Chapter 4

When I woke up again, it was the next day.

Looking at the familiar layout above my head, I felt dazed.

After one last look around, I started calculating how much money he'd spent on me over the years.

I had to admit, he'd truly done what an uncle should do, and even more.

Every year on my birthday, there were expensive gifts and a substantial sum of money. Every month without fail, he transferred me two hundred thousand for spending money.

All these bits and pieces added up to about eighty million.

I quietly listed all the bags and jewelry Kieran had given me on secondhand markets.

Selling those would take time, so I had to accept rock-bottom prices.

These quickly brought in several hundred thousand.

But I was still over ten million short of eighty million.

After thinking it over, I contacted an old classmate to get an invitation to a maritime auction house.

My mother had specialized in oil painting before her death, and one of her works had once sold for ten million.

Perhaps I'd inherited her artistic talent - I'd been gifted since childhood.

If I could sell a few pieces on the ship, I'd have enough money.

The auction house readily agreed once they understood my intentions.

I was looking down, checking the list of items I'd be auctioning, when a sweet voice suddenly rang out beside me.

"Aria? It really is you. I thought it was just someone with the same name on the guest list."

I looked up to see Scarlett walking over with her arm linked through Kieran's.

Seeing me, she smiled helplessly.

"Your uncle specifically chose a honeymoon route to avoid you. How did you still manage to track us down to international waters?"

"I..."

My throat tightened, forcing me to clear it.

"I'm here to deliver auction items."

Scarlett burst into laughter, her copper-painted nails tapping the auction catalog.

"Oh come on, why be embarrassed with us? You've been following Kieran around like a little tail since childhood. Even if you really did follow us here, I'd understand."

"Scarlett."

Kieran suddenly interrupted her, but his gaze remained fixed on my face.

"What auction items?"

Before I could answer, Scarlett suddenly gasped and pulled out the last page of the catalog.

"My God, you're selling 'Embers'? Isn't that the painting you worked on for three years?"

She suddenly covered her mouth, glancing sideways at Kieran.

This was the centerpiece of my flame series, created with his quitting smoking as inspiration.

Every scorch mark on the canvas was secretly burned in while I watched him extinguish cigarettes in his study.

"So desperate for money you're selling your life's work?"

Kieran's voice betrayed no emotion, but his knuckles pressed white creases into the auction catalog.

"Or has the pack not provided well enough for you?"

The sound of ocean waves came muffled through the porthole.

I lowered my eyelids.

"I'm just clearing out some inappropriate old things."

Scarlett glanced at me and laughed lightly.

"You silly girl, how can you just throw everything into auction houses? In the end, won't Kieran still have to help you..."

"Miss Scarlett,"

My voice turned cold.

"I am talking with my uncle. Who are you to have the right to butt in?"

The air suddenly froze.

Kieran's eyes darkened, and he suddenly released Scarlett's hand.

Before I could react, he actually dropped to one knee.

A velvet ring box opened in his palm, a ten-carat blue diamond burning with fierce fire under the lights.

"I was planning to wait until the evening banquet."

His voice carried through the microphone across the entire venue.

"But I suddenly think it would be better to have everyone here witness this."

I watched helplessly as that diamond slipped onto Scarlett's ring finger, hearing Kieran ask in the gentlest tone I'd never heard him use.

"Scarlett, will you marry me?"

Amid the tsunami of cheers, I stepped back and caught my heel on my dress hem.

Indescribable suffocation overwhelmed me.

I barely managed to squeeze out a few syllables.

"Congratulations, Uncle... Aunt."

I fled to the corridor.

The starry sky outside the porthole was beautiful, exactly like that night many years ago when he took me to see the meteor shower.

Only now, the person who used to be beside me was beside another she-wolf.