Chapter 3

Ethan was thrilled. He immediately dragged Derek and Rachel to a luxury boutique to go on a shopping spree.

They ran right into me. I was there buying a power suit.

Derek was dressed to the nines in a made-to-measure suit, head tilted back like he owned the place.

"Well, well, Vivian. What's it been, a few days? Already working retail? Oh wait, don't luxury stores require a bachelor's degree minimum? Didn't you drop out of community college?"

Rachel had Hermès bags stacked up both arms, barely able to hold them all.

She sauntered over, fake-annoyed.

"Derek, don't be like that. Vivian's still my best friend. If she can't hack it in retail, she'd make a great cleaner. Honestly, if it weren't for her babysitting Ethan all those years, I never would've landed a Harvard son for free."

She covered her mouth and laughed.

Ethan looked around the room, then deliberately stepped away from me like I was something that might contaminate him.

"Why are you still following us, Vivian? You signed the papers. Here." He pulled out a twenty and flicked it onto the floor. "Get lost."

The bill floated down and landed at my feet.

I turned away without a word, finished my selections, and walked to the register.

Derek assumed I couldn't afford anything and had run off. He had no idea I'd already bought out half the store; my housekeeper had everything sent back to the estate.

I changed into the suit and walked into an auction house.

My plan was to bid on the crown jewel lot and make an entrance.

Naturally, the three of them followed me in.

Ethan stood there with the black card and that smug, I've-already-won smile.

He didn't know I'd set a delay on large transactions. As the card's owner, I had full authority to reverse any payment.

The auctioneer worked through the lots one by one:

"A Georgian-era emerald necklace set. Opening bid, one hundred thousand dollars."

"A seventeenth-century Dutch still life. Opening bid, two hundred thousand."

"An 1933 Double Eagle gold coin. Opening bid, five hundred thousand."

Ethan had his nose in the air, pretending none of it was worth his time and whispering snide remarks to Derek and Rachel about how unimpressive the whole thing was.

Then the auctioneer unveiled the final lot, and every person in the room sucked in a breath.

An eighteen-carat pink diamond, freshly unearthed from South Africa. Opening bid: ten million dollars.

The paddles went up like a wave. The price rocketed toward fifty million.

No one dared push further.

Ethan raised his paddle. "Fifty-five million."

I raised mine. "Sixty million."

Rachel burst out laughing the second she heard my voice.

"Are you serious? Since when can cleaning ladies come to auctions? Vivian, putting on a blazer doesn't make you a businesswoman. A cheap knockoff is still a knockoff."

Her voice was sharp enough that the auctioneer stepped in.

"Ma'am, every guest at this event has been vetted for their assets. As for your party, you came in as walk-ins, which means—"

"Excuse me? My son has a black card, the only one of its kind in the country. You clearly have no idea who you're dealing with."

Rachel jabbed her finger at Ethan's shoulder, ordering him to get the diamond.

With the whole room watching, I'd already made my splash. I threw out a few more bids just for show, then let it go.

Final price: Ethan won the pink diamond for seventy million dollars.

"Vivian, done pretending to be rich? What happened, run out of money and had to leave?"