The Indifferent Ex-Husband Heartstrings in the Mall of Fate

Chapter 86

Two Years Later

At the end of June, Wye City was all sunshine and the perfect kind of warm, with a hint of early summer humidity in the air

Sophia had just stepped into the office when her buddy Sylvia slid a design proposal across the desk to her, and didn’t miss a beat to remind her, “Hey Sophia, don’t forget we’ve got graduation coming up in a couple of days.”

Sophia paused momentarily, then remembered indeed there was such an event and nodded, “Yeah, got it.”

She shot Sylvia a grateful smile, Thanks a bunch.”

With a chuckle, Sylvia clapped her on the shoulder, “No need to be formal with me.”

Sylvia and Sophia were classmates. She was a local. They’d entered Dempsey Architects as interns together, worked as a team on studies and now on the job too. Sylvia was one of the few good friends Sophia had in Wye City.

Sophia had joined Dempsey Architects a little over a year ago.

Initially, she hadn’t planned on joining, and despite a year of persuasion from Don and Ivan, she hadn’t budged.

But as it turned out, she couldn’t find a better fit for her internship. As a student and newbie, no other firm would dare to let her dive right into project design. Usually, she’d start as a glorified errand–runner, with limited chances to really cut her teeth, plus the cultural differences and fixed office hours. After scouting around, Sophia eventually went with Dempsey Architects.

lead designer, and they seriously respected her ideas and

and studies, Sophia

to settle into a more regular routine. But Don didn’t really enforce the whole clocking in

grind of clocking in only in the past few months when her coursework eased up. She had less experience, having gone straight from undergrad to grad school, and didn’t have any big projects

get–go that her family wouldn’t be able to help her career–wise. Since her freshman year, she’d been itching to push her skills further at Apex Engineering University, knowing

kept

drawing and designing. Initially, she

her a hit with a broad audience, and soon she had a steady Tow of publishers, with authors specifically requesting her for their character designs and cover art. Conasquently, her Income started to rise

artwork and

pot

meant she could fund her studies abroad and save

clear that this was just a means to fund

throughout her four years at university, aside from side hustles, she poured her time into honing her skills and

had a clear game

the reputable Dempsey Architects. As a rookie, she didn’t stand a chance against seasoned pros, so she figured she’d beef up her resume with competition experience, complete with projects and awards,

contests.

basking in the post–test glow, Sophia’s

a fixture there, devouring books, seeking inspiration, sketching, and revising designs over and over. Maybe it was a case of fortune favoring the bold, or perhaps she had a genuine flair for it, but Sophia snagged a second–place prize at a major architectural design