The Indifferent Ex-Husband: Heartstrings in the Mall of Fate novel Chapter 167

"He asked about how we met." Cindy brought it up, still looking totally puzzled. "No clue why he'd be into that."

Sophia frowned. "So what did you tell him?"

"I just went with your story, of course. Said we met over a meal, your phone died, and I just casually picked up the tab for you."

"And what did Mr. Crawley say?"

"He grilled me about when and where I picked up the tab, even wanted to see proof of payment," Cindy said, still feeling weak at the knees. "Mr. Crawley was seriously intimidating then, like he was interrogating a criminal, seemed like he didn't buy my story at all."

"He can be pretty intense sometimes," Sophia chuckled, glancing at him. "Then what happened?"

"I told him I paid in cash."

"He didn't buy that, did he?"

Sophia could just picture Brandon's expressionless face upon hearing that response.

"Exactly." Cindy nodded earnestly. "He was like, 'That's a bit too convenient,' and gave me this terrifying look. I just couldn't stand it and, I couldn’t help it, I burst into tears."

Sophia thought it was an unexpected turn of events.

Cindy felt a bit embarrassed. "I was seriously under a lot of pressure, couldn't bother with anything else. And then Mr. Crawley seemed kind of speechless with me, didn't push further, told me to go home."

Sophia couldn't quite picture Brandon being at a loss for words.

She had rarely cried in front of Brandon, the only time was during a dinner with Don's team, when she found out Brandon wanted to leave, and he suddenly demanded fiercely if she had really cut ties completely, and pressed her to tell the truth about whether the child was still there. In that moment, he shattered all her defenses.

That meltdown was more about her disgust and despair over not being able to cut ties completely herself.

In the abortion clinic two years ago, she ultimately couldn't bring herself to give up the child.

Her logic told her that to sever ties with Brandon completely, the child couldn't stay.

But when she actually lay on the operating table, she was inconsolable with tears.

It wasn't about parting ways with Brandon, it was about not giving up on her child.

Even though she was too young to feel her heartbeat, just the thought of her coming to find Sophia, choosing her to be her mother, and Sophia cold-heartedly rejecting her, made her cry uncontrollably.

She couldn't bear not to have her.

She was the only person in her life who had chosen her with such certainty, the only blood relative she had.

Out of the blue, over and over.

Especially in such encounters, when Brandon demanded so fiercely whether she had really cut ties, his piercing questions made her feel utterly disheveled, exposing all her lies.

She had not managed to cut ties with Brandon as cleanly as she had claimed.

This fact disgusted her, and her emotions just collapsed, completely uncontrollable.

That was the only time she had cried in front of Brandon.

But at that time, Brandon's gaze remained as steely as ever in the face of her breakdown.

Sophia couldn't imagine what Brandon's speechless expression looked like when Cindy cried.

She had never seen him at a loss for words.

Nor could Cindy describe it.

"Anyways, it was just like, 'Is this chick for real?' kind of speechless," Cindy struggled to describe it but couldn't. "In the end, maybe he couldn't stand a woman crying in front of him, so he let me go."

To Cindy, it seemed like Brandon had a real distaste for women crying.