Chapter 389

Her face beamed with excitement, but she failed to notice the fleeting panic in her husband's eyes, which he quickly masked with a forced calm. Meanwhile, the elderly woman kept her gaze fixed on her husband. As soon as he hung up the phone, she anxiously inquired, "Well? What did they say?" Her heart was heavy with regret. If only she hadn’t taken little Lucian out, none of this would have happened. The thought of her one-year-old great-grandson filled her with anguish and desperation. The old man’s voice was icy. "They’re demanding fifty billion." Fifty billion… The number hung in the air, plunging the room into a suffocating silence. Fifty billion—how audacious of them to ask for such an astronomical sum! For a mere child, no less. Though everyone in the room was seething with disbelief, they dared not show it. Crossing the old man was unthinkable, so they all sat in silence, brows furrowed, not daring to utter a word. The elderly woman, too, fell silent for a moment upon hearing th