The Indifferent Ex-Husband: Heartstrings in the Mall of Fate novel Chapter 356

The receptionist knew someone in the CEO's office and was totally gobsmacked to see Brandon fussing over a little girl like that.

She'd been at the company for years and, though she didn't see the big boss too often, aside from a bit of gossip a couple of years back when Sophia showed up looking for Brandon, sparking rumors that he was hitched, followed by whispers of a divorce not long after, Brandon's love life and marital status were pretty much a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside the company. No one ever heard a peep about him having kids.

She couldn't for the life of her figure out what Brandon's deal was with the little girl and her curiosity was killing her. As soon as she saw Brandon hop into the elevator, she couldn't wait to shoot a message to her connection in the CEO's office to do some digging and spilled the beans about what just went down.

The pal in the CEO's office was like, "You sure you didn't get it twisted? Mr. Crawley dealing with such small fry stuff? Nah."

Right after that message, in walks Brandon cradling a little girl, sitting pretty in his arms, her big, sparkly eyes taking in the room.

Even though folks had seen Brandon bring the little girl to work before, their jaws hit the floor every time, totally clueless about what was up with the two of them.

People could chalk it up to coincidence the first time, but when it kept happening, they started thinking there was more to the story.

Brandon didn't bat an eye at all the stunned looks. He just glanced over at Kent's seat and didn't spot him.

"Where's Kent?" He asked.

"He's out coordinating with the legal personnel at the branch office," piped up the assistant next to him.

Brandon nodded and, without another word, carried Theresa back to his office.

Theresa's eyes landed on a mannequin head on the desk, and she was instantly smitten with its long, luscious locks, leaning in eagerly.

"Daddy, I wanna play with this," she chirped, sweet as candy, causing everyone in the outer office to do a double-take towards Brandon and Theresa, only to see the usually stoic Brandon flash a tender smile at the little girl and say "Sure", before setting her down on the couch and handing over the mannequin head, leaving everyone in shock once again.

He picked up the phone and called security himself, "Send me the lobby surveillance footage from the 17th this month, from 10 AM to 1 PM."

"Right away," came the respectful reply from security as they fired up the video feed to track down the footage from the 17th.

It wasn't long ago, so they found it pretty quick.

The tech guy got to work, pulling up the feed from the 17th at 10 AM, slicing and dicing the clip; then he tried to drag the timeline to 1 PM, but something was off. The footage didn't have anything for 1 PM; it jumped straight to after that.

He couldn't help but let out a puzzled sound.

Brandon's brow furrowed, "What's up?"