The Indifferent Ex-Husband Heartstrings in the Mall of Fate

"I'm on it right away."

After getting the nod from Brandon, Kent spun on his heel and left the office, grabbing his phone to call up the chief engineer to

get the lowdown.

The chief engineer wasn't hip to the whole scoop between Sophia, Brandon, and the entire Starlight Group. In his eyes, hitting a

snag during construction and bringing in the designer to brainstorm solutions was no biggie—not something to make a mountain

out of a molehill over. He figured he had the authority to make the call, so he didn't make a point to fill Kent in on the deets.

Now, seeing Kent ringing him up specifically about this, he was taken aback for a sec but spilled the beans to Kent anyway,

detailing the situation and what's next on the agenda, assuring everything was under control and sounding hunky-dory.

Kent felt a tad relieved, hung up the call, and went to catch Brandon up on what was happening.

But Brandon's brows did a little dance of concern. "That place ain't the deep sea—why the heck can't we hammer in the piles for

the main hall's pillars? Couldn't the survey team pin down the reason?"

Kent nodded, "Scouted the site twice, everything checked out normal. The construction crew's gotten a bit superstitious, thinking

maybe they've stumbled on something spooky. But | mean, con, who buys into that hocus-pocus, right? I'm leaning towards it

being a technical snafu with the crew or sissue with the materials. I'll get someone on the case to dig a bit deeper."

Brandon gave a nod of approval, "Get to the bottom of it, safety ain't something we can skimp on."

Kent affirmed, "Got it."

Worried about the project hitting the skids, Kent dropped what he was doing and secretly dispatched folks to snoop around the

Zenithan-style resort project's construction team and materials.

Kent himself made a beeline for the construction site, spending a couple of days there.

From the look-see and the probing, the crew seemed on the up and up. They'd been in cahoots with the Starlight Group for years,

had several projects under their belt with clean bills of health from quality control.

The workers were seasoned pros with solid skills and craft, and the team's rep for honesty and integrity was sterling in the industry.

No issues with the building materials either—the supply chain was tied to a subsidiary of the Starlight Group, so no chance of bait-

and-switch or cutting corners there.

The site was still all systems go, and the completed parts of the project were without a blemish.

The findings let Kent breathe easier. For now, the only pickle was the northwest pillar of the main hall still resisting the pile-driving,

but they'd already penciled in another go at it, just waiting for the geomancer to give the thumbs up for an auspicious day to give

it another whirl.

Sophia was also keeping tabs on the Zenithan-style resort project.

Though she wasn't on-site, the main hall's pillar-pounding predicament was tied to the project's progress, so she wasn't exactly

sitting pretty about it, touching base with Tomas now and then for the latest.

Another wrinkle was Nell, supposedly long gone.

Before taking off, Jerry and Tomas said they'd give her a ring once Nell was settled to clue her in on his status. But days passed

with nary a word about Nell.

When she inquired, the reply was always "the cops are on it."

Sophia smelled something fishy.

One day at lunch in the cafeteria, Sophia saw Kent flying solo at his table. After a moment's thought, she scooted over with her

tray and sat opposite him.

"Ms. Yearwood," Kent greeted with a grin as Sophia approached, "Long tno see. Heard you jetted off to Zion City for a bit."

Sophia nodded, "Yep, ran into a bit of a glitch with the construction, they needed the designer's two cents, so | zipped over for a

few days."

"How cyou didn't givea heads-up?" Kent chided playfully, "Mr. Crawley's gotrunning the show here—if there's trouble,

I'm your guy, no need for you to make the trek."

"Well, it was down to brass tacks with a real construction issue. | was worried it might be a slip-up in the design phase, so | had to

scope it out for myself," Sophia explained, then hesitated before asking, "Kent, you got any contacts over at Zion City PD?"

Kent's brow furrowed in confusion, "That's out of left field. Something happen?"

"Not exactly, just trying to track someone down," Sophia replied, "Cacross this worker named Nell at the site—homeless guy,

no ID, no nothing. | suggested they get him registered proper with an ID. But he was gone when | got back, so | asked Jerry. He said

they handed him off to the police, who are supposedly locating his folks to send him back home. But every t| ask for an

update, it's 'the cops are handling it." | just want to make sure it's all legit; it's been bugging me."

Kent's frown deepened, "There's been a guy like that? No one ever mentioned it to me."

"Guess they figured it wasn't worth bothering you over," Sophia reasoned, given that the site was swarming with hundreds of

workers, and Nell was just another face in the crowd.

"I'll snoop around for you," Kent offered.

"Thanks, Kent," Sophia beamed at him with gratitude.

Just then, Brandon walked into the cafeteria, his steps faltering slightly as he caught sight of Sophia smiling at Kent. His gaze

lingered on her smiling face for a moment before he looked away, calmly grabbing his food.

After getting his food, he headed straight for Kent and Sophia's table.

Kent, having just polished off his meal, stood up and saw Brandon with his tray approaching, giving a friendly wave, "Mr. Crawley,

all caught up?"

He'd invited him to lunch earlier, but Brandon was tied up on the phone.

"Yep," Brandon responded curtly, taking a seat across from Sophia.

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