Spoiled By The CEO: Why The Wife Is Kinda Sweet? novel Chapter 290

Before they’d turned to business, everyone had lived in a single barracks.

Because of that, Max and Laura had met.

Natalia finally understood.

She’d been wondering why Max and Laura seemed to know each other.

Now that things had gotten this far, there was nothing to hide.

Max pouted discontentedly and muttered, “My grandfather had an incident back then and Officer Davies left the military. Then he left Eqitin as well, and I lost contact with Laura. I didn’t think we’d only meet again now, after all this time.”

At that, even Louis seemed a little saddened.

He was about to say something when Natalia patted Max on the shoulder and comforted, “It’s all right, you know. It’s not too late to meet up now, and you can still win her over. You’re both still young, in your twenties. Just right, I’d say!”

Max instantly blushed.

“Don’t say it like that, Natalia! I-I’ve known her since we were both in nappies. Even if we felt anything for each other, it’d just be brotherly affection and nothing else.”

Louis actually agreed with that.

If people started out too close, it made the situation awkward.

Or else he wouldn’t be single up to this point.

Thinking of the faces he saw twenty-four hours a day except for when he ate and slept, he could feel just how slim his chances were of romance.

Seeing Max’s defensive state, Natalia nodded knowingly.

“Oh, I’ve got it. Hmm, that’s okay. Brotherly affection it is. I don’t go out of my way to look at gay relationships, but if you’ve got thoughts like that, I don’t have an opinion on it.”

“Natalia!!!”

Max went berserk, only swiftly calmly down at Archie’s cool stare.

Because there was too much on auction, they’d split the event into two halves with an intermission.

Having been teased too much by Natalia, Max took a phone call and said it was business.

He didn’t linger any longer and left after saying his goodbyes to the group during intermission.

Louis was on break today, and it was rare that he could get a whole day to himself to relax. Naturally, he was unwilling to go back so quickly, so he stayed and continued to attend the auction with them.

When the latter half of the auction began, Natalia’s sharp eye noticed hat Laura and Edward were gone too. They must have left as well.

Jokes aside, she wasn’t gossipy enough to pry into people’s private affairs, so she didn’t pay it any mind.

The items on auction for the latter half were even more lavish than the ones in the first half.

Natalia say a few pieces that she liked, but since they only needed one present, she didn’t rush to raise her tag and continued to wait.

Until a bright emerald set appeared.

With Natalia’s attention to detail, she noticed right away that that set was quite similar to the one Archie had given her.

Archie had noticed too. He frowned, muttering, “That’s the set that Aunt Faye has.”

Natalia was bewildered.

“Then what’s it doing here?”

Archie shook his head to show he didn’t know, either.

Now that Max wasn’t here, they couldn’t go and ask someone else, so they stayed and watched.

This set, like the red coral set, was also passed down from royalty, so they were hotly contested the moment they arrived.

Everyone knew that it was a once-in-a-millennia event to have something like this on auction.

Because of that, they were willing to spend on this one. Besides, the people who could attend this auction weren’t pressed for money in the first place.

So the competition intensified even more, reaching the point of three hundred million.

Natalia was a little nervous as she shot a look at Archie, who remained silent with his face dark.

Louis had seen Natalia’s set of jewelry before, so he recognized that the set had something to do with the McCarthy family.

Hearing Natalia and Archie say what they just said earlier, it wasn’t hard for him to guess that something must have happened.

He muttered, “Want to buy it up, Archie?”

Archie shook his head.

“Don’t rush right now.”

As expected, someone raised the price again.

This time, they upped it to three hundred and thirty million!

This set of jewelry might have been a sister set with the red coral pieces, but it wasn’t this expensive.

So three hundred thirty million was the limit!

Not a peep could be heard inside the auction hall as everyone waited for the final results.

Seeing that, the host banged on the gavel.

“Three hundred thirty million going once!

“Three hundred thirty million going twice!

“Three hundred thirty million…”

“Four hundred million!”

A clear, cool voice rang out. Everyone looked towards its source.

When they saw the man sitting there, they sucked in a shocked breath.

Archie McCarthy?

Why him of all people?

What was he doing here?

No, when had he come in the first place? How had nobody known?

Archie was known for keeping a low profile. Even though people know that, seeing him here all of a sudden was still strange.

Seeing the situation unfold, the host yelled excitedly, “This gentleman has offered four hundred million! Can we get any higher? Does anyone want to go higher than four hundred million?”

Silence. No one spoke.

Four hundred million? That was madness!

However valuable this jewelry set was, it wasn’t this valuable.

Besides, if they were talking collector’s value, the red coral sister set was worth far more. If it was that set, six hundred million wouldn’t be enough.

Seeing that nobody was raising the price, the host banged on the gavel and sold the jewels to Archie.

As the auction continued, several nice pieces followed.

Natalia chose a jade bracelet of emperor green and bought it for the old lady’s seventieth birthday.

With the auction over, the trio left together.

Knowing that Archie was here, gossip and activity was unavoidable.

Everyone who had attended were the upper crust wealthy and nobility of Eqitin.

Archie didn’t like scenes like this, but he still had to keep up appearances.

Because of that, they only managed to escape after over half an hour.

Louis had come here in the same car as Max. Since Max had left alone, he’d taken the car too, so Louis had Archie drive him home instead.

As the three got on, Natalia opened the box to the jade bracelet, looked it over to make sure everything was in order, and put it away.

Louis mused, “Archie, what’s Aunt Faye’s jewels doing in a place like this? The McCarthy family’s not pressed for money, right?”

Archie’s face was wooden as he murmured, “Grandma and the rest of them probably don’t know about this.”

In other words, Faye had gone behind the family’s back to sell off that set of jewelry.

Hearing that, Louis was even more shocked.

Faye had stayed unmarried. Single at almost forty years of age, she still behaved like a child, often doing things that were completely inappropriate.