NovelEnglish"Stop your waterworks." He whispered softly. After a quick glance outside the door, he took a moment before turning back to her,
"I'm really sorry. | shouldn't have snapped at you earlier. This whole mess is my fault, and you're totally caught in the crossfire."
Marian bawled even louder, looking utterly wronged. Martin handed her stissues, "Dry those tears, will ya?"
Pausing briefly, Marian silently took the tissues and blew her nose with a vengeance.
"You know how much Yolanda meant to us." Martin continued, "And to end up like this is really hitting us hard."
He trailed off, voice faltering.
Sniffling again, Marian finally spoke up hoarsely, “I get it. It's just hard to swallow this turn of events, plus Sophia's my classmate
and colleague. It's just a lot.”
Her voice choked up, and she couldn't finish.
Martin fell silent for a while, and then asked, "What's your gplan now?"
Marian hesitated, her eyes fleeting towards Louis with a look of reluctance, and then in a low voice she began, "I guess I'll move
out."
Martin nodded, "Might be for the best; give us all sspace to process this."
Marian seemed taken aback by his quick agreement, giving him a subconscious glance.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtMartin met her gaze, "I'll find you a place nearby. You can crash there for a while. Until everyone settles down a bit, you can..."
He didn't finish his thought.
Marian just nodded quietly, "Okay."
She didn’t push back on it. Most of the time, she was all about being sweet and understanding the bigger picture.
Martin turned to Gerald, Rachel and Louis, "Dad, Mom, Grandpa, I'm gonna have Marian stay somewhere else for a bit."
Louis looked up briefly, offering neither a nod nor a word. He was a bundle of raw emotions, feeling under the weather, and without
a word, he got up and retreated to his room.
Marian's face was etched with disappointment. Martin gave her a reassuring look. She received it with her eyes, managing a weak
smile in response.
Martin returned a half-hearted smile, but as his eyelids drooped again, the smile in his eyes faded, replaced by a cold emptiness.
Brandon was driving aimlessly, foot heavy on the gas, his handsface taut with tension.
The past few days, he'd been running on the fierce determination to clear Sophia's name, his brain too busy to face reality.
Now that it was over, the adrenaline crashed, leaving him feeling empty again, lost, clueless about where to go, and what to do
next.
After numbingly speeding, he slammed the brakes and pulled over by the riverbank, his gaze shifting towards the vast expanse of
water, feeling an ever-growing void in his chest.
He took out the white jade necklace, dangling it from his fingertips, staring at it motionless.
Sophia's face seemed to materialize on the necklace: her at 5 years old with wide, curious eyes, at 17 looking up to see him at the
bus station with a slow spreading joy, at 22 shocked during an unexpected encounter at class reunion, nervous when their eyes
met in her small apartment that night, astonished when he proposed, the countless quiet moments watching him during their
marriage, tearfully whispering, "Brandon, let's get a divorce," and the aloof, distant her of the past two years.
Each memory formed a chain of her lonely, unloved existence.
Brandon remembered after a long period of polite estrangement, she had asked him softly, "Brandon, did you ever really love me?"
Before that, during an argument upon learning she was Don's recommended designer, she had asked if he ever loved her.
Not once had he told her. He loved her, deeply, ceaselessly. Otherwise, he wouldn't still be entangled with her.
The affection he felt for her since high school had been like a drizzle, silently seeping into his marrow, but he realized too late,
understood too late.
Their story wasn't supposed to end like this. He hadn't even had the chance to tell her he loved her.
Familiar warmth flooded his eyes again. Brandon's throat tightened; he carefully put away the necklace, and looked back out at the
endless river. His other hand released the handbrake, about to start the car when his phone rang.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmAlmost without thinking, Brandon snatched the phone and hit the answer button.
"Hello?"
It had beca reflex for him lately.
"Hi, am | speaking with a relative of Ms. Sophia Yearwood?" A young woman's voice cthrough.
"Yeah, | am." Brandon's voice tightened, his grip on the phone involuntary, "Who's this?"
"Hi there, | work at the DIY craft store. Ms. Yearwood made something last week and hasn't cto pick it up. We couldn't reach
her by phone, so we're trying to contact you. Could you cto pick it up, please?" She spoke politely.
Brandon's flicker of hope burst like a bubble.
"Sure, I'll be right there," he said softly, hanging up.
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