The Indifferent Ex-Husband Heartstrings in the Mall of Fate

Susan rushed hin a flurry, hopping out of the cab only to spot Grace, anxiously awaiting at the entrance of the neighborhood.

“What's going on?” Susan asked frantically, “How did she just vanish into thin air?”

“I have no clue, | swear | tucked her into bed after lunch.” Grace was on the verge of tears, “It's all my fault, | slept too deep and

didn’t even notice her getting up.”

“Enough!” Susan interjected irritably, “Finding her is what matters, is this really the tfor tears?”

Grace clammed up immediately, sobbing and looking somewhat pitiful.

Susan was beside herself with worry: “Think hard, did Theresa say anything about wanting to go somewhere before she left?”

On the way back, Grace had already told her about how Theresa disappeared, but Susan was baffled - how could such a little girl

have the motive or the guts to run away from home?

But she couldn't believe that Grace would mistreat her.

From the tSophia was pregnant, Grace had been looking after them, and her affection for Sophia and Theresa was nothing but

genuine.

The little girl trotting away from hin the surveillance footage didn’t show any signs of unhappiness, in fact, she looked full of

anticipation.

“She kept on yammering about her mom’s drawing going missing, wanting to find HandsUnkie,” Susan reminded her.

With that prompt, Grace had a lightbulb moment: “She did go on about it a bunch of times, even tried to go out looking for it, but |

brought her back. She couldn't have gone to Mr. Crawley, could she?”

In a flurry, Grace fumbled for her phone: “I'm gonna call Mr. Crawley right now.”

While talking, Grace was shaking so bad she misdialed several times. Susan was also frantic. Thankfully, Grace finally got it right

and dialed the number.

After two rings, the call was answered.

“Hello.” A deep, calm voice, faintly accompanied by the scratch of pen on paper - Brandon was clearly busy.

“Mr. Crawley,” Grace steadied herself, “has Theresa clooking for you?”

Brandon paused mid-task at his desk: “Theresa?”

“Yes,” Grace nodded eagerly, “she ran off on her own, and we can’t find her anywhere.”

“What?” Brandon shot to his feet, startling everyone outside who was busily at work.

Kent, puzzled, looked toward the office to see Brandon with a stern expression, phone in hand, already striding away from his desk,

his voice cold: “When did this happen?”

Grace was intimidated by his tone, hesitating: “I just realized she was missing, but she’s been gone for an hour, she left all by

herself, | can’t find her on any of the neighborhood cameras.”

“She’s not with me,” Brandon said, grabbing his car keys from the desk and heading out, “Have you checked with Theresa's mom?

Is she with her?”

“No, she would've said something if she was there.”

As Grace spoke, she couldn't help but start crying again.

“Did you call the police?” Brandon cut her off with his composed voice, already out of the office.

Passing Kent's desk, he tapped twice to signal him to follow.

Kent caught on immediately and hurriedly stood up to join him.

Grace nodded from the other end of the line: “Yeah, | just did.”

“Try contacting the neighborhood management to check the cameras again, and ask around your neighbors. I'll reach out to the

police,” Brandon said, ending the call as he reached the elevator, about to call the authorities when his phone rang.

Brandon answered reflexively: “Hello?”

“It's me.” Theresa's timid little voice seeped through the phone.

Brandon froze, unsure, and called out to her: “Theresa?”

“Yeah, it's me, Theresa,” her sweet, timid voice cthrough the speaker.

Brandon was about to ask her location and who she was with when a calm male voice cthrough: “Hello, I'm Officer Noah from

the police station.”

The officer rattled off a series of digits: “Do you know a little girl around 2 years old named Theresa?”

“I know her,” Brandon replied coolly, “Where are you? I'm coming.”

Sophia, after notifying everyone else, stepped into the meeting room with a poker face.

Don was already waiting there, and he could tell something was off as soon as she walked in.

“What's up?”

Don asked with concern, recalling the last tSophia let her emotions seep into work was over the Martin Frost incident, where

she was asked to include Marian’s nin a design.

Sophia shook her head, looking at him: “Mr. Dempsey, after the ground-breaking ceremony for the Zenitha-style resort project, I'd

like to take a few days off.”

Don frowned: “The ceremony is tomorrow, so you want to start your leave the day after?”

Sophia nodded: “Yeah.”

“Can't it wait a few more days?” Don was puzzled, “We're swamped with projects right now, and we're short on staff. How about

this: we get through this busy period, and next month I'll approve a half-month leave for you.”

Sophia shook her head, declining: “I have things to handle.”

Don was speechless, Sophia was never this blunt in turning people down. Usually, as long as it was for work, no matter how busy

or tired, she'd step up without anyone needing to ask.

“Has something happened?” Don asked, concerned, feeling today’s Sophia was a bit off.

Sophia shook her head again: “No. I'm just really burnt out from work lately, | need srest.”

“Not even a day or two?” Don furrowed his brow, “You're the director, your sudden leave could impact other project schedules.”

“I'll hand over everything clearly to Ivan after the meeting, and they can consult him for anything,” Sophia said, “With him around,

it's all the same.”

Don's frown deepened as he listened, increasingly sensing that something was amiss, but before he could ask any further, the rest

of the crew started trickling in.

Today's meeting was to hash out the gplan for tomorrow's ground-breaking ceremony of the Zenitha-style resort project.

Don was running the meeting, and Sophia snagged the prspot to his right.

She's the lead designer, but didn’t see too delight about it. She had this poker face the whole time, just nodding along or throwing

in an "okay" here and there.

She was totally zoning out, though. Her head was spinning with Daniel's snobby tone over the phone and the way he talked about

Theresa.

Sophia saw it coming, but it still stung to actually hear them despise her daughter. It wasn't about her own feelings; she just felt

gutted for Theresa, plain and simple.

Her existence as a mom somehow made them look down on her.

Theresa didn't do anything wrong, and Sophia didn't want her kid to deal with this crap.

She'd rather have Theresa living without a father than face the snubs and sneers from her father's side of the family.

All this had Sophia's mind wandering.

In the midst of her daydreaming, she absently grabbed her phone and took a look.

Now, lighting up the screen, she saw a message from Susan blasted at the top.

Sophia tapped it open.

"Theresa's missing!"

Those few words sent her phone flying off the table. The whole meeting crowd shot puzzled looks at Sophia, only to see her panic-

stricken and all over the place, scrambling to her feet.

"Sorry, something's cup - | gotta go," she stammered, voice quivering.

"What's wrong?”

Don hit pause on the meeting, throwing a concerned look at Sophia, but she just kept shaking her head, tears starting to spill as

she tried to grab her phone, missing it several times.

Ivan, sitting across from her, was worried.

"What's up?" he asked.

Sophia just kept shaking her head, trying to pull it together, her shaky hands finally gripping the phone. She pushed back her chair

to bolt out, papers scattering across the floor, her chair tumbling over with a loud crash that made her freeze for a second.

"Sophia?" Cindy, sitting next to her, reached out and clutched her arm, worried.

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