Chapter 4

My breath caught in my throat. It couldn't be. The 'Star of the Sea' was my mother's most cherished possession. She was wearing it the day she died. My father had told me it was buried with her.

I remembered her hands, tracing the lines of the sapphire and diamond star. "This, Chloe," she had said, her voice soft, "is my heart. It holds all my dreams for you."

Rage, pure and blinding, surged through me. He hadn't just sold me. He had sold her memory.

"One million dollars," I called out, my voice ringing with a strength I didn't know I possessed. I didn't have that kind of money, but I didn't care. I would sell my soul to get that necklace back.

All eyes turned to me. Then to David.

Samantha tugged on David's sleeve, her eyes wide with desire. "Oh, David, it's beautiful. I want it."

Without a moment's hesitation, David raised his paddle. "Two million."

He was buying it for her. He was going to put my mother's heart around his mistress's neck.

"Three million," I shot back, my gaze locked with his across the room. This wasn't about money anymore. It was a battle of wills.

"Five million," David said, his voice tight.

Samantha smirked at me, a cruel, triumphant look in her eyes. "Chloe, darling, are you sure you can afford that? Last I checked, you were living off David's credit card."

Her words were meant to humiliate me, to remind me of the gilded cage he had kept me in. For years, he controlled every penny. I had to ask for money for groceries, for clothes, for everything. He called it "teaching me financial responsibility." I called it control.

But he didn't know about the trust my mother had left me, the one that Uncle Ben had just activated. I was no longer his dependent.

"Ten million," I said, my voice clear and steady.

A wave of gasps rippled through the crowd. Ten million. The number was astronomical.

David's face was a storm cloud. He looked at me as if he was seeing a ghost. "Fifteen million," he bit out, his jaw clenched.

"Twenty million."

"Twenty-five million!"

The numbers climbed, each bid a blow, a declaration of war.

"Chloe, what are you doing?" David's voice was a furious whisper as he strode over to me. "Are you really going to fight with Samantha over a piece of jewelry?"

He still didn't get it. He thought this was about her.

"This has nothing to do with her," I said, my voice trembling with suppressed rage. "This was my mother's."

"David, please," Samantha said, coming to his side, her voice laced with fake sweetness. "If Chloe wants it so badly, let her have it. I don't want to fight."

He looked at her, his expression softening with pity. "Don't worry, Sam. I'll get it for you." He turned back to the auctioneer. "Fifty million!"

The entire ballroom fell silent. Fifty million dollars. For a necklace.

A voice, smooth and powerful, cut through the silence from a private balcony above.

"One hundred million."

Everyone looked up. A man stood in the shadows of the balcony, his silhouette sharp and commanding. I couldn't see his face clearly, but his presence filled the room.

The crowd erupted in whispers.

"Who is that?"

"It's Ethan Carter! From the Carter family!"

"What is he doing here? And why is he bidding against David Hayes?"

Ethan Carter stepped forward into the light. He was impossibly handsome, with dark hair and eyes that seemed to see right through you. He wasn't looking at the auctioneer. He was looking directly at me.

Then, he spoke, his voice amplified by the room's acoustics, a clear, ringing declaration.

"This necklace belongs to the Miller family. It belongs to Chloe Miller. My bid is on her behalf."