The Billionaire’s Secret Quartet (Thalassa and Elowen) novel Chapter 1358

Susan stepped away from the cold, marble gravestones, her heart heavy with loss. Yet as she dialed Callum's number, a sly smile played at the corners of her lips, her grief momentarily displaced by a cunning ploy.

"Mr. Gordon, how have you been holding up?" she cooed into the phone, her voice dripping with feigned concern.

"Cut to the chase," came Callum's icy reply.

Their relationship was strictly business. There was no warmth there. If Susan was calling, she wanted something. Empty pleasantries were useless to him, and he had no desire to hear them.

Susan didn't bother with any more niceties. She laughed and said pointedly, "We had an agreement, didn't we? To drive a wedge between Lysander and Thalassa. That goal has been achieved. Do you have any idea what I had to sacrifice to make that happen?"

"I'm all ears," Callum responded, his tone as flat as a pancake.

Susan's fists clenched until her knuckles turned white. She fought to hold back the rage and sorrow as she said, "My parents are dead. It's because I showed Lysander and Thalassa those incriminating files my dad had hoarded. Lysander flipped and had my dad thrown in jail. Then Thalassa's mother testified, sealing my dad's fate with accusations of fraud and money laundering. He was fast-tracked to the electric chair, and my mom... she couldn't handle his death; she followed him to the grave."

"Oh, congrats on reaching your goal," Callum said with a hollow indifference that stunned Susan to the core.

Human emotions, Susan realized bitterly, are not universal. Her agony was nothing but a passing tale to Callum, an insignificant blip void of any real impact.

Callum couldn't possibly understand her heartache and loss. Even though she had paid dearly, to him, it was all just part of the game.