#Chapter 41: Missing

Alaric The brooch was more expensive than I had anticipated. The bidding war had started innocently enough, some woman across the room casually tossing her paddle up in the air after I’d already made a couple of bids, but she hadn’t backed down since. I adjusted the cuff of my tuxedo sleeve, lifting my own paddle again as the auctioneer called out the new number. “Thirty thousand, going once…” The woman shot me a look across the room, something smug and amused in her eyes, and raised her paddle again. I fought the urge to glare at her. This wasn’t about the money—not for me, anyway. “Please get it for Mommy,” Ella whispered, tugging on my sleeve. “Please…” It wasn’t as if I actually needed the damn brooch. I just needed to win. Needed to have something to hand to Elara that would… what? Make her forget the whispers? The humiliation? The way her face had gone pale as she held onto Zoe in that crowded room, pretending she couldn’t hear them? I knew it wouldn