The Indifferent Ex-Husband: Heartstrings in the Mall of Fate novel Chapter 7

Brandon was in the middle of a meeting with his phone lying next to him. When he heard the ping of a notification, he glanced over and caught a glimpse of a text from Patricia, pausing for a beat.

Kent, who was presenting at the time, was pretty sharp at reading the room. He paused mid-sentence, his eyes couldn't help but sneak a peek at Brandon's phone, only catching the name "Sophia" before Brandon smoothly flipped the phone face down on the table and looked up at him.

Kent got the jitters, thinking Brandon was about to chew him out, but all he got was a cool, detached glance, "Carry on!"

Kent hesitated, then nodded and tried to wrap up the design presentation, but as soon as he finished, Brandon's face scrunched up in displeasure.

"Who greenlit this trashy proposal?" he asked, his voice was calm but it cranked up the tension in the already tight meeting room to eleven.

Kent was caught like a deer in headlights, glancing at Brandon and biting back his words.

Brandon's gaze swept over the others in the room.

One by one, they all bowed their heads, feigning deep thought, scared stiff of locking eyes with Brandon and getting called out.

"Nobody has an answer?" Brandon probed.

Silence. Everyone clammed up.

Help-me looks were sneakily cast towards Kent.

Kent, Brandon's right-hand man and the company's VP, was always the one to take the heat, especially lately.

Even the slowest folks had picked up on Brandon's off vibes. He wasn't snappy or nitpicky, just inexplicably brought a chill to the room, with a laser focus on work that could freeze them.

And the kicker? He seemed to be on another planet half the time, like he was hit with a bout of amnesia.

With all eyes on him, Kent felt the heat. He could normally handle the blowback, but this time, could he really?

Kent tried to make himself small, hoping to slide under Brandon's radar, but no dice. Brandon's gaze followed the crowd's and landed on him.

"Since everyone's looking at you, why don't you speak for the team, Kent?" Brandon said, glancing at the Ephemoran architecture design on the big screen behind him, "Who greenlit this trash?"

Kent was speechless.

Man, they were all throwing him under the bus.

Brandon's gaze held on Kent. "Kent?"

Kent, taking a deep breath, looked back at Brandon. "I, I don't know."

He just didn't have the guts to spill it.

Brandon glanced at him, then back at the others.

Everyone kept their heads down, pretending to be deep in thought.

"Mr. Darcy, what's your thoughts?" Brandon called out randomly.

Mr. Darcy, scared out of his wits, glanced at Kent and lobbed the question back at him. "Kent's in charge of this project."

Brandon's eyes shifted back to Kent. "Kent."

Kent looked at his colleagues who were all busy pretending to take notes, then hesitantly met Brandon's eyes, on the verge of speaking.

"Spit it out," Brandon urged.

Kent bit the bullet. "Mr. Crawley, It was you who approved the proposal."

"And last night," he added, barely above a whisper.

The room went dead silent.

Kent sneaked a look at Brandon and caught a rare glimpse of bewilderment on that handsome face.

Brandon turned to look at the design on the screen behind him.

Kent, watching him closely, ventured. "Mr. Crawley, you've seemed a bit off these past few days. Everything alright?"

"I'm fine," Brandon's expression was back to neutral, "Sorry, my oversight. Redo the design proposal. Meeting adjourned."

With that, Brandon grabbed his phone from the table and headed out.

When the meeting room door closed, the tension evaporated.

The others gave Kent a thumbs-up.

"Warrior."

Kent counted them on his fingers. "After all the times I've had your backs, you just toss me to the wolves when it counts. Not a single one of you has a heart."

Kent still remembered the day Sophia dropped by the office and Brandon had him escort her to the bookstore. They looked just fine, no signs of trouble.

But then, out of the blue, this couple that seemed to have zero issues and were a perfect match were hitting him up to help sort out their divorce the very next day.

Back in the room, after a moment of silence, Brandon's gaze shifted back to his phone tossed aside in the corner. He hesitated, then picked it up, checked out the WhatsApp message from Patricia, and opened the photo she sent—a shot of Sophia lost in thought at the bar and Ivan, who's equally captivated by her.

Brandon froze for a sec, eyeing the two in the photo.

The portrait mode under the dim light captured every look, every detail, spot on.

Being a guy, Brandon got what that enamored stare Ivan's giving Sophia meant. It was not just being struck by her beauty or a fleeting interest. It was deep, thick, sticky love.

Brandon didn't know who this Ivan dude was. He had never met him, and he had never seen him in any of Sophia's photos.

Sophia's phone.

Brandon's fingers paused on his own phone as he suddenly remembered—he had never even scrolled through Sophia's phone.

Kent couldn't make out what's on Brandon's phone screen, but he noticed Brandon's eyes growing colder by the second, frosty enough to shatter ice, his handsome face almost expressionless yet eerily calm, like the sea before a storm.

Just when Kent thought Brandon was about to stir up some trouble, he saw him dismiss the photo and text back, [That guy's on me. Don't worry your head about it.]

Then he killed the phone screen, chucked it aside again, and hollered, "Kent!"

"Right here," Kent hustled over, all professional-like, "Mr. Crawley, what can I do for you?"

Brandon looked up, "What time's my meeting with Mr. Evert? Has he arrived?"

Kent nodded like a bobblehead, "In ten minutes, and yeah, he's already in the conference room."

"Good," Brandon nodded, grabbed the meeting docs off the desk, and stood up, "Come with me."

Kent nodded, "Sure thing."

But he couldn't help but sneak another glance at the abandoned phone and cautiously reminded him, "Mr. Crawley, if there's an emergency, I can handle it for you."

"No need!" Brandon cut him off with a cool tone and was already out the door.

Kent hesitated, looked at the lonely phone, and had no choice but to follow suit.