Aiden ruffled her hair, doting. “Keep raising the bid like that and people will think I've gone bankrupt.”
He closed his hand around Tracey's wrist and lifted the paddle again.
“Ten million.”
Everyone in the room knew the piece belonged to Aiden.
So the price climbed, higher and higher.
“Thirty million.”
“Fifty million.”
“Seventy million.”
After enough rounds, Aiden lost his patience and simply named a number that buried them all.
The whole room fell silent in an instant.
In the end, Aiden took the silver necklace for ninety million dollars.
The director carried the lot to the private box himself.
He had just lifted his hands to draw out the silver necklace when Aiden cut him off.
Aiden turned to look at me, something playful in his eyes.
“You go get it. Put it on Tracey.”
I pulled on a pair of gloves and, in silence, fastened the silver clasp at the back of Tracey's neck.
Aiden watched, the corner of his mouth curving into something sickly.
“Our Tracey always did have an eye for these things. The necklace suits you.”
After the auction ended, fat drops of rain slammed against the car windows.
Aiden floored the gas, and the car tore down the road.
“The Delgados aren't short on pocket change. So why do you still look like some broke little nobody?”
I sat in the back seat, my face flat. “Because I don't want to taint what Dylan Delgado and I have with money.”
The next second, Aiden braked hard at the side of the road. “Get out.”
A thunderstorm. On the overpass.
In the rearview mirror, I met the raw violence in Aiden's eyes.
“Get out. Don't make me say it a third time.”
I stepped out quietly. No explanation. There was no point in one.
In the end I couldn't remember how long I'd walked in the rain.
When I opened my eyes again, I was in a hospital room.
Then Aiden's call came through, and I answered, weak.
“It's working hours right now. Where are you?”
“Out all night, and now your employer has to chase you down after the workday's already started. Looks to me like you don't want this job anymore.”
I was about to pull the IV needle from my hand when the doctor stopped me.
“What are you doing?! Stop treating your own body like it's nothing. Whatever it is, can't it wait until the drip's finished?”
I hung up fast, but Aiden had still caught the doctor's voice.
A second later, a message popped up on my phone.
“You have half an hour to appear in front of me, or I'll have you blacklisted across the whole industry.”
After the nurse pulled the needle, I rushed straight to Aiden's place without stopping for a breath and let myself in with the passcode he'd given me.
——It was Tracey's birthday.
I was standing in the entryway when I heard the sounds drifting out of the bedroom.
Tracey's voice came in broken pieces, begging. “Someone's come in.”
Aiden soothed her gently, his voice rough. “What's there to be afraid of.”
I sat rigid and upright on the living room couch, nausea churning up through my stomach.
By the time the two of them came downstairs, two hours had passed, and the marks of what they'd been doing were all over them.
When she saw me sitting on the couch, Tracey jumped.
“Angela, why are you still here?”
Aiden steadied her just in time, a hint of something improper in his smile.
“So cute. Like a startled little hamster.”
The girl's ears flushed scarlet in an instant.
When he turned back to me, Aiden had slipped back into his usual carelessness.
“You scared my fiancée. Apologize. Now.”
When I said nothing, a thread of threat crept into his tone.
“Isn't your job to keep my fiancée happy? Or is it that you don't want this job anymore?”
At that, I finally spoke, numbly going along with it.
“I'm sorry. Showing up so suddenly and frightening you was my fault.”
“To make it up to you, may I borrow your kitchen and make you a dessert?”
