The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband novel Chapter 36

“How could all of this be worth only twenty thousand? The bag alone is worth more than that!” Natalie was so angry that she felt she was about to explode. It was painfully obvious that the shop assistant was taking advantage of her.

“Any second-hand good is priced at ten percent of its original price.” The shop assistant sneered at Natalie complacently. Then, after punching a couple of numbers into the calculator, she snapped, “Get out if you’re not planning to sell your things. There’s a line behind you.”

“All of these are authentic!” Natalie stubbornly continued to bargain. Twenty thousand dollars barely covered Hannah’s hospitalization. “Surely you can offer me something higher!”

“I don’t care if it’s real or fake. They’re all second hand. Plus, they’re all old models from more than a decade ago. Only this Hermes is worth something. Do you think this is a charity? I can add five thousand for the bag, but that’s the best I can do. If you still think it’s too low, take your things somewhere else.” The shop assistant could tell that Natalie was in urgent need of money and deliberately used this to her advantage.

Feeling helpless, Natalie accepted the money even though she was getting the short end of the stick. Just as she turned around to leave, a woman in her early thirties stopped her. Natalie saw from her name tag that she was the shop manager.

“Miss, why the long face? Were you not able to sell your goods at an ideal price? If you still lack money, perhaps you’d be willing to sell the ring on your finger. We can give you a good price for it!” The shop manager smiled, staring at the emerald ring on Natalie’s finger, her eyes shining greedily.

Trying to seem casual, Natalie asked calmly, “How much?”

Glancing at the other people in the shop, the shop manager leaned closer and whispered in Natalie’s ear, “One million. What do you think?”

This amount was more than enough to cover Hannah’s medical bills.

Natalie was stunned. She looked carefully at the ring on her finger. The emerald nestled in the middle was like a pea that was just freed from its pod. The little gem was round and slightly cold, but its deep green color was dazzling.

She couldn’t believe that the ring Sebastian had given her was that valuable.

“Sorry, this is my wedding ring. I can’t sell it.”

Despite the tempting offer, Natalie couldn’t give in. It was a gift from Sebastian after all, and it was left by his mother. Perhaps it was a family heirloom.

Whatever the case, she couldn’t sell the ring.

After refusing the shop manager, she turned around to leave.

But the shop manager stopped her again. With a big smile plastered on her face, she said, “No rush, Miss. It’s okay if you don’t want to sell it. But it’s clear to me that the ring is a little too big for your finger. We offer free ring sizing. We can alter it to fit you within the day. Do you want to avail of this service? It’ll look even better if it fits you properly.”

“No, thanks. I don’t want to bother you.” Natalie could see that the shop manager was still staring at the ring on her finger greedily, so she politely refused.

The shop manager seemed to understand what Natalie was thinking. She smiled knowingly and pointed at the corner of the store. “Miss, I know that your ring is valuable. Are you worried that we’ll lose or damage it? Look. We have surveillance cameras here. We won’t let anything bad happen to your ring. Besides, it’s too big and most likely will slip off your finger. It’ll be inconvenient for you if you keep wearing it like this.”

After glancing at all the cameras in the shop, Natalie hesitantly pulled the ring off of her finger and handed it to the shop manager. “Thank you,” she said with a smile.

The shop manager then pulled out a string from her pocket to measure the size of Natalie’s finger and said with a friendly smile, “All right. You can come back and get it tomorrow.”

As instructed, Natalie went back to the shop the morning of the next day.

The shop manager warmly received her. “Miss, you’re early! Hang on a moment. I’ll fetch the ring.”

“Okay, thank you.”

The shop manager pulled out a blue velvet jewelry box from a wooden chest behind her and opened it. “Have a look, Miss. You can check if there’s anything wrong.”

Natalie picked up the ring and held it up in front of her, studying it carefully. Finally, she put it on. “It fits nicely, but why does it look brand new?”

The shop manager rolled her eyes with a chuckle and waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, here’s the thing. When our staff saw how old your ring looked last night, they had it cleaned. Don’t worry. The cleaning was also free.”

Natalie nodded and didn’t think much of it. It just looked shiny and new now. Otherwise, there was nothing else unusual.

When she was done at the second-hand store, Natalie went to the supermarket to buy some groceries.

When she got home, Sebastian walked out of his room in flip flops and disheveled hair.

“Where’ve you been? I didn’t see you all morning.” Yawning lazily, he strode over to help Natalie with her groceries. As he opened the bags and checked the food, he asked, “What’s for lunch?”

After thinking for a while, Natalie opened the fridge and took a bottle of cold water. “I bought a lot of tomatoes. How about we have scrambled eggs with tomatoes? Or spaghetti? What do you think—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Sebastian suddenly grabbed her hand fiercely.