The Indifferent Ex-Husband: Heartstrings in the Mall of Fate novel Chapter 549

Brandon went over to the store in his ride. He had some memories of this place.

Back when Sophia had just returned from a business trip, he and she took Theresa to the park. He took Theresa to play on the park's equipment while Sophia took a call below. After hanging up, she bee-lined it to this craft store.

Then, when she caught Marian cornering him in the parking garage, she split without a peep and headed straight for the same spot.

Only, when he later showed up, he didn't bump into her.

Now, back at this quiet little store on the bustling street corner, he looked up at the dim yellow streetlight hanging by the door. But when he looked up, that familiar, quiet figure was nowhere to be seen in the alley's corner. A familiar lump rose in his throat, tinged with a faint, bittersweet taste.

Brandon swallowed it down, sitting in the car, staring at the artsy little store under the dim streetlight, not making a move.

It was the shop clerk who spotted him first. But she wasn't sure if he was the same guy Sophia had called earlier, so after hesitating for ages, she finally picked up her phone and called Brandon again.

Brandon, as usual, reflexively grabbed his phone, but the spark in his eyes fizzled out as soon as he recognized the familiar number. He didn't pick up, but he pushed open the car door and walked towards the shop.

The pretty clerk noticed his buzzing phone and looked at him uncertainly, "Hi, are you Mr. Brandon Crawley?"

"That's me," Brandon replied coolly, already standing at the counter.

The clerk was relieved and apologized, "Sorry to bother you, truly. Ms. Yearwood DIYed a gift here last week, was supposed to pick it up last weekend, but she never showed. We couldn't reach her by phone, so we had no choice but to use the backup number she left to ask you to pick it up."

Brandon glanced at her and nodded slightly, "No worries, just give it to me."

"Alright." The clerk said, pulling out a key and handing it to Brandon, pointing to a storage unit in the corner, "It's in the third compartment of the vertical row on the right."

Brandon looked back at the storage and nodded, "Thanks."

With a hoarse voice, he said thanks and walked over to the storage.

The shop owner, who was tidying up the empty compartments, remembered Sophia well. She had been there to help Sophia make a bracelet, and Sophia, with her beauty, good temper, and charm, had left a strong impression, especially since she hadn't been reachable since that day and no one had come to pick up her stuff. The owner had grown a bit concerned.

Now, seeing someone finally coming to pick it up on her behalf, she couldn't help but smile and say hi; then she asked Brandon with a smile, "You must be Ms. Yearwood's significant other, right?"

Brandon glanced at her, not saying a word.

The owner felt somewhat awkward and tried to change the subject, "We've been unable to reach Ms. Yearwood these past few days; she must be busy."

As she finished, she saw Brandon pause, his Adam's apple bobbing, and though he didn't speak, she could vaguely make out a trace of sorrow in his eyes. She wasn't sure and when she tried to take a closer look, Brandon had already lowered his eyelids, inserting the key in the lock, clearly not wanting to talk about it.

The owner didn't dare to continue, but she couldn't help but worry and exchanged a glance with the pretty clerk, both speculating about Sophia's absence and the lack of contact, feeling a surge of bad guesses but not daring to ask more.

Back in his car, Brandon held the men's scarf and the sweater necklace. He stared at the QR code on the necklace tag for a long while, then picked up his phone and scanned it.

The phone quickly redirected to a simple and elegant webpage, with a few yellow roses and camellia flowers as decoration.

Brandon looked at the yellow roses and camellias, momentarily lost. Yellow roses signified an apology, a "sorry" for love, while camellias meant "let's make up".

There was a letter on the page, one that Sophia wrote to him, marked "to Brandon".

Brandon's eyes were glued to those words, silent for a solid minute before his shaky fingers finally clicked open the letter.

But it was practically empty, just a few short words:

"Brandon, let’s..."

It looked like the page had some sort of auto-memory feature because right after "lets", the cursor popped up with "make up" but then it got auto-deleted, along with the "let’s" before it. The text on the page changed to "Brandon, I'm sorry." But that too was quickly erased by the cursor, morphing into "Brandon, Happy Birthday!" And that was swiftly deleted as well.

He could tell from the words that kept getting axed that Sophia was still on the fence about what to write. The page wasn't saved - clearly, it was still a work in progress.

Brandon watched the words on the page keep changing, a lump forming in his throat. His gaze slowly moved up from the cursor's relentless edits, landing on the top right corner where the drafts icon indicated there was a draft message inside.