The moment Charlene spoke, it wasn''t just Maureen who was stunned-Laverne, Dalton, and Moran were all equally taken aback.
Laverne''s reaction was no surprise.
Dalton, on the other hand, had done some homework on Charlene beforehand. He knew the Ross family''s circumstances were rtively modest. Sure, their business had picked up this year, but it wasn''t as if they could just casually toss around hundreds of millions to bid on a single diamond.
Moran was even more convinced he had Charlene all figured out.
Given the Ross family''s current standing, scraping together even ten million in spare cash would be a stretch-let alone five hundred million.
Granted, Thorne had recently wired Charlene two billion as an advance payment to help the Ross family with cash flow. And yes, business was on the upswing, and Charlene still had a good chunk of that money left. But for her to nonchntly drop such a staggering sum on a diamond? That seemed downright reckless.
With this in mind, Moran quickly pulled out his phone and fired off a message to Thorne:
*Just saw your wife at the g, was wondering what brought her here. Now I get it... You know about this diamond up for auction, right? Starting bid''s four hundred million, and she just pushed it up to five hundred million in one go. Is she actually trying to buy it? My God, has she lost her-*
Moran was still furiously typing when someone else called out a bid of five
hundred and fifty million. Before he could even finish his thought, Charlene raised her paddle again.
"Seven hundred million," she said, calm as ever.
Moran froze mid-message.
He hadn''t even finished typing, but he sent the message off to Thorne anyway.
Everyone attending the auction tonight had more or less guessed that this rare diamond would fetch upwards of a billion by the final round.
But Charlene''s bidding style was something else entirely each time she spoke up, the price leapt by a hundred or a hundred and fifty million. In just three rounds, she''d pushed the bid to seven hundred million. It wasn''t just Maureen, Laverne, and Moran who stared at her in disbelief; the entire room had turned to look.
Seated in the auction hall were the crème de crème of society-wealthy women, heiresses,dies who, even if they didn''t know each other personally, certainly knew each other''s reputations.
Seeing Charlene toss around money as if it were pocket change-and noticing she was a stranger to most many began to whisper among themselves, asking their neighbors who on earth she was.
The auction pressed on.
Charlene matched every single bid without hesitation. Each time someone raised
the price, she immediately countered. Soon enough, the figure hit a billion.
It was then Maureen realized
Charlene wasn''t just driving up the price-she truly intended to win that diamond. Maureen pressed her crimson lips together, the tension clear on her face.
Moran noticed too.
To be honest, he was a little lost for words.
Thorne hadn''t replied to his earlier message, but Moran couldn''t contain himself.
After gathering his wits, he texted again:
*Your wife just pushed the bid to a billion. Damn, she''s serious about this
diamond. Didn''t know she was so into rocks!*
This time, Thorne replied almost instantly.
Just a single period: **
Moran stared at the screen, dumbfounded.
What was that supposed to mean?
Plenty of people hade tonight hoping to get in on the bidding. But with both passion and investment value in mind, most of them were careful not to get swept up in runaway prices.
There were a few serious diamond enthusiasts present. Some of them were even wealthier than Charlene But in reality, much of their wealth wasn''t entirely at their own disposal, or they didn''t have the same financial freedom Charlene seemed to enjoy.
So, as the bids climbed-ten, eleven, twelve, all the way to sixteen hundred million—one by one, thepetition fell away.
In the end, Charlene imed the diamond for a staggering one point eight billion.