The Indifferent Ex-Husband Heartstrings in the Mall of Fate

Daniel was long used to Kent's attitude.

Whatever musings Daniel had, Kent responded to them with respect and politeness-that was about it.

Kent was squarely in Brandon's corner.

Knowing that Brandon despised him, he no longer took the initiative to update Daniel on Brandon's status.

If Daniel asked something, Kent would politely drop a line like, "Mr. Crawley is fine," or "Mr. Crawley is doing well," or "Mr. Crawley has his reasons"-pretty much nomittal stuff that didn't reveal much. If Daniel didn't ask, Kent wouldn't make a peep.

Daniel had gone from initially fuming and blowing his top to now just rolling with it.

He didn't press for details and was pretty much in the dark about thepany and Brandon's situation.

He didn't trust Brandon to leave thepany in Kent's hands; thus, he had to take matters into his own hands.

Kent, of course, knew what was going on in Daniel's head. Without a peep from Brandon, he just played along with Daniel. "Brandon didn't show up at the office again today, did he?" Daniel asked once more.

"He did." Kent replied.

Daniel was a bit taken aback: "Where is he? In his office?" He got up, thinking about checking out Brandon's office for himself.

Since Sophia's incident, he hadn't seen Brandon.

Even though Brandon didn't bother about Daniel showing up at thepany anymore, his office was strictly off-limits to Daniel whenever he was there.

"Mr. Crawley isn't in the office." Kent promptly stopped him.

Sure enough, Daniel halted and turned to look at Kent: "Then where is he?" "I don't know." Kent admitted candidly, "I only saw Mr. Crawley briefly in the top-floor lobby, then he vanished." And that was the plain truth.

Daniel's brow furrowed, and just as he hesitated about whether to go out and search, Kent had already moved to the podium, and the meeting officially began.

Daniel, uneasy about Brandon leaving all thepany's business to Kent, hesitated for a moment but eventually chose to stay in the meeting room.

Sophia was touring the rest area under Theresa's guidance.

The Starlight Group's rest area was spacious, designed specifically for employees to unwind or for hosting clients briefly.pared to the quiet and solemn work area, the rest area had a much more relaxed vibe, with speople, seemingly employees, entertaining clients in a corner.

Theresa didn't understand the big people's work stuff; she only knew you had to be quiet in the office, but not in the rest area. Every tshe chere, no matter how loud she talked, her dad and others never told her to lower her voice.

So, as soon as she got to the rest area, she happily grabbed Sophia's hand and ushered her to an empty seat: "Mommy,e here, sit here, these chairs are sofy, I wanna take one hto sit on." That sweet and crisp "Mommy" made the girl entertaining clients lift her head, and her expression changed to one of utter astonishment when she saw Theresa and Sophia.

Most employees who worked on the top floor were from the president's office, so she naturally recognized Theresa but didn't know who Theresa's mom was.

Sophia had hardly ever visited Brandon's office during working ours; the one tshe cto drop off documents before their livorce was at noon, so she never eally got the chance to see the egendary president's wife in person he news a few months ago about Brandon spending a fortune to find Sophia had mentioned her, and he'd seen the photos, but faces ade from memory, and she hadn't issociated the woman in the news vith the one now being called Mommy" by Theresa. The shock vas real, and she couldn't help but ake a second glance at Sophia, inding her somewhat familiar.

Sophia realized that people were discussing work here and didn't want to interrupt, so she quickly crouched down to hug Theresa and whispered, "Sis is busy with work, how about we don't disturb, okay?" Theresa was always obedient, nodded sweetly, and led Sophia by the hand to leave.

Brandon happened to walk by, his gaze settling on Sophia and Theresa, not even noticing the others: "Why are you leaving so soon after getting here?" His voice caught the attention of the middle-aged woman talking with the girl, who looked up to see Brandon approaching, smiled, made a pause gesture to the girl, and stood up, greeting Brandon with a smile, "Mr. Crawley." It was then that Brandon noticed there were others in the rest area, and he turned to smile and greet the woman behind Sophia, "Mrs. Bishop." "I heard from Lynn you've been busy and haven't had much ttoe to the office. I was just thinking it's a pity, and here we bump into each other." The woman known as "Mrs. Bishop" was already approaching with a smile, politely extending her hand to Brandon. Brandon reciprocated the gesture with a courteous handshake.

After shaking hands, Mrs. Bishop's gaze drifted curiously to Sophia and Theresa: "And who might these two be?" "My wife, and my daughter," Brandon introduced them with a smile.

The assistant on the side was once again taken aback, her mouth agape, her curious gaze shifting to Sophia.

Though Sophia had mentally accepted Brandon's declaration that they were husband and wife, perhaps because it was the first met tshe heard Brandon introduce her with the words "my wife" to someone else, she still felt a bit awkward. Nevertheless, she politely smiled at the woman known as "Mrs. Bishop" and greeted her, "Hello." Mrs. Bishop returned the greeting with a smile, then said to Brandon, "Mr. Crawley, you're so lucky to have such a young and beautiful wife and daughter." "Mrs. Bishop is too kind," Brandon replied with a smile.

Mrs. Bishop cracked a smile, steering the conversation back to business, "Since we've bumped into Mr. Crawley today, why wait for another day to talk shop? Let's sit down now and chat about this maritpartnership." "Sorry, but I'll have to take a rain check-I'm not quite up for it right now."