Even Tina had figured out that the person who called the bid to a million earlier was Charles, and she guessed that he must be planning to buy it for Sonia. Hmph, she snorted silently. Not in your wildest dreams! Raising her paddle again, she shouted, “1.2 million!”
Next to her, the edge of Titus’ eyes twitched and he hurriedly tried to stop her, saying, “That’s enough, Tina. Stop increasing the bid because this ring isn’t worth that money at all.”
“I don’t care,” she snapped through gritted teeth, her eyes turning red. “I can’t let Sonia get what she wants!”
Frowning, Titus was about to say something when another man shouted, “1.5 million!”
This voice... Sonia thought when she heard the voice, and her face lit up. “That’s Carl, Charles.
It’s Carl!”
“I know it’s that rascal,” Charles answered with a nod and raised his paddle. “1.7 million.”
I swear there’s no one I hate more than Charles and that guy who called 1.5 million! Tina thought furiously. I must be cursed to run into them today! Gripping her paddle tightly, she made up her mind determinedly and added three hundred thousand to the bid. “Two million!”
An uproar broke out in the crowd, and Toby knitted his brows in his private suite on the second floor, thinking, What’s up with Tina? Why does she want the ring so badly? “Three million!” he said, pressing down the button.
The auctioneer sucked in a deep breath and announced the new bid with a shaky voice, resulting in another round of surprised gasps
from the crowd.
Who’s this big shot that’s able to add a million to the bid just like that? They wondered in amazement and turned their heads to the first private suite.
Narrowing his aged eyes, Titus began to suspect that the one in the first private suite might be Toby, and he was very unhappy about the fact that Toby didn’t allow them into his private suite. After all, I’m his future father-in-law, he thought. Isn’t he worried that I’ll be unhappy if he did that?
“3.5 million!” Charles called a bid once more.
The next second, Carl shouted as well, “Four million!”
“4.5 million!” Zane, who wasn’t bidding all this while, joined in suddenly.
Shaking her head, Sonia uttered, “This is crazy. All of you have lost your minds!”
“No worries, baby,” Charles assured. “Can’t you tell that we don’t even want to buy the ring, but just want to pull a prank on Tina?” he asked with a smirk as he swayed the paddle in his hand.
Rolling her eyes, she replied, “Of course I know what you guys are up to, but don’t forget about the person on the second floor. It goes to show that he must be kind of influential if he can afford a private suite in an auction. He’s definitely not someone we can offend. If he ends up as the one buying the ring instead of Tina, then you guys would have offended him by raising the bid deliberately.”
“Don’t worry about that because we have already offended him a long time ago. The young master of this auction is a friend of mine that I met in university, and I already checked with him who’s the person in the first suite beforehand. Toby’s in there.” Shrugging, he added, “Since Toby is on Tina’s side, getting either of them will be a win for us.”
Surprised, Sonia asked, “Toby?”
“Yeah,” he answered with a nod.
Biting her lip, Sonia was puzzled and felt complicated. So, the one who started the bidding war with Tina is Toby, but why does he want to buy this ring? she wondered. What is he going to do with my wedding band? Give it to Tina? That’s impossible, she concluded and shook her head as she shot down the thought.
Normally, a guy wouldn’t give his ex-wife’s ring to his current fiancee, so she reckoned he must have other motives. However, she couldn’t figure it out, and neither did she want to ponder over it. It was a ring she didn’t want since a long time ago anyway, so she had no reason to think about why someone else was buying it.
“Five million!” Toby bid again from the second floor.
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