Sophia and Brandon found a afternoon tea place near their office and snagged a private booth.
It was Sophia who had found the place and insisted on the private room.
"Is it something important you wanted to discuss?" Eyeing the super private eatery, Brandon asked as he pulled out a chair, smoothly helping Sophia with the one next to it.
Sophia nodded lightly. "Yeah."
She settled into her chair, reached for the teapot intending to pour some tea, but Brandon beat her to it, taking over and filling cups for them both before handing her the menu.
Sophia picked out something small and handed the menu back to Brandon. Brandon randomly selected a few items and closed the menu.
Neither of them were there for the food.
"So, what's up?" Dropping the menu, Brandon looked at her, his voice steady.
Sophia hesitated, catching his gaze.
Brandon's eyes were deep and calm, a look that sent an inexplicable shiver through Sophia.
She lowered her lashes, took a small sip of tea, and began softly, "When I first came back to Wye City, I was on the fence about taking on the Zenitha-style resort project. Just so happened, our mentor, Mr. Gardner-you know himâwas in town for a conference and we grabbed a bite. He advised me not to ditch the Zenitha project."
Looking up at Brandon, she continued, "We were at a restaurant near the school when a guy bumped into me. I turned and recognized him as the short, chubby dude we ran into in the Starlight Hotel's underground parking lot-named Darcy. The one we tried to dodge that time."
Brandon seemed surprised by the topic, and after a moment, he nodded. "Hmm."
"While he was dining, the skinny tall guy from the parking lot was with him," Sophia whispered, her eyes on Brandon, "I heard him call the other guy Ms. Barlow. Over dinner, Ms. Barlow asked Darcy how things were going, and Darcy said it was all cool, that the guy was all set up in the company, totally solid, and to not worry."
Brandon glanced at her but didn't chime in.
Sophia continued, "Darcy mentioned how hard it is to get into Starlight Group, that the turnover is low and they hardly ever recruit externally. He said they were lucky Starlight Group was launching a subsidiary, Star Dempsey Architects, needing new blood; otherwise, who knows how long they'd have to wait. So, I'm suspecting there might be a mole among the folks who joined the company with me."
"You came back because of this?" Brandon's voice was measured as he looked at her.
Sophia pursed her lips, silent for a beat.
"Half and half," she murmured.
"Why wait till now to spill the beans?" Brandon's tone remained cool, almost like he was interrogating, seemingly unfazed by the idea of a mole in his company. "The guy's last name is Barlow, and it just so happens that Marian was staying at Starlight Hotel when we bumped into him and Darcy," Sophia hesitated, "I did some digging and found Marian's school records. She listed a Dennis Barlow as her father. I looked the guy up online and saw his picture, turns out he's that tall, skinny dude."
Sophia paused, then looked at Brandon, "Given that this involves Marian, and she's, well... This Yolanda, things between us are complicated. Without solid proof, I didn't want to come off like I was trying to smear her or spread rumors." "And since I started, I made it a point to get everyone's resumes, keep an eye on their every move. But so far, everyone's normal, just clocking in and out, doing their jobs," Sophia added quietly, "The work Mr. Dempsey and I assign is pretty standard, nothing top secret. Plus, our computers have tight firewall security, no outside devices can infiltrate or access sensitive info. So, I figured, just keep watching for a while."
Brandon studied her, not moving, "So you've got evidence now?"
Sophia shook her head. "Nope."
"Then why bring it up now?"
Sophia bit her lip, seeming to hesitate.
Brandon's gaze drifted to her hand resting on the teacup, her slender fingers slightly tense, pressing a pale crease into the back of her hand.
His eyes lingered on that pale crease, then lifted to her face.
Sophia met his gaze, her eyes calm. "The ground-breaking ceremony for the Zenitha-style resort is tomorrow. Big event, press will be there. I was worried they might try something, thought it was better to give you a heads-up, just to be safe."
"The company's got solid contingency plans for these kinds of shindigs, not to mention a top-notch security team. No one's pulling anything on our watch, you didn't know that?" Brandon countered.
Sophia managed a weak smile, "I haven't been here long, I didn't know."
"Sorry, guess I was overthinking it," she said softly.
Brandon's lips twitched slightly, but he stayed silent.
The knock at the door came just then, and the waiter brought in the food carefully and seriously laying them out on the table, briefly interrupting the chat between the two.
"Enjoy your meal," the waiter said politely after setting everything up, and then, along with the rest of the crew, headed out, closing the private room door behind them.
Brandon grabbed the table wares, casually picked up a morsel of food with his fork, and served it into her bowl, his calm voice flowing out as leisurely as his movements:
"Sophia, were you downstairs earlier?"
Sophia's heart skipped a beat, and she glanced at Brandon almost reflexively.
Brandon wasn't looking at her, just gently and slowly placing the cut steak and softly suggesting, "Try this."
Sophia glanced at the steak in her plate and murmured a thanks, "Thank you."
But she didn't reach for her fork, just nodded slightly, and then spoke up softly, "I was there."
Brandon paused in his movements and looked at her.
Sophia met his gaze, "I saw you holding a little girl, you two seemed pretty close, so I didn't come over to interrupt."
Her eyes were as clear and clean as always, and her gaze was candid and calm.
So candid that it almost made Brandon second-guess himself, stirring up a bit of guilt.
Her honesty had caught him off guard.
Even if there was only a 0.1% chance that Theresa wasn't his daughter, every question he asked now could plunge their relationship into a point of no return.
And it was a gamble he couldn't afford to lose.
Brandon didn't know if Sophia was banking on the fact he had no direct proof right now, or if this was just another delusion of his.
From the get-go, aside from the coincidence of Sophia and Theresa appearing at the same time, and the strange sense of affection and pain he felt when facing Theresa, there was no evidence to suggest any connection between Sophia and Theresa.
"That little girl, she's got nothing to do with you?" Brandon's eyes were cold and deep as he looked at her.
"No." Her reply was eerily calm, with a hint of chill and resolve in the gaze she held with him.
Brandon gave her a hard look, suddenly pushed back his chair, stood up, walked over to her, bent down to grab her wrist, and yanked her to her feet, "Then let's do a paternity test right now!"
Sophia let him pull her along calmly, only speaking up softly, "Brandon, I agree to the paternity test. But if the result proves nothing, we go our separate ways. After the Zenitha-style resort ground-breaking ceremony is over tomorrow, I want to leave. Is that okay?"
Brandon stopped dead in his tracks, turning to look at her coldly, "You still want to leave?"
Sophia's eyes were a bit red, but she still looked at him almost defiantly, "I can't always be dancing to your tune. I'll cooperate with the paternity test, but if it turns out I'm bot related to that little girl, I hope you can respect my choice."
His eyes were on the verge of splitting with fury as he looked at her, "You dare walk out on me again, just try it."
But today's Sophia was equally stubborn; her eyes might have been red, but her voice was as soft and peaceful as ever, yet the words that came out were extremely calm.
"You know whether I dare to leave or not," she said, her soft voice tinged with a sob.
Brandon glared at her fiercely, speechless. She had him in a bind. He should have known better than to wait for her voluntary confession, which was never going to happen.
As soon as he began to doubt Theresa's identity, he should have taken a strand of her hair for a paternity test, instead of letting a moment of reluctance land him back in this passive situation.
Once she made up her mind, she was always unyielding.
Brandon knew he had to gamble this time. But damn it, even though he knew he
had a 99.9% chance of winning, that remaining 0.1% was what he couldn't afford
to lose.
Just like Sophia said, he knew whether she dared or not.
He damn well knew whether she dared or not.
The image of her, weak from the abortion surgery and lying in the hospital, kept replaying in his mind, mixed with everyone's denial of her pregnancy and the photo where she showed no signs of being pregnant, along with the faded discharge summary in her bag with the words "termination of pregnancy," all these disordered images interwoven in his mind made him look at her with increasing coldness.
He always knew Sophia was smart, but he never thought she would use all her smarts on him.
He hated her excessive cleverness, even her cunning.
She cunningly didn't use the paternity test result between him and Theresa as a bargaining chip, but instead using the test result between her and Theresa as leverage.
This presented him with another possibility: Theresa could be her daughter, but not necessarily biologically hers.
She had been in for an abortion, she had a discharge summary ending a pregnancy, nobody around her had seen her pregnant, her photos left no trace of her pregnancy...
Everything was pointing out another possibility to him: she lost his child, but then went and adopted another.
This might be impossible for other girls, but with her, it became entirely plausible.
Because the Sophia he knew was always someone with a strong inner world, and convictions strong enough to be astonishing.
There was nothing in this world she wouldn't dare to do, only things she didn't
want to do.
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