Brandon knew Sophia hadn't actually dropped out of school.
A few days after he returned to his home country, Sophia had Susan relay a simple "thank you" to him.
Threatening to quit school was just her way of pushing him into a corner, risking her own future.
She was willing to bet on it, but Brandon wasn't about to roll the dice with her.
Although he was peeved that Sophia had applied to college behind his back, excluding him from her future plans, Brandon was well aware of her brilliance and knew that further education was her dream.
She had already given up an opportunity once for their child, and this time, Brandon couldn't gamble with her future.
He didn't want to be the executioner of her lifelong regrets.
Sophia's decisiveness and efficiency in handling things were leagues beyond his own.
Her future was her rock, her anchor that she clung to for security, and yet, to force him to back off, she chose to let it all go without a second thought.
The ease with which she had once given up on her child and her future was a testament to how resolute she was in letting go of their marriage.
Brandon's eyes grew colder as he stared at the calendar.
For the past two years, he hadn't pried into her life. Work had consumed him completely. He thought that leaving each other alone was the ultimate form of respect.
His hand flipped the calendar face down on the desk as he shifted his gaze to the computer screen, his mind fixated on the date circled in bold red ink, "June 30th," just two days away.
Graduation meant the final curtain call on the ties between him and Sophia.
At least before her graduation, he knew where she was, and she couldn't just disappear.
But graduation meant that the moment she stepped out of the school gates, she would vanish into the sea of faces, perhaps never to cross paths with him again.
For the rest of his life.
Brandon's fingers paused over the keyboard, then lifted to look out at the dusky sky, where lights were slowly coming alive.
The night was aglow with thousands of lights, dazzling yet cold.
He hadn't returned to the home he shared with Sophia in those two years. The house wasn't sold but stood empty.
He had moved to another apartment near his company.
That apartment hadn't seen a soul in two years. Brandon hadn't even bothered to have someone clean and maintain it regularly. What state was it in now?
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