The Consortium's Heir
The Consortium’s Heir By Benjamin Jnr Chapter 45

Chapter 45

"$100,000."

There was a brief silence when everyone heard his voice. They couldn't believe that someone was bold enough to raise the bid by twice the amount of the previous bid.

Everyone instantly turned to look at the person who raised the bid that high. To their utmost shockit was none other than Darius!

Darius stood still with his left hand in his pocket and a glass of wine in his right hand. His posture and nonchalant stare made him look so handsome and attractive that a few girls had red tints on their cheeks. Pearl, Janet, David, Sarah, Helen, Chad, Anna and other several wealthy figures looked at Darius with different expression written on their faces.

Pearl and Janet looked closely at Darius. They both accepted that Darius was indeed very attractive, but that wasn't the reason they looked at him. They felt his face to be very familiar.

Janet Fox, the second ranked beauty in Kingston University had no idea, but she had indeed met Darius before. It was when Darius had recently gotten his wealth and purchased the gold membership card to eat in this same hotel the charity gala was hosted.

She had gone to the hotel with two of her friends who were also beautiful, although they were not as beautiful as her. The main reason why she couldn't remember Darius was because he looked so different and twice as handsome as before.

Pearl also thought the same thing as Janet. She had clearly seen Darius before, but she couldn't recall where. Darius appearance had changed too drastically to be easily linked to how he looked before. Sarah had disdain written on her face. She believed that Darius just wanted to spite her and show her how much richer he was which was the reason he raised the bid by such a ridiculous amount. David also had a similar thought to Sarah. He hated Darius with all his heart therefore anything that Darius did seemed like an eyesore to him. It was incredibly infuriating to him.

However contrary to their thoughts, Darius didn't raise the bid of the item to spite them or throw his weight about. He just sincerely loved the painting and felt that $50,000 was too little of a price for the painting Besides, the amount he used to buy the painting would be given to charity; therefore the more he spent the better. "$100,000 going once! Twice! And sold!" "The incredible painting "The beauty of Nature' has been sold to Mr. Darius Reid for a sum of $ 100,000! Thank you very much Mr. Reid!" The man announced. Everyone instantly burst into loud gossips when they heard who the painting went to. "Darius Reid?!" "How is this possible?!"

"He was unable to donate $200 at the last charity gala, so how on earth is he able to afford such a huge amount of money?!"

Their shock was understandable. Not everyone was outside when Darius arrived in a very fancy sports car, so they still had the belief that he wasn't a rich person. However this single feat of acquiring the painting for a $100,000 had proved them wrong and slapped them in the face! Darius smiled but said nothing. He only raised his glass to the announcer as a sign of acknowledgement.

The next item on display was a sculpture of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. It was carved by a fourteen year old teenager and its starting bid was $100,000, a far cry from the starting bid of the painting This time around Darius refrained from bidding. There were still different items to be auctioned and he didn't want to come off as proud and arrogant. He decided that he would bid only on items that he liked, and he would bid a substantial amount of money to acquire the items.

The sculpture was finally auctioned off to Pearl Chamberlain for a high sum of $210,000. She had gotten into a bidding war with a lady for Evergreen University, but finally came out on top. When the announce announced her as the winner of the bid there was a huge smile on her face. She was a huge fan of Greek myth and Aphrodite was her favorite Greek god, therefore she instantly fell in love with the sculpture. The next two items were also items that Darius wasn't interested in, and they sold for $ 130,000 and $190,000 respectively. The fifth item however was something that Darius could not overlook. It wasn't just him, but other people at the gala too.

Darius had fallen in love with wine over the few days he stayed at home. During that period, he had researched intensively on different wines. Therefore you could imagine his shock when he saw a 150 year old wine on display!

The wines that he had in his wine cellar were barely 2 to 3 year old, so he couldn't imagine how good a 150 year old wine would taste! He knew he had to get it at all costs. Darius wasn't the only one with such thoughts. Several people also had similar thoughts. Even those who hadn't bid before were ready to go all out on this one.

Pearl also wanted to bid for the wine. She knew that her father was a huge fan of wine and loved the older wine. Her father had worked incredibly hard for the family to raise them to their current status. Her father's birthday was in a few weeks and without a doubt this wine would be the best birthday gift for father. She made up her mind to get the wine no matter the price.

"As you can see, this is one of the oldest wines in the world at 150 years old. I can assure you that this is surely a delicacy. The starting bid for this wine is $300,000 with increments of no less than $10,000." As soon as the man announced the commencement of the auctioning the whole hall erupted and an intense bidding war started.

"$310,000!"

"$350,000!" "$400,000!" The people who were not wealthy quickly shied away from the bidding war. They accepted that only the wealthy ones would spend so much for a bottle of wine. Even with their withdrawal, the bidding war didn't end. Instead, the price of the wine kept rising After a few minutes, just when everyone thought the wine's price couldn't be raised any further, a loud voice proved them wrong. (1 million dollars!"

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