"But… how?" she muttered to herself, not realizing that Matteo was watching her every movement.
"This lavender jade flute has been passed down for generations before finally making its way here to us tonight," the auctioneer excitedly introduced. "The starting price will be five hundred thousand."
"Five… five hundred thousand…" Amelia repeated weakly, her entire world seemingly tilting on its axis.
She never knew the flute left behind by her mother was worth this much. To think that she had sold it for a measly five hundred dollars back when she was tight on cash. Now, after it had gone one round in the market, the same flute had returned to her a thousandfold.
And there was no way she could afford to buy it back. Not when Caleb had stolen every single cent from her. Her eyes watered, and she hurriedly blinked away the tears that were threatening to fall. This flute was her mother's prized possession― she had told Amelia that it was her gift from her own mother, and she had passed it on to Amelia despite Amelia's lack of musical prowess.
Then again, it wasn't as though Amelia's mother could have held onto it. Death was a cruel mistress.
And Caleb was crueler still, to force her to make such a sacrifice. He knew how much that flute meant to her! Amelia had told him about her bond with her mother, and how much she loved her. How it tore at her to sell away her flute.
Caleb had thanked her, but now she could see that it was nothing more than lip service. He wasn't in any financial trouble at all. If he truly loved her, he would have immediately come clean about his family's situation right there and then gotten the flute back.
Instead, the flute that was once cradled lovingly in Amelia's hands was now on the auction block, so far beyond her reach it might as well be in a whole other galaxy.
"I see that it has caught your interest," Matteo said. "Do you play?"
"...No." Amelia sucked in a shaky breath, willing herself to calm down. "I am not musically inclined, I'm afraid. How about you?"
Matteo nodded, "Someone I admired taught me how."
Then he raised his hand to make a bid for the flute.
"Five hundred thousand, offered by Mr. Montgomery here! Do we have another offer?"
Someone else raised their hand. Amelia's heart ran cold as she heard Caleb's voice echo through the air. He was seated at the other side of the room, Kelsie hanging off his arm in adoration.
"Seven hundred thousand." Caleb's voice was smug, and Amelia gritted her teeth. Other than pissing her off with the blatant display of his ostentatious wealth, Caleb was the only person to know how much this flute meant to her.
After all he had put her through, she would have to be delusional to believe he was trying to buy the flute back to give it to her. Knowing his cruelty, he would probably smash the flute in front of her face, just because he could.
Matteo calmly looked at Amelia's expression, then at Caleb's. Calmly, he put up his hand again, his expression stoic. "Eight hundred thousand."
Amelia's eyes bugged open as she stared at her boss. Wasn't this a little too much to spend on a flute? But Matteo's gaze was stony, a muscle twitching in his jaw. It was as though Caleb's actions and his very presence ticked him off immensely.
For a brief delusional moment, Amelia could almost imagine that it was because of her, that Matteo was upset because he saw how Caleb had hurt her so badly during their very first meeting.
Then she shook her head. This was not the time to daydream! It was more likely that Matteo was truly a music lover who could appreciate musical instruments if he was willing to spend so much on a flute.
Caleb's voice echoed through the air again, this time with a higher number. He clenched his jaw, gritting his teeth together before spitting out the number, "Eight hundred and fifty thousand."
Amelia hissed, wanting nothing more than to leap in his direction and tear him from limb to limb. As if he detected her hostility, Caleb turned towards her and shot her a mocking smirk, but his eyes widened as he caught sight of Matteo sitting next to her. Next to him, Kelsie had also peered over and her mouth fell open in blatant shock.
Matteo put up his hand. "One million dollars."
The crowd burst into excited murmurs; they had finally crossed the one million mark, and they were waiting for more.
The auctioneer was delighted. "One million dollars! Is there anyone else other than Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Walton who would like to make a bid?"
Amelia stared back faintly at her boss; this man certainly had an awful amount of money to burn!
Of course, there was no one who dared to compete with these two powerhouses. Even though the flute was beautiful and the jade was of high quality, even if they could afford the flute without a dent to their wealth, they couldn't afford to offend the Montgomerys or the Waltons.
It wasn't a matter of money any longer. It was a matter of dignity and pride!
"One million and―" Caleb's voice was abruptly halted when Kelsie pulled his hand down. She whispered something to him, and the two stared at Amelia and Matteo in shock. Caleb's nose wrinkled in determination before he stared fixated on the stage. "Two million!"
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Amelia immediately felt faint.
Two million!
She could easily afford a nice apartment in any first-world city with this amount of money. Or, if she wanted to escape to the countryside, this amount of money could let her tide by for a good few decades, maybe even the rest of her life!
At this point, Amelia was already breaking out in cold sweat. It was her beloved flute, yes, but was it worth two million dollars? Probably not.
She could live with just making Caleb fork out this ludicrous amount of money for nothing more than a slab of stone. To him, the flute was worth nothing as long as Amelia didn't react to him owning it. Just watching him waste money like that was already good enough revenge…
Or at least, that was what she tried to convince herself of.
She turned to Matteo and tugged at his sleeve. "Mr. Montgomery, maybe we should just―"
Matteo didn't even flinch.
"Five million."