Chapter 221 Customizing a Ring
Sean looked at Tate's reaction and chuckled, "If you think the price isn't right, you don't have to do this deal. It's a mutual agreement, the choice is in your hands."
Hearing this, Tate frowned.
If this were in Novaria, there were plenty of hitmen, and he wouldn't necessarily need to find Sean. But this was Lumaria, and hitmen from Novaria simply wouldn't set foot here.
But Isabella had to die!
Tate took a deep breath, "Fine, one and a half million dollars. As long as you kill her, I'll transfer every cent to your account."
Although one and a half million dollars would nearly wipe out his savings, if Isabella didn't die, he would face an even greater threat.
At this point, he had no choice but to compromise.
Sean stood up, "Give me her location, and I'll find the right moment to make my move."
"No later than a week. Within one week, I need to know she's dead."
"No problem."
With the deal settled, Sean led the other three people out without looking back.
——
On the first day after the SAT ended, Isabella went to Celestial Jewels.
Hayden had instructed Chase to hand over Celestial Jewels' affairs to Isabella, so Chase went with her.
Celestial Jewels' main store was located in the middle of the commercial street, a two-story building, about 5,382 square feet. There were several other jewelry stores on this commercial street, but Celestial Jewels had the largest space.
Isabella followed Chase through the doors of Celestial Jewels, and a young female employee immediately came up to greet them.
"Mr. Taylor."
"Where's Casey West? Is he in the store?" Chase asked.
"Casey is upstairs. I'll go get him right away."
The employee hurried off.
Soon after, an elderly gentleman around sixty years old, wearing a blue-green suit and reading glasses, came downstairs with the employee.
Casey walked over, glanced at Isabella, then asked Chase, "Mr. Taylor, this is...?"
Chase thought for a moment, then introduced her: "She's my sister, Isabella."
Then, pointing to Casey, he introduced him to Isabella: "This is Casey, a well-known appraisal expert in the industry and the person in charge of Celestial Jewels. Casey has always managed the business here. You can just follow him from now on."
Thinking that he was an industry expert and she might need to ask him for advice in the future, Isabella politely greeted him: "Casey, hello."
Casey looked at Isabella and replied, "Ms. Taylor, hello."
Chase had other matters to handle, so after handing Isabella over to Casey, he left in a hurry.
"Ms. Taylor, is there anything I can help you with?" Casey asked.
"I'll look around on my own. You can do whatever you need to do."
"Yes."
Casey returned to the second-floor lounge area.
Cecil Marshall was sitting there. He was also in the jewelry business, and he came here mainly to chat with Casey.
Seeing Casey return, Cecil asked, "What's wrong? Did something happen?"
"A girl came."
"A girl?"
"Mr. Taylor's sister."
Casey took a sip of water. "Mr. Taylor said that from now on, Celestial Jewels will be managed by her. I guess the company has too many things going on, and Mr. Taylor doesn't have the energy to manage this place anymore."
Hearing this, Cecil was slightly surprised. "Although Celestial Jewels can't compare to the Taylor Group, Hayden has invested quite a bit in Celestial Jewels. Does he plan to have a girl inherit Celestial Jewels in the future?"
In private, Casey naturally didn't need to keep up appearances. He shook his head, his eyes full of disdain. "Impossible. Hayden would never let a girl inherit Celestial Jewels. Besides, I heard this girl only returned to the Taylor family less than a year ago. They probably don't even trust her yet. How could they let an outsider inherit such a large jewelry store?"
"You have a point. It's probably just temporary management. In the future, Celestial Jewels will still belong to Mr. Taylor."
Casey sneered, "Of course. I won't take her seriously either. I only listen to Mr. Taylor's orders. I'll do whatever Mr. Taylor tells me to do. Who does she think she is?"
——
Isabella had no idea about the conversation between the two men upstairs. She was carefully admiring the dazzling array of jewelry in the display cases.
Celestial Jewels mainly dealt in diamond and gemstone jewelry, and all of Celestial Jewels' raw materials were purchased by themselves. The process included purchasing, designing, processing, and manufacturing, with raw stone procurement being the most critical step. And when it came to purchasing raw stones, luck played a key role.
Before coming, she had looked into this Casey. Chase had just said Casey was a gemstone appraisal expert, and Casey's most critical skill was identifying gemstones.
His deep understanding of raw stones could maximize cost savings, allowing Celestial Jewels to obtain the finest gemstones at the lowest possible prices.
Isabella had gained a general understanding of how the products were categorized inside Celestial Jewels when she noticed a foreigner entering through the door.
The foreigner was wearing a British-style suit and gold-rimmed glasses, with a very aristocratic air.
Seeing a customer arrive, the employee immediately went to greet him.
"Sir, what can I help you with?"
The foreigner glanced around the store and said, "I'd like to have a ring custom-made."
Celestial Jewels naturally offered custom services.
The employee immediately said, "Certainly, sir. What kind of ring would you like custom-made?"
"A blue gemstone ring."
"What specifications?"
"5.2 carats."
"Do you have any requirements for the type of gemstone?"
"Top-grade blue diamond," the foreigner said.
Hearing this, the employee froze for a moment.
There were many types of blue gemstones, such as blue diamonds, Kashmir sapphires, aquamarines, topaz, and so on.
Among them, the rarest was the blue diamond, a rare treasure among blue gemstones with an extremely low discovery rate, making it very uncommon.
Blue diamonds were already precious enough, let alone a flawless top-grade blue diamond. A 5.2-carat top-grade blue diamond was even rarer, seen perhaps once in a century.
"Sir, please wait a moment. Because top-grade blue diamonds are so valuable, I need to check with the person in charge of our store."
The foreigner answered very readily, "Okay, no problem."
The employee went straight to get Casey.
Casey walked toward the foreigner and extended his hand to shake hands with him. "Hello, the employee just told me about your request. Since you can make such a request, you must know a lot about gemstones, so you should know that top-grade blue diamonds are rare."
The foreigner smiled, "I'm well aware of that."
He spoke Chinese fluently. "To be honest, before coming here, I've already asked many jewelry stores, but unfortunately, not one of them could make a blue gemstone ring according to my requirements. I looked around the area, and your jewelry store is the largest, so I came to take a look."
"If you can make the ring I want, money is not an issue."
"I'm willing to pay one hundred million dollars to have such a ring custom-made."
The foreigner was full of sincerity, directly offering a price of one hundred million dollars.
And since Celestial Jewels opened, its annual profit had never exceeded one hundred million dollars.