Chapter 4: It's Him!!!

At the entrance to the auction house, a man in a crisp uniform held out his hand. "Invitation and VIP card, please."

"Lily Ashford," she said evenly. "Nathan Pierce's wife."

The man's brow lifted as his gaze slid from her face down to the hem of her skirt. "Mr. and Mrs. Pierce already checked in and went inside three minutes ago."

Lily's frown deepened. "Then call him."

A faint, mocking smile tugged at the corner of the man's mouth. "Mr. Pierce is already with his wife, ma'am. I wouldn't want to put him in an awkward position."

He'd seen plenty in this job.

Husbands sneaking off with their mistresses.

Husbands showing up to important events with their actual wives.

If every mistress out there was this careless, none of them would last long.

Lily had just reached for her phone when

"Sister-in-law!"

A bright, familiar voice rang out.

Lily looked up to find Nadia jogging toward her.

Nadia looped an arm through hers affectionately. "You're here! Why are you still standing outside?"

Lily glanced pointedly at the man at the door.

Nadia's expression darkened as she turned on him. "Was it you who wouldn't let my sister-in-law in?"

He started to protest.

Nadia cut him off flat. "Save it. Go collect your final paycheck. Don't bother coming back."

His face went white. He looked at Lily, pleading. "Ma'am, please"

Lily looked away.

Everyone answers for what they do eventually.

She let Nadia pull her inside.

Nadia's phone rang almost immediately something urgent. "Sister-in-law, I need to deal with this backstage. Go find my brother in VIP Room Three and sit with him, okay?"

And then she was gone, dashing off around the corner.

Lily watched her disappear before turning to head toward the back of the hall instead.

"Brother Nathan, isn't that my sister-in-law down there? I thought you said she wasn't coming?"

The voice floated down from above Melissa's, unmistakably.

Lily didn't look up.

"Sister Lily!" Melissa called again, louder. "Nathan and I are up here come join us!"

Lily tilted her head back, almost like an afterthought.

Sure enough, there was Melissa, leaning over the balcony railing with a small, satisfied smile, clearly delighted to be seen.

Showing off.

A moment later, Nathan appeared beside her. His eyes flicked to Lily's ears, noting the absence of her hearing aid, before he smiled and signed down at her. "[Lily, come up here.]"

Lily looked away, expression flat.

Being anywhere near the two of them made her stomach turn. Being trapped in a room with them felt unbearable.

She ignored the invitation and found herself a seat near the back instead.

She reached up, lifted her hair, and slid her hearing aid into place. The silver-gray frame settled against her ear with a faint electric hum.

Above, Nathan's brow creased slightly.

Melissa noticed how distracted he'd been since coming back, and her mood soured. She leaned into his chest, voice syrupy. "Brother, this is all my fault, isn't it?"

Nathan collected himself, glancing down at her with a doting smile. "What's wrong now?"

Melissa bit her lip. "My sister won't come up because I'm here. Maybe I should just go I don't want to be in the way."

Before she'd even finished, Nathan reached over and brushed his thumb along her earlobe. "Don't worry about her. She's just being difficult. You've been perfectly sweet. Take all the pictures you want later."

The corner of Melissa's mouth curved, satisfied.

Five minutes later, the auction began.

Calligraphy, porcelain, fine jewelry each piece rose in value with every fall of the gavel.

Finally, the item Lily had been waiting for was wheeled onto the stage on a cart draped in red velvet.

The cloth lifted.

A jade necklace.

Lily's pulse quickened.

The auctioneer's voice carried warmly through the hall. "Lot twenty-eight: a jade necklace dating to the late Ming era. Some visible wear, two faint scratches on the interior. Opening bid, twenty thousand. Minimum increment, two thousand."

Lily raised her paddle. "Twenty-two thousand."

Melissa had no interest whatsoever in a scuffed, secondhand necklace until she heard Lily's voice below.

She hurried to the balcony railing and looked down.

"Thirty thousand," someone else called out.

Melissa watched, simmering, as Lily raised her paddle again. "Forty thousand."

Melissa smiled.

She braced her hands on the railing, eyes locked on Lily below.

Let her have this? Not a chance.

The auctioneer began, "Forty thousand, going once, going twice"

Melissa's voice rang out sweet and sharp, cutting him off. "One hundred thousand."

Lily's head snapped up.

Their eyes met across the hall calm on the surface, sparks flying underneath.

Melissa smiled down at her. Pure provocation.

She had zero interest in the necklace itself. She just wanted to take it from Lily's hands.

Lily gripped her paddle. "One hundred ten thousand."

Melissa, without missing a beat: "Two hundred thousand."

"Two hundred one thousand."

"Three hundred thousand."

"Three hundred one thousand."

The instant she called it out, Lily's gaze flicked involuntarily toward the VIP box.

She found Nathan already watching her.

From up there, he could see exactly what she looked like small, alone, sitting by herself at the back of the room. Something in him ached for her.

But she brought this on herself, he reminded himself.

He called down to her.

She'd been sulking all night.

Even the most patient man had a limit.

Melissa pressed herself against his back, soft and insistent. "Brother, I want this necklace tonight. Why does she have to fight me for it? Is she still angry with me?"

The contrast was stark Lily's cold detachment against Melissa's practiced, clinging fragility.

Nathan patted the hands folded over her stomach. "Let me take care of it."

Just as it looked like Melissa might finally back down, the auctioneer's voice cracked with excitement. "The gentleman in VIP Room Three has lit a sky lantern for his companion tonight!"

Lily smiled.

Of course he did.

The last fragile thing holding her world together finally shattered loud, absolute, final.

The ashes of it felt like needles in her chest.

That necklace had been her grandmother's only dowry pawned years ago to pay for Nathan's pneumonia treatment when he was a boy.

And now here he was, not only failing to recognize the piece of jewelry that had once saved his life, but trying to hand it to the woman he'd replaced her with.

She had spent years searching for this necklace. She wasn't about to let it slip away without a fight.

Her chest felt like it was packed with waterlogged cotton swollen, aching.

Just when it seemed certain the necklace would go to VIP Room Three without contest

Something unexpected happened.

A sky lantern lit up in VIP Room One as well.

For the first time in the history of the Ashcombe Grand Auction House, two guests had lit lanterns for the very same lot, at the very same time.

The room erupted into noise.

Nobody could understand why an ordinary, flawed, secondhand necklace had suddenly caught the attention of two of the most powerful men in the building.

Lily had no experience with this kind of bidding war and had no idea how it would be resolved.

But she found herself hoping, fiercely, that a total stranger would win it.

Anyone but Nathan. Anyone but a necklace tainted by Melissa's fingerprints.

Nearby, a young man murmured to his date, "I heard that when two or more bidders light lanterns at once, they verify net worth behind the scenes. Whoever's worth more wins the lot."

Lily's brief flicker of hope died instantly.

The Pierce family.

Old money. Deep pockets. Who could possibly outbid them?

Unless it was the Sterling family the only name in the city that sat above the Pierces. But why would the Sterlings care about a worn, ordinary necklace like this?

She sank back into her seat, all hope drained out of her.

Staff rushed to verify both parties' assets.

Whispers rippled through the crowd. "Everyone knows Mr. Pierce is in Room Three but who's in Room One?"

No one had an answer.

The verification finished. The auctioneer tapped his gavel against the podium, signaling he'd received the result, and announced crisply, "Thank you all for your patience tonight. Lot twenty-eight goes to the gentleman in VIP Room One."

Lily froze.

She could hardly believe what she'd just heard.

She rose to her feet and made her way upstairs, determined to try to see if she could talk this stranger into selling her the necklace after all.

She hadn't even reached VIP Room One when its doors swung open.

Two bodyguards in black suits, earpieces and dark glasses, stepped out first, flanking the entrance.

Then a pair of polished black leather shoes came into view.

Lily lifted her eyes.

The man walking out behind the bodyguards wore a perfectly tailored black suit, a black cashmere coat draped over his shoulders by one of his guards. His face was cold, carved, expressionless a jawline like it had been chiseled from ice, thin lips pressed into a hard, flat line, his eyes distant and unreadable.

The overhead light traced the sharp line of his nose, casting a shadow that only deepened the indifference in his gaze.

He moved unhurried, and yet the air around him seemed to bend under some invisible weight the kind of quiet, bone-deep arrogance that only came from a lifetime spent at the very top.

Lily looked up into that face and went completely still.

It's him.