Billionaire’s Missing Darling (Olivia and Daniel) novel Chapter 426

Chapter 426

The auction went on for three days, but even on the afternoon of the third day, there was no sign of the voodoo incense. Olivia felt disappointed and sat at the table with a gloomy expression. Daniel, concerned for her, approached and held her hand, soothing her in a low voice. “The catalog for the evening’s auction. should be coming soon. It might be mentioned in there.”

Olivia didn’t want Daniel to be concerned about the matter with her, but she couldn’t relax. She forced a smile at him.

“Eat something first.” Daniel handed a fork over. As Olivia was about to take it, there was a knock at the door. Olivia’s eyes lit up as she subconsciously raised her gaze. The catalog had arrived!

With the catalog in her hands, Olivia quickly opened it and scanned through it line by line. Finally, in the last line, she found the words “voodoo incense.” Seeing this, Olivia breathed a sigh of relief and finally relaxed and thought, ‘Great, we’ve finally found the voodoo incense!”

“Is the gold prepared?” Olivia turned to Daniel. He tightly held her hand and reassured her. “Don’t worry, we’ve prepared 600 million dollars in gold. Gold is not easy to exchange, and Ellis is still in contact with various banks worldwide, working on another 400 million dollars in gold.”

Captain Chavez also approached and whispered, “Mr. Book gave us their bidding paddle, so if Ms. Taylor needs it, you can draw from the Book family.” Olivia nodded and said, “Please thank Mr. Book for me.”

They waited restlessly for over two hours until it was finally time for the auction of the voodoo incense. The auctioneer stood in the center of the hall, holding a beautiful wooden box, and began. “Ladies and gentlemen, the next item is the 92nd lot of the day, the voodoo incense. This box contains a total of 12 strands of voodoo incense, with a history of approximately three hundred years. The condition is excellent, and it’s been preserved very well. With the owner’s consent, our appraiser lit a piece of it earlier, and its effect was obvious. The voodoo incense is a type of scent that can attract voodoo worms. Due to its intricate preparation method, it has been lost for over a hundred years. The fact that the auction can present this item today is indeed fortunate…”

The auctioneer elaborated for a while before announcing the starting bid. “1.6 million dollars.” Upon hearing this, Olivia breathed a sigh of relief. The price seemed reasonable. Based on previous transactions, final prices generally landed around three times the starting bid, which would be 4.8 million dollars. This price was within Olivia’s comfort zone, and she was even prepared to go a bit higher. The bidding began, and initially, Olivia didn’t participate. It wasn’t until the price. surged to 4 million dollars that she raised her paddle. “4.2 million dollars.” Quickly, someone else joined the competition with 4.4 million dollars. The back–and–forth continued, and it wasn’t until it reached 5 million dollars that the

number of bidders started to decrease.

Indeed, voodoo incense had an extraordinary effect in attracting voodoo worms. However, in this modern age, there were many ways to catch these worms, and incense wasn’t necessarily the best method. The reason the price soared so high was mainly because the secret formula had been lost. Most bidders were hoping to reverse–engineer the recipe.

At 5 million dollars, it should have been the highest bid, and logically, no one would continue to compete. However, something peculiar happened. The occupants of Box 302 across from Olivia continued to bid consistently, adding exactly 10 thousand dollars more each time, just above Olivia’s bids. Someone was targeting her! Olivia’s brow furrowed, and a glint of determination shone in her eyes and thought, ‘We must have leaked information about our box, and the other side knows who we are, intentionally trying to outbid us.

“What should we do?” Elena looked at Olivia, a worried expression on her face. “The price has already reached 6 million dollars, and they’re continuously bidding against us. It could end up getting incredibly high.” Olivia’s expression turned cold. She tapped her fingers and kept her gaze fixed on the central auction item below.

Inside Box 302. Bettany was also nervously watching the auction item. As the price soared higher and higher, her heart rate quickened. She was indeed eager to frustrate Olivia, to see her fail to acquire what she desired and witness her disappointment. However, spending so much money on something seemingly useless was also causing her some heartache. The price had already soared to 10 million dollars, and each time Alexander placed a bid, her heart would skip a beat. “Alexander.” She turned to the man behind her. “How far should we go? 16 million dollars?”

Alexander lowered his gaze, his eyes showing indifference. “200 million dollars. At the very least, we have to make her pay more.”

Bettany’s heart clenched. She thought this plan was too outrageous and said inwardly, ‘What if Olivia gives up along the way? Are we really going to spend 200 million dollars on something as seemingly useless as voodoo incense?”