Chapter 53 Group Photo at the End
The charity auction dinner continued.
There were many more items to follow, with various people bidding continuously, but it was never as thrilling as before.
Amelia was waiting.
Her fingertip kept moving down the auction list until finally, she tapped on a particular item.
Then—
"The next item is a 6-carat ruby pendant..."
This was William's second bid of the evening.
He finally won the ruby pendant for $28 million.
Seeing this, Amelia smiled sarcastically.
He was still the same.
Just like over a month ago, after learning the meanings of tanzanite and turquoise, he had said to her—
"It doesn't matter. My child deserves the most expensive diamonds."
She could almost imagine what William was thinking right now—[My woman deserves an expensive ruby. I can't give away a $1 million tanzanite—if she wears it out, it's me who loses face.]
Time passed slowly, and finally, they reached the final featured item.
"This isn't a single object, but paintings by those selected poor children, twenty pieces in total. You can choose to bid on one or several. 100% of the proceeds from these paintings will go to charity."
If this were another auction, the finale would be an extremely rare item, but this was a charity dinner, so using these paintings as the finale item, even if not expensive, was very meaningful.
Amelia looked at these paintings but didn't raise her bidding paddle number 823.
Instead, she looked at Jeffrey beside her.
Jeffrey understood what she meant: "Which one do you like?"
Amelia smiled, pointed to one on the tablet, and said: "This one."
It depicted a cactus in the sunlight. Though very simple, she really liked it.
Jeffrey nodded and bid on it with his paddle.
They both knew that paddle 823 shouldn't bid again at this moment.
However, they were both invited guests, so they had two paddles.
Jeffrey's paddle 811 was completely inconspicuous at this point. Even though they were sitting together, it didn't matter—they just needed to raise the paddle. After all, it was normal for people on the second floor to move around and interact.
There was no rule that only one person could sit in one seat.
After the bidding finished, the charity auction dinner was almost over. What remained were some song and dance performances, and the final group photo.
William didn't like participating in such photos, but Isabella looked at him pitifully, so he reluctantly went over.
Others gave him the center position, but he just frowned and stood at the back edge.
As for Amelia and Jeffrey, they stood at the end farthest from William.
Other celebrities competed for the middle positions.
"Alright everyone, look at the camera! One, two, three!"
One group photo taken.
"Good, one more, one, two, three!"
During the second photo, William was very impatient, but for some reason, he glanced toward the two people at the other end.
Lika was quietly saying something to Jeffrey, with a smile on her lips. Unlike when she looked at him before, at this moment she looked gentle and beautiful.
[The woman Jeffrey found this time isn't bad, better taste than before.]—William thought.
The second group photo was taken.
Hearing the sound, William withdrew his gaze and looked at Isabella beside him.
Isabella hadn't noticed any of William's behavior and was just busy posing.
"Last one! Come on, look at the camera!"
Amelia was in a pretty good mood.
Her phone had just buzzed—the money had arrived.
That tanzanite was hers. Although she had resold it to Jeffrey from the start, they had also made a private agreement.
The donor contribution rate for this auction was 70%, except for the first warm-up antique at 50% and the final featured paintings by sick children at 100%, everything else was at a 70% donation rate.
So, $25 million, donate 70%, leaving 30%, which was $7.5 million. After deducting some taxes and such, quite a bit remained.
The Adams Group always moved quickly, so the payment had already been transferred to Jeffrey's side, and Jeffrey had transferred it to her.
She would pick up that cactus painting in the sunlight later—these things could be stored.
"The result isn't bad after all," Amelia said to Jeffrey.
The tanzanite that was originally $1 million, after donating 70%, she still had this much left.
Jeffrey sighed helplessly: "It's just that the tanzanite still went to him."
Amelia shook her head and smiled: "This is already the best outcome. That tanzanite was meant to be auctioned for donations to sick children anyway. Now I've gotten my money back and even made some profit, and the sick children have more charitable funds too. It's pretty good."
A few days ago when they went to the marriage registry office, they had already signed the property division agreement for the divorce.
For a large corporation like the Brown Group, to protect corporate interests, they had a prenuptial agreement when they got married, so she could decisively give up many things, only to leave a backdoor in the agreement to reclaim the old members of the Martinez family.
During the intermission when she was on the rooftop, she had already decided that her final price would be $20 million.
Thinking of this, Amelia looked up toward William at the other end, as if sensing something.
He was looking down at Isabella, thinking about something, his profile still calm and emotionless, making it impossible to guess what was in his heart.
The third group photo was taken.
"Alright, photo session is over, thank you everyone." As the photographer's voice came through, Amelia withdrew her gaze.
After the photos, Amelia and Jeffrey turned to leave.
While William and Isabella were surrounded by many people.
"Mr. Brown, I am..."
"Mr. Brown, I am... May I get to know you?"
"Mr. Brown..."
Many people tried to strike up conversations with William, but he had no interest in responding.
At this point, many people turned to Isabella.
"Ms. Taylor, you look beautiful today. I've seen Ms. Taylor's achievements online and really admire you."
"Yes, Ms. Taylor is a very caring person, specially coming to attend the charity dinner today."
"Ms. Taylor, do you have any other plans? Our company has plans in this area..."
...
Isabella responded to each one with a smile on her face.
William stood beside her feeling somewhat impatient. He looked up, and through the crowd, he saw those two people leaving side by side.
Inexplicably, a trace of irritation rose in his heart again.
Withdrawing his gaze, he looked down at Isabella, who was still warmly chatting with everyone.
"Let's go," he said.
Only then did Isabella look up: "Okay."
The others didn't dare block them anymore and dispersed.
Some people stayed inside the villa, but most were heading out.
At this moment, outside the villa, all kinds of filming equipment were already set up.
"Is it almost over?"
"Yes, they just finished taking photos and are about to come out."
"Everyone get ready. As soon as people come out, immediately secure the best positions!"
"Yes!"
...
At this moment, the villa's main door, which had been closed for so long, finally slowly opened.