The Indifferent Ex-Husband: Heartstrings in the Mall of Fate novel Chapter 527

The search underwater was a long and soul-crushing ordeal. Susan watched as Brandon and the others bobbed up and down in the water, and with no word on Sophia, fear and despair nearly drowned her.

It was the deep blue here, not some woods or dry land where one could buy some extra time. A person couldn't last all that long in the water.

The search party had already spread out, heading downstream. The cops, too, rushed over after the alarm was raised and joined in the search.

From where Sophia fell in, the search stretched all the way down the river to the main channel, and even to the nearby mouth of the sea, but turned up zilch.

Desperation hung heavy in everyone's hearts. Whether she got trapped in a concrete column or swept out to sea, surviving was a long shot.

But no one dared to voice that; no one dared to even think it.

The wind and rain gradually let up. The sky over Zenithan began to show the first light of dawn, eventually brightening up.

The support crew had already brought dry clothes for those who'd been in the water, all except for Brandon.

Brandon, like a man possessed, kept diving back in numbly and doggedly. But the deep winter night was cold to the bone, with a fresh blast of cold air heading south.

As dawn broke, whether it was sheer exhaustion or despair from not finding Sophia that sapped his last bit of strength, Brandon's towering figure swayed and then he totally blacked out after another fruitless search, and in a frenzy, he was rushed to the hospital.

Daniel had also stood vigil by the river all night, but he couldn't sway Brandon.

Brandon's sudden collapse sent him into a total panic, and he scrambled to follow the ambulance to the hospital.

Susan was kneeling at the riverbank, having cried herself into a state where she couldn't even speak.

Kent felt equally sick to his stomach. He took off his jacket and draped it over Susan's shoulders, choking up as he told her, "No news is good news; Sophia's gonna be okay."

But even he couldn't convince himself with the weakness in his voice.

This was water they were talking about, not land. On land, there was still a chance if someone was missing, but in the water...

He couldn't bear to think about it.

Susan didn't respond, sobbing too hard to catch her breath, just despairingly staring at the now slowly calming river surface.

The police had expanded the search to the sea outlet downstream. Grace, too, had red-rimmed eyes, fighting back tears over and over again.

Theresa, cradled in her arms, had puffy eyes like walnuts, not wailing as she had the night before, but her eyes brimmed with tears, her gaze panicked and lost.

She was too young to understand what all this meant, but her fearful and bewildered look made Kent's heart ache even more.

"Uncle Kent, where's my mommy?" As seeing someone finally notice her, Theresa asked him timidly, her voice tinged with fear.

Her anxious and cautious tone instantly brought tears to Kent's eyes. He was not one to cry easily, but seeing Theresa's hidden unease, thinking of Sophia who might be gone, and Brandon who had passed out, he couldn't help but let the tears flow.

He reached out to her, barely forcing a smile, and said hoarsely, "Mommy's busy with work."

"Then," Theresa hesitated, looking cautiously at Kent, "when can mommy finish work? She said she'd take me and daddy out to play today."

Kent's throat closed up, unable to speak. Beside him, Susan's crying grew more intense, beyond control.

Theresa, unsure what she said wrong, looked timidly at Susan and then at Kent, her hands nervously twined together in front of her.

She looked around fearfully. The surroundings were a messy and unfamiliar construction site. She might not recognize it as a construction site, but she knew it wasn't a hotel. She remembered her mom's promise over the phone last night to wait for her at the hotel, that she'd see her as soon as she woke up.

They had pinky promised, no, high-fived. Theresa remembered she couldn't reach her mom's fingers, so her dad taught her to high-five with mommy.

But she hadn't slept last night, so she hadn't seen mommy yet. She pulled back her anxious gaze, looking expectantly at Kent, and asked in a small voice, "Uncle Kent, can I go back to the hotel now?"

"Of course." Kent managed another smile, "I will take you back to the hotel right now."

With that, he turned to Susan, still kneeling and crying on the ground, and whispered, "Let's go back to the hotel and rest for a bit. I'm here; I'll call you if there's any news."

Susan just shook her head, tears rolling down from her eyes, a sobbing mess. Theresa was affected by her mood, her tears also starting to fall, but she earnestly said to Susan, "Godmom, mommy said, when I wake up, I'll see her. Will you come back with me and sleep?"

Daniel added in a hoarse voice, "Maybe his body just went into self-preservation mode. If this keeps up, he's really going to,"

He dared not finish the sentence. Having been father and son for nearly thirty years, he had never seen Brandon so out of control and frantic. He didn't dare to think about what state Brandon would be in when he woke up.

Kent glanced at him, hesitated, but still asked, "Chairman Crawley, what exactly happened last night?"

The harrowing memories of last night flashed through Daniel's mind - Sophia steadying him as he nearly fell, then rushing to rescue the frail-looking worker, and the moment her small body was hit and sent over the railing, his throat involuntarily tightened.

Kent saw the movement in his throat but said nothing, and just silently watched him, waiting for him to speak. But his phone suddenly rang, breaking the brief silence.

Kent looked at the caller ID, and saw it was his assistant.

“I’ve got to answer this,” said Kent, took his phone and stepped outside the ward to take the call.

"Kent, there's trouble. The internet's blowing up with rumors that someone at our Zenitha-style resort project was cutting corners with pile driving to push the progress."

The assistant's urgent voice came through as soon as Kent answered, "The whole web's in an uproar, and our PR department doesn't really know what's going on at the site. No one's answering calls there, so they reached out to the CEO's office to see how you want to handle this."

Kent's expression tightened, and he composed himself, "Tell PR to keep a lid on the media frenzy for now, and keep an eye on it. I'll check out what's happening."

"Got it."

Kent hung up and quickly checked Twitter and various web pages.

"Cutting corners", "Starlight Group", "Starlight Group suspected of cutting corners" and similar phrases were trending.

Kent's fingers flew over the page for a quick scan, but before he could digest it all, he heard Daniel's voice, filled with surprised delight, "Brandon, you're awake."

Kent swiftly turned back into the room and saw Brandon sitting up abruptly in bed, as if he'd just been startled awake, still not fully lucid; flinging off the covers and getting out of bed, he calmly instructed Kent.

"Get Sophia here."