Chapter 2

The room buzzed with a low, degenerate energy. The so-called elites of the city, men and women in expensive suits and jewelry, looked like wolves ready to feast.

"I'll start the bidding at ten thousand dollars!" a balding man with a sweaty upper lip shouted from the front row. "For the full set!"

Laughter rippled through the hall. It was a pathetic, insulting offer, and he knew it. It was just part of the game, the slow, public humiliation.

"Fifteen thousand!" another voice called out.

"Twenty!"

They were throwing out numbers like they were bidding on cheap furniture, not a person's dignity. Sarah trembled in my arms, and I held her tighter.

"Don't listen to them," I murmured into her ear. "They're just noise."

Then, Kyle's voice boomed through the room, silencing the smaller players.

"One million dollars."

He said it with a magnanimous wave of his hand, as if he were doing us a favor. He looked directly at me, a smug, challenging glint in his eyes.

"Let's not drag this out," Kyle announced to the room. "I'm doing this to protect the poor girl's honor. I'll buy the photos and destroy them myself. It's the least I can do for an old friend."

The hypocrisy was so thick I could almost taste it. The crowd murmured appreciatively, some of them clapping at his "noble" gesture. Ashley looked up at him with adoring eyes, playing her part in the charade beautifully.

I felt a cold, bitter laugh rise in my throat, but I suppressed it. I saw it all so clearly now. In my past life, I had fallen for this act. I had seen him as a rival, someone to be outbid. I hadn't understood that he wasn't just trying to outbid me; he was trying to bleed me dry.

The Auctioneer's voice cut in, "One million dollars from Mr. Peterson. Do I hear another bid?"

This was all a prelude to the real prize. The system that governed these auctions was bizarre and absolute. It wasn't just about money. It allowed for the bidding of abstract assets: reputations, futures, skills, even lives. Once a bid was accepted and the transaction completed, the transfer was final and enforced by a power no one understood.

They didn't just want the Miller family fortune. They wanted my perfect SAT score. In their world of status and connections, buying a perfect score for Kyle, a mediocre student at best, would open doors that money alone couldn't. It would make him a scholar overnight, a genius in the eyes of the elite universities and corporations he so desperately wanted to impress.

I remembered the moment I pieced it all together in my past life, just before I jumped. Ashley had let it slip, whispering to Kyle when she thought I was too broken to hear. "With his score, you'll get into Harvard. We'll be unstoppable."

That memory fueled the fire in my gut. I thought of my family's kindness to the Stones over the years. My father had bailed out Mr. Stone's failing business, saving them from bankruptcy. Our families had arranged my engagement to Ashley as part of that deal, a way to merge our futures. I had been happy about it then. I had loved her.

Love. What a joke. She had repaid our generosity with the ultimate betrayal.

"Ethan?" Sarah's voice was a tiny, pleading whisper. "Do something."

I took a deep breath, the cold fury inside me crystallizing into a single point of focus.

I stepped forward, away from Sarah, so all eyes were on me. I looked at Kyle, at Ashley, at the whole disgusting room.

"You want to bid, Kyle?" I called out, my voice ringing with a confidence that startled everyone, including myself. "Let's actually bid on something worthwhile."

Kyle narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about, Miller?"

I ignored him and addressed the Auctioneer.

"I'd like to make a new bid," I said clearly.

The Auctioneer turned his impassive gaze to me. "The current bid is one million dollars for the photos."

"I'm not bidding on the photos," I said. "I'm raising the stakes."

I took out my wallet. Inside was a black credit card, a symbol of the Miller family's entire liquid fortune. I also had the deed to our estate and the portfolio of all our company's stocks. In my past life, I had wagered these things piece by piece, letting them drain me slowly.

Not this time.

"I bid everything," I declared, my voice echoing in the silent hall. "The entire Miller family fortune. Every stock, every property, every last dollar in every account."

A collective gasp went through the crowd. This wasn't a bid; it was an act of insanity.

Kyle and Ashley stared at me, their jaws slack with disbelief.

I turned to them, a grim smile touching my lips for the first time.

"All of it," I repeated. "Against those pathetic little pictures. Your move, Kyle."