She's Too Busy Winning to Watch Him Cry novel Chapter 435

The moment Lyra raised her paddle, Vivienne countered, "Three point five million."

The auctioneer's gavel struck once.

Lyra shot her paddle up again. "Five million."

Vivienne hesitated, suspecting a trap. She had just wanted to run up the price to spite Lyra.

Lyra was probably trying to bait her into massively overpaying.

After all, this price was already leagues above the item's actual value.

What if she got stuck with it?

Vivienne did like the crown and thought it would be a nice gift for Maisie, but—

"Mom, seriously, stop. I don't even like it," Maisie whispered urgently. She had noticed Rowan—who had previously only been holding his phone—was now gripping a bidding paddle.

Was he going to jump in?

Maisie knew exactly what that meant.

He definitely wasn't buying it for himself.

And it was certainly for Lyra.

When the auctioneer called for the next bid, Vivienne kept her paddle down.

Instead, several unfamiliar faces in the crowd began jumping in, the pace escalating unnaturally. The price skyrocketed by hundreds of thousands in seconds.

"Five point one million."

"Five point two million."

The auctioneer whipped the room into a frenzy. Bid after bid slammed down, all aggressively challenging Lyra.

Rowan was just about to throw down a blank check to shut them all up.

But Lyra beat him to it. "Eight million."

Rowan and Sylvia both turned to look at her, mirroring the same expression of sheer astonishment.

Neither of them could fathom why Lyra was so utterly obsessed with this particular vintage crown.

"How is that even possible? A high-end auction house making a rookie mistake like this?"

The auctioneer stammered an explanation. "The crown was slated for a charity exhibition to drive attendance. It was never meant to be auctioned and was never entered into our sales contracts."

The explanation brought a two-second lull before an even louder wave of disbelief washed over the room.

"So it was just a display piece? Not for sale at all?"

"No wonder they pulled it at the very last second. Someone totally screwed up the cataloging."

"So Miss Fairchild got worked up over nothing? Dropped eight million on a ghost item?"

A chorus of pity, mockery, and shocked gasps swarmed Lyra from every direction.

The blood drained completely from her face. Her entire body went numb.

She didn't believe it was an error.

There was no way they made a mistake.

It had been pulled on purpose.