Betrothed To The Mafia Lord

Chapter 33

Luca’s POV

This first and final level was indeed tough like Hayley had explained. The lowest piece of jewelry that

has gone for the cheapest price was the earrings, and thst has gone for one and a half million dollars

after over fifteen people started bargaining for it all at once. The wrist watch ended up going to a man

sitting a seat away from mine, and it ended up going for two million dollars.

I watched as so many stood up for the waist bead. It was one and a half million at first, because it

consisted of a lot of diamond crafted into beads shapes, hence the price. Over twenty people started

bargaining for it and it finally got handed to a man whose mafia wasn’t all that far from mine, although

we were not in good times for as long as I could remember. It ended up going for four million dollars.

And now, we are currently in the top three.

The remaining items consist of the pyramid shaped gem, a diamond ring and the tiny chain.

James nudged my arm and I leaned into him instantly to listen to wherever he was saying, “This is

where you’ll come in. This particular moment is ours.”

“It really is.” I agreed with him immediately while tuning out the noises around us due to Jake flirting

with that same man once again.

“I am gonna be going for the pyramid shaped gem, it looks like the most priced and what I want to

purchase.” I murmured to James who stared at the said gem before nodding his head without taking his

eyes over the three remaining items.

“I’ve got this.” I said to him as I leaned back into my seat and prepared myself for when it was going to

be time for me to stand and bargain.

I wasn’t nervous.

Nervousness was the last thing on my mind, I never feel nervous.

I was used to carefully planning everything I do and every plan I make… unlike James, that was one of

the characteristics that differentiate us. James, on the other hand, was the kind of person that is bound

to put off planning since he knows how to just go with the flow of things without any problem. I could

never do that, I was already used to planning ahead, analyzing my steps and going through my plans

over and over in my head.

Our different preferences favored us differently, so it was both fine by us.

“And now, we’re going to start the main top three rounds by taking out the thin necklace.” Hayley said

loudly into the microphone and the murmurs in the crowd subdued almost immediately. I watched as

she unhooked the necklace and hooked it around Jake’s neck.

The cameras zoomed in on him, showing his face and sweaty throat which the thin necklace clung

unto, on the wall behind them and as expected, the crowd went wild. At this point, they didn’t care if he

was gay and didn’t play for their team, all they knew and cared about was that he was drop dead

gorgeous and that alone, was making them go crazy.

“Do you all see the baby?” Hayley screamed into the microphone with his hand against the necklace,

on Jake's throat and the crowd screamed in reply. Hayley leaned against Jake as laughter shook

through her body, Jake himself was barely holding his amusement together.

“You know what? I love how everyone is appreciating Jake so much, it makes me so happy, really.”

Hayley said into the microphone after a little while once the crowd started to get quiet, and then,

everyone stopped talking and watched them closely.

“And because of the amount of love and affection you’ve shown him today, I’m going to let someone

from the crowd stand up and call a price they feel the necklace, against Jake’s throat, is worth.

A man stood up from our side of the crowd and all eyes turned into our direction almost instantly. I

turned around in my seat and looked the person up from the corner of my eyes, I don’t think I’ve ever

seen this man right here before.

“Three million dollars.” The man said and the crowd went loud, screaming and talking all at once. I

knew without a doubt that I was going to develop a head at later today. The glass of wine distributed to

us ever since we got here was still untouched on my table, like James’. We do not accept food or

drinks from everyone, most especially people we don’t know. Anything could be in it, either to kill us,

make us drowsy or fall asleep, giving them a much better and easier access to us.

Prevention is way better and advisable than cure, and we’ve both sticked to this phrase ever since we

knew about it.

“Whoaaaaaaaaaaa! That’s a lot, don’t you think so?” Hayley started to say before directing the last

question to the crowd and a murmur rose almost immediately before another man got to his feet and

raised his hand slightly.

“I think it’s a bit cheap, how about three and a half million dollars?”

The crowd went berserk and Jake only stared into the crowd with a wide grin, looking genuinely

shocked and flabbergasted all at once.

“How about four million?” A woman stood up and called out from the other side of the crowd and

everyone turned around to stare at her as she waved at Jake who waved back with a wide grin. Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Four million… going!” Hayley called out and the crowd roared along with her.

“Going!” She called out again and again before finally selling it to the woman who had a wide grin on

her face.

It was nice to see a woman win this one against two men.

They moved to the second item on the list which ended up going for seven million dollars, after so

much bargain, that is.

And now, it was finally time for the pyramid shaped diamond.

“Finally, we’ve arrived at the very last item of today and the most prized of them all.” Jake started

saying this time as picked up the piece they were referring to and lifted it high up in the air. The camera

zoomed in on it, and the surface alone was so shiny and gleaming despite the fact that it was in a thin

transparent foil covering.

“That's really icy man.” James leaned into my side to murmur and I nodded my head absentmindedly

without taking my eyes off the exquisite diamond.

“This is called bloom.” Hayley started to say into the microphone and the crowd suddenly grew quiet.

After a few minutes, she continued. “”It’s one of the rare pieces that has been passed down from

generations to generations because for some weird reasons, the news experts had tried remaking and

creating more replicas of it, countless times, but it just never turned out this way.”

“It’s a really huge diamond which countless bloods had been spilled for because of their stupid greed

which had led them into thinking they could be able to steal it from their owners, back then in the days.”

Jake took up from where Hayley stopped immediately, spitting his own facts out without any pauses in

between.

Now, everyone was staring intently at the diamond like they could magically see all that had just been

explained by the two hosts, by just looking intently at it.

“Now, we’re going to say the price the diamond is going to be going for.” A dramatic pause, and, “It’s

going to be going for ten million dollars!” Hayley announced and the whole crowd remained quiet,

probably all in shock with how cost it was, compared to before where they'd have been screaming after

each price of every item got announced.

“Who’s going to take it?” Jakes asked while looking intently into the crowd and glancing around.

“I’ll take it.” A man from the other side of the crowd stood up and lifted his hand up a little. Everyone’s

eyes traveled and landed on him before the crowd went up with tons of applause.

“Anyone else want it?” Hayley asked as she looked from crowd to crowd, trying to see if there was

going to be someone who’d stand up and bargain for it.

“Eleven million dollars.” Someone called out from my side of the crowd and everyone focused on him

immediately, clapping and cheering loudly.

“Going… going…” Jake called out and the man who had stood up first, increased the price with a

million without hesitating.

“I slowly got to my feet and I didn’t need to glance around to tell that everyone was watching me

pointedly at the moment. A murmur rose up almost immediately and I knew a lot of people in the crowd

recognized me immediately.

“Twenty million dollars.” I called out quietly and watched as Jake’s mouth hung open for a few seconds

before he went back into character and waved his mic into the air for a few seconds.

“Twenty million… whoa.” Hayley breathed into the mic and a laugh echoed around the crowd.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Hayley apologized immediately before continuing.

“Going to Mr Ricci.” Jake called out and the whole crowd grew quiet immediately, I had no idea the

Jake dude knew who I was, but I guess it was because I was pretty popular. Now, those people who

only knew my name without knowing what I actually looked like, would have gotten a good look at my

face now… thanks to Jake.

“Going? Going?” Jake called out before finally raising the diamond up, and this time, it was in a large

cube shaped package, with the top still open, in order to still give the crowd a nice view of the diamond.

“Sold! To Mr Ricci!” Jake called out and the whole crowd went crazy immediately. I snorted and glanced

down at James who had a grin on his face. He shrugged lightly and winked at me, a move which made

me roll my eyes as I slowly sank into the seat beside him once again. The crowd was yet to quiet down

and I knew everyone was no doubt impressed out of their mind, the exact reaction was aimed to get in

the first place.

The crowd took some time to quieten down and I knew without a doubt that not everyone here in the

crowd was a crowd, more than half of them are probably or most definitely enemies. And those who

had only heard about me for a while before acting getting the opportunity to set their eyes on me today,

might be impressed as fuck or might instantly grow a deep jealousy for me, in their hearts.

But, that’s their businesses and problems.

Jake and Hayley started giving an appreciative speech once the crowd finally grew quiet and James

leaned into me the next instant.

“You’re growing more popular day after day, bro.” He said and I shrugged with a small grin tugging at

the sides of my lips.

Yeah, I guess I was.

“To think you were the last to stand up, I was almost thinking you were starting to lose your touch on

crowds for a moment back there.” James said with a laugh and I shook my head while answering his

observation, “Nah, it’s working just fine. A little too fine, if you ask me.”

“I mean, I’ve undoubtedly created over a thousand more enemies right here today.” I reminded him and

his face took on an unknown look for a few seconds before he replied, “Yeah, sadly.”

“You know you’re bound to get more enemies from another place, even if this occasion didn’t occur,

one way or the other. It’s for a good cause because we did achieve something really good here today, a

few more enemies won’t hurt.

*******

We left the auction premises a good thirty minutes after the occasion ended, because everyone wanted

to make transactions, collect receipts and acquire their different purchased accessories.

James and I got ushered into an office where we were offered seats and a drink– which we refused

politely.

The jewelry got weighed by three men who later got introduced to me as the group of men that buys

diamonds from people.

Surprisingly, after it got weighed, it got bought back from us for twenty five million dollars, making it

extra.

James sure wasn’t bluffing when he said people earns from reselling it to these set of people, a lot of

people definitely didn’t know about this, if not they’d find a way to even borrow some money from

people, just to be able to get one of the accessories, resell it and take the extra added money as theirs.

People are greedy like that.