Chapter 68

Valerie wasn't one to hesitate. Once the rules were set, she moved immediately. The pen's tip landed first on a rough boulder, priced at 380 thousand dollars. It was a black-skinned piece of rough emerald. The kind miner half-jokingly called it the "immortal pit" stone. There was no telling what lay inside until it was cut. Noah marked it with a quick stroke of his pen. The second spin settled on another stone, this one at 400 thousand dollars. Its pale surface revealed nothing. It was another rough emerald from a well-known pit, impossible to judge from the outside. The third and final spin landed on a darker riverbed boulder priced at 350 thousand dollars, as unremarkable as the others. With the three chosen, Valerie stepped aside and let Noah and Jonah pick first. Noah studied the stones briefly before settling on the black-skinned rough. "They say stones from this mine are fine-grained and tight. I'll take this one." His tone was light, almost careless. In truth, he expecte