She Called Me A Kept Woman, I Kept The Family Fortune Chapter 02

She Called Me A Kept Woman, I Kept The Family Fortune Chapter 02

By then, every eye in the room was fixed on me.

Even the auctioneer froze, clearly unsure what to do next.

He probably assumed I couldn’t actually pay, but he was a professional. As long as a valid higher bid was on the table, he couldn’t drop the gavel.

Then Ethan’s roar tore across the ballroom.

“Hart! You’re really determined to fight me tonight, aren’t you?”

I glanced at Madison beside him and answered without hesitation.

“That’s right.”

I’d barely finished speaking before Ethan shouted again.

“Fine. Let’s see how much money you’ve actually got to throw around.”

He lifted his paddle without hesitation.

“One point five million dollars.”

Anyone familiar with auctions knew what an uncapped bid meant. Once you committed, there was no graceful way out. You either saw it through or went broke trying.

If Ethan was willing to gamble the whole company over a young assistant, I was happy to play along.

“One point five million… and one dollar.”

Every head in the room snapped back toward me.

One look at their faces told me they were all waiting for me to humiliate myself.

After all, none of them knew I was the one really pulling the strings at Caldwell Holdings.

Three years earlier, when the Caldwell family was on the brink of bankruptcy, Richard Caldwell had come to me with an old agreement between our families and begged me to save them.

I’d agreed to marry Ethan only because I owed a debt of gratitude to the generation before us.

Who would’ve guessed he’d treat me like dirt? He humiliated me every chance he got, and now he’d placed an uncapped bid for another woman right in front of me. That was one insult I wasn’t going to swallow.

“Do you even have the money to keep bidding? This is an auction, not a yard sale.”

Madison’s face changed the moment she realized I was actually going to challenge her boss.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you can’t pay when this is over, you could be facing serious legal consequences.”

I looked at her and smiled.

“Whether I have the money is none of your business, Ms. Reed. I’d worry about your boss if I were you.”

“There’s no backing out of an uncapped bid.”

Ethan erupted and raised his paddle again.

“Evelyn, you’re seriously lecturing my employee in front of me?”

“You love bidding so much? Fine. Let’s see how deep your pockets really go.”

“Another one point five million. Three million total.”

His shout sent the ballroom into an uproar.

This was a charity auction. The items were nice, but nothing in the catalog was remotely worth millions.

And this particular painting had been made by a child, not by a famous artist.

“How generous, Mr. Caldwell. On behalf of the children in rural Appalachia, thank you.”

I rose to my feet, applauding.

“But since this is a charity gala, more money can only be a good thing, right?”

Under everyone’s stunned gaze, I lifted one finger.

“Three million… and one dollar.”