a tangled mess on the hospital bed. Through the dim light in the room, Brandon saw the scar from the stitches on her scalp.

The hair around that area had been cut short, growing back unevenly, with a sparse patch where the stitches had been-like a pinkish centipede winding its way across her skin.

That wound had nearly cost her life.

Brandon leaned down, his fingertips trembling as they gently touched the scar, careful not to wake her.

The raised texture of the scar under his fingers stirred his emotions, the harrowing words from the medical reports and the image of Sophia alone on the hospital bed weighing heavily on his heart, slowly turning into hatred for Marian. S Remembering the chance encounter with Marian and a tall, thin man at the mall earlier that day, Brandon's eyes gradually darkened.

At that moment, another message from Harvey Ferber cin: "After she woke up, she seemed to resist her past and didn't want to reclaim it. She planned to wander alone after spending the New Year with my mom. She wanted a life of solitude." Brandon stared at the message, motionless, and didn't reply to Harvey Ferber again.

A past so terrible that even amnesia couldn'tpel her to reclaim it, he could only imagine how awful it must have been for her.