Chapter 1721

After the competition, Joshua offered to give Thalassa a ride home, but she politely declined.

As she watched Joshua's car pull away, Thalassa lowered her lashes, about to hail a cab, when a smooth voice stopped her. "Thalassa."

Turning around, Thalassa caught sight of Callum approaching her with a gentle smile.

She blinked in mild surprise. "Mr. Gordon, you haven’t left yet?"

"I was waiting for you," Callum replied, his eyes twinkling with a neighborly warmth.

"Waiting for me?" Thalassa echoed, puzzled.

"Yeah, I thought I might give you a lift. Saw you almost got into Mr. Whitman's car and figured I’d be driving home solo," Callum shared with a tender laugh.

Thalassa teased, "Mr. Gordon, so formal, waiting around to play my chauffeur?"

"The honor would be all mine," Callum replied, the picture of a gentleman. "Skipping out on my private invite to compete, huh? Strutting your stuff in the competition isn’t a bad way to make a name for yourself."

Callum then smoothly shifted the conversation to work.

Feeling a bit sheepish, Thalassa said, "Right now, I’m just an unknown designer. Even if I create the perfect piece, it’s tough to make sales. I wouldn’t want to cause you any losses."

"If every designer thought as much about the business side as you, we’d all starve," Callum joked as he opened the car door, inviting Thalassa inside.

Thalassa hesitated, not keen on being driven around, but before she could refuse, Callum added, "Hop in. We can talk about Susan on the way."

Hearing Susan's name piqued Thalassa's interest enough to get her into the car, especially since she was eager to know more about the recent events.

Once they were on their way, Thalassa finally spoke up. "Thanks for earlier. Without you, I wouldn’t have been able to clear my name."

"We’re well beyond formalities at this point, aren’t we?" Callum said with a gentle smile.

Without waiting for her to ask, he explained, "I was there at the start, sitting amidst the audience.

You might not have noticed me. When I saw Susan take that tumble on the runway, I knew she was up to no good, so I snuck backstage to dig around for the truth."

Catching Thalassa's reflection in the rearview mirror, he continued, "Luckily, there wasn’t enough time for Susan to move your piece out of the venue. I found the jewelry box in her locker. Got the staff to pull up the surveillance footage."

"So that’s how it was. Thank you for digging up the evidence. Your timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Otherwise, my reputation would be mud by now," Thalassa expressed her heartfelt gratitude.

"There’s just one thing I don’t get," Thalassa frowned slightly, voicing her confusion.

"What’s that?" Callum asked.

"How did Susan know what my design looked like in advance to create a plastic knock-off?"

Thalassa pondered. It was a mystery she couldn’t solve on her own. Susan's scheme would have required at least a day's prior knowledge of Thalassa’s design to fabricate a convincing fake. "And how could she be so sure she’d be modeling my piece?"

Hearing this, Callum also fell into thought. "That’s a good question. We’ll have to ask Susan directly.

Let’s head to the police station."

With that, Callum steered the car towards the police station, ready to confront the mystery head-on.