I Married My Ex's Billionaire Father
Chapter 248: At The Pond

Chapter 248: At The Pond

Brandon stood a few paces away.

Caught.

He looked as surprised to see her as she was to see him, his hand still holding back a low-hanging branch, frozen in the middle of what was probably an attempt to sneak back the way he’d come. His brown hair was a little longer than she remembered, his shirt rumpled, his expression unreadable.

"Brandon?" she asked, her voice tight.

He opened his mouth, then shut it. Awkward silence pulsed between them before he cleared his throat and gave a crooked, half-hearted smile. "Hey."

She stared at him. "What are you doing here?"

He hesitated, then took a few slow steps closer, hands slipping into the pockets of his jeans. "I wasn’t... I mean, I wasn’t following you, if that’s what you’re thinking."

"I didn’t say you were," she said cautiously.

"But you were thinking it."

She sighed, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "That doesn’t answer my question."

Brandon looked away, toward the pond, his jaw tightening before he finally said, "I come here sometimes. Since we... since everything ended. It’s the only place I still feel you."

Her breath caught in her throat.

He gave a short laugh, bitter at the edges. "I know how that sounds. Pathetic. Creepy, maybe. I just... I don’t know. I guess I thought I could outrun how much I missed you by staying away. Turns out it only gets worse."

She looked away, down at the scuffed toe of her boot pressing into the soft earth. "You can’t keep doing this."

"I’m not trying to win you back," he said quickly, his voice sharp with urgency. "I swear, Lyse. I know we’re done. I know that’s not changing."

That should have made things easier. Cleaner. But instead, it twisted something deep inside her—a knot of grief and something that tasted faintly like regret. She turned back to him, ready to say Then why are you here? or You can’t keep living in the past.

But the words didn’t come.

Brandon shifted, and the movement broke the tension. He took a step backward, head lowered like he was already retreating. "I’ll go. I didn’t mean to intrude."

"Wait," she said softly.

He paused.

She swallowed. "Stay. Please. Just for a bit."

He didn’t ask why. Didn’t make her explain or dig into the meaning behind her sudden change of heart. He just nodded once and walked over, settling down on the grass beside her with a quiet sigh. They sat in silence, their shoulders not touching but close enough for her to feel the warmth of him.

The cicadas resumed their chorus.

The wind rustled the leaves.

He glanced at her. "You still come here when you need to think?"

She nodded, eyes on the pond. "Yeah."

"It’s peaceful."

"It used to be ours."

His eyes fell, and for a moment, she thought she had said too much. But then he nodded again, slower this time, like he was agreeing with a memory instead of a statement. "Yeah. It was."

Silence stretched again, but it didn’t feel sharp this time. It wrapped around them gently, like a blanket. Familiar. Old.

"I’m not here to dig up the past," Brandon said after a while, voice low. "I know it’s over. I know I hurt you. And I’d take it back if I could—but I know that doesn’t matter now."

Lyse stared at the water, her throat tight. "You say that like it’s simple."

"It’s not," he said quickly. "God, I know it’s not. But I’m not trying to rewrite history, Lyse. I’m just... I guess I want you to know that if you ever need someone—even just a friend—I’m still here. I want to be someone you can lean on. No expectations. No strings."

She turned to look at him then, and he met her gaze without flinching. There was something raw in his expression. Something open. For the first time in a long time, he wasn’t hiding behind jokes or bravado. He just looked... honest.

"You don’t have to say that," she said, almost a whisper.

"I’m not saying it because I have to," he replied. "I’m saying it because I mean it."

Lyse looked down at her hands. She wasn’t used to this version of Brandon—the quiet one, the patient one. The man who could sit beside her without reaching for what was no longer his. It made her chest ache.

"You know I can’t trust you with my heart, I’m married." she said quietly.

"I’m not asking you to," he said. "Just your pain."

That stunned her.

He leaned back on his hands, gazing out at the water. "You don’t have to talk about anything if you don’t want to. We can just sit here and listen to the frogs. Or you can yell at me. I’ll take either."

A smile tugged at her lips despite herself. "You’d let me yell at you?"

"I probably deserve it."

She let out a breath that wasn’t quite a laugh but wasn’t far off either. "You definitely do."

Brandon grinned. "Well, it’s good to know that’s still true."

For a while, they simply sat. The sky deepened, turning amber and rose as the sun began to dip below the tree line. Shadows stretched long and lazy across the water. Somewhere nearby, an owl hooted softly.

Lyse let the silence wrap around her like a shawl. She was not consumed by the incidents of the past couple of days, she was just hanging out.

Brandon shifted beside her, leaning his elbows on his knees. "Do you remember that time we tried to catch fireflies here and ended up falling into the water?"

She laughed, startled by the memory. "You tripped over your own shoelaces."

"They were your shoelaces. You tied them together when I wasn’t looking."

"Oh." She smirked. "Yeah. That was me."

"I thought you were going to murder me when I pulled you in with me."

"I was."

They laughed, and for a moment, the years fell away. For a moment, they were two kids again, muddy and laughing and soaked to the bone, breathless with joy.

"I miss that version of us," she said softly, once the laughter faded.

"Me too," Brandon said. "But I think... I think even if we can’t go back, maybe we can still be something. Something different. Something honest."

She looked at him.

He wasn’t asking for her heart. He wasn’t reaching for what they had lost. He was just there.

And that mattered more than she’d expected, most especially now when it seem like her world had turned over.

The sun dipped low, casting everything in soft, golden hues. Lyse stood slowly, brushing grass from her jeans. "Walk with me?"

Brandon looked up, surprised, but nodded. "Yeah. Of course."

They walked in silence along the path that circled the pond, the air thick with memory but no longer suffocating. She didn’t know what the future held. She wasn’t sure she was ready to forgive Brandon or Levi or Ken.

But at least, it did not feel like she was being suffocated.