“Damn. I hope everything is okay. Maybe Adelaide has seen her.” Vince looked around the room, scanning each cluster of guests.
“Hey, guys.” I heard her beautiful soprano voice.
“There you are!” Vince said. “I was getting worried; I couldn’t find you.”
“Sorry. I got lost in the garden and just found my way back.” She laughed. “I am not great with directions.”
I could feel Oliver’s eyes drilling into me. I knew he wanted me to look at him so we could have one of our mind talks, but I wasn’t going to do it. I sucked at lying to him and I didn’t want him to figure out that I had been in the garden with one of his suitors. This morning, he’d said that she was a frontrunner. Yet, just minutes ago, I had made the shitty decision to almost kiss her. I was a bad friend, and I knew it.
A few minutes passed while I gave him the cold shoulder, before he finally gave up and engaged with Birdie as she told a story about how she once got lost driving home from high school.
“Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention,” the emcee spoke from the small stage against the far wall.
“The Thornes would like to thank everyone for attending tonight, with a special thanks to the royal family. Thank you for your generous donations to the Wexstone Community Garden Foundation. Now, without further ado, we willannounce what I’m sure you have all been anticipating: the winning bids of the silent auction.”
“God, I pray that I didn’t get stuck with Renata,” Oliver muttered under his breath.
Vince snorted quietly as I coughed into my fist to suppress a laugh. I had a feeling that it didn’t matter what he wanted; that was exactly who he was going to be spending the following evening with.
As he read down the list, I was taken aback by how much these women had spent to get alone time with the royal family. Sabine, or her family, had spent over one hundred thousand euros on Leroy. I was shocked. Surely that had to be the largest bid tonight.
I was so sure in my assumption as they read off the rest of the list. I was a little surprised when I heard that Adelaide won with her bid of twenty-five thousand euros for Evelyn. I figured that she would have surely bid on Oliver, but when I heard his name called and how much the winning bid was, I knew that there was no way that Adelaide could have won even if she did bid.
“And with a winning bid of two hundred and fifty thousand euros for Prince Oliver: Renata Raines.”
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“You’re kidding me,” Oliver groaned quietly.
Vince clapped him on the back. “Smile, mate. They’re all looking at you.”
Applause filled the room. I couldn’t believe that the Raines family had spent that much money on alone time with Oliver. On second thought, I could believe it, because I knew that the Raineses would do anything to make sure that Renata became queen.
“And that brings us to our final royal familymember of the night, Knox Henderson. With a winning bid of one hundred thousand euros, Bernadette Hamilton.”
Birdie let out a small gasp from my right. Her eyes were wide with curiosity as she turned to Vince.
“You spent that much money so I could hang out with Knox?” she questioned.
“No, I most definitely didn’t.” He looked from her to me, studiously ignoring Bronson’s vexed gaze from across the room. “Did you put her name down?” he questioned me.
“No. Why would I do that?” I answered.
Vince puffed his chest slightly. “I don’t know, mate. You tell me.”
My eyes narrowed. “I can’t because I didn’t. How do you think that would look if I put her name down for myself?”
“My thoughts exactly.” He turned back to Birdie. “Honestly, you didn’t put your name down?”
“Look, I love the fact that you think I have that much money, but I don’t. And if I did, I wouldn’t be so worried about being homeless because I could buy a place in Jersey or something.”
“Oi. It's fine,” Oliver interrupted, placing a hand on Vince’s shoulder. “It doesn’t matter who did it. That’s a lot of money for the fundraiser. Think of how many people that’s going to help. This is amazing.”
“Yeah.” Birdie gave a small smile that didn’t fully reach her eyes.
“You guys are friends and will have fun.” Oliver patted me on the back.
“Yeah. We’re friends,” I said, pushing down the twisting guilt in my gut.
