Chapter 984
“But I want to see my birthday present.”
“I’ll have my assistant bring it out to you right now.”
Madeline paused. “What about you, Felix? Aren’t you going to take me home?”
“I still have business to handle here. You head back first.”
Although Madeline desperately wanted Felix to be the one to escort her home, she knew better than to push him too hard.
Besides, she had already gotten exactly what she came for today. Playing along, she said softly, “Alright. But thank you again for the beautiful birthday present, Felix.”
Felix gave a dismissive hum and ended the call.
He instructed his proxy bidder to retrieve the tiara immediately and deliver it to Madeline, who was waiting outside.
He sat in his seat for a little while longer as the auction continued, but a restless, anxious energy made it impossible for him to stay still.
Finally, he stood up, walked out of the VIP room, and headed out to find Claire. Before he even reached her private suite, he ran straight into Wilbur.
Felix’s eyes narrowed into cold, dangerous slits.
Wilbur walked right up to him, his attitude perfectly polite. “I heard you placed a remarkable bid to win The Aquaria Tiara. If you’re willing to part with it, I’d be happy to purchase it from you for fifty percent over the hammer price. I’d consider it a personal favor.”
Felix stared at him, his gaze unconsciously darkening. “Why are you so obsessed with coveting things that belong to other men?”
His double meaning was completely undisguised.
“If you’re unhappy with the price, we can negotiate,” Wilbur replied, maintaining his effortless composure.
A chilling hostility gathered in Felix’s eyes. “I highly recommend you drop it. If I won it, it belongs to me. I’m not handing it over to anyone.”
He stepped closer, lowering his voice so only the two of them could hear. “And I’m not just talking about the tiara.”
“You’d be better off giving up while you still can.”
At that, Wilbur simply let out a quiet chuckle. His tone was gentle, but laced with a razor-sharp boundary “Your words remind me of
something important
she truly ‘belongs to is never defined by a few arrogant claims.”
“Perhaps you should ask yourself when she desperately needed to be cherished, who was the one who personally pushed his ‘rights’ away?”
“If you actually cared about her as much as you pretend to, why did you leave her completely exposed for someone else to ‘covet’ in the first place?”
The muscles along Felix’s jaw clenched tight, a furious pulse beating at his temple.
Like a wounded predator whose
most sensitive nerve had just been struck, he surged forward and,
completely abandoning his
self-control threw a vicious punch right at Wilbur’s face.
Wilbur shifted his weight to dodge, crashing into a large decorative vase. It tipped over and shattered against the marble floor with an carpiercing crash, instantly drawing the stares of onlookers.
Faced with the other man’s explosive loss of control, Wilbur’s expression didn’t so much as flicker. He didn’t even furrow his brow.
He simply raised a hand and methodically wiped at the stinging scrape near his jaw,
his movements so graceful he looked entirely untouched by the chaos.
Then, he lifted his gaze, his eyes sharp as daggers, slicing perfectly through Felix’s raging fury.
To Felix, that cold indifference was like pouring gasoline on an open flame.
He lunged forward to teach Wilbur a lesson, but a figure darted between them, shoving him hard in the chest.
Immediately after, Claire’s furious voice echoed through the hall. “Felix Quigley, are you done acting like a lunatic?”
Caught completely off guard by the shove, Felix stumbled backward and fell hard onto the floor.
He stared up at Claire in absolute disbelief.
Her eyes were practically radiating an intense, unmistakable loathing and rage, as though invisible thorns were growing off her, ready to draw blood.