Lily's Point of View
Lily takes the selfie at 11:30 PM in her bedroom mirror.
She wears the black dress she made six months ago. The one she designed for herself because she couldn't afford anything else. The fabric cost her three weeks of food money but it was worth it. The dress makes her look like someone important. Someone worth looking at.
She takes the photo seventeen times.
In the first twelve, she looks desperate. In the next three, she looks angry. In the last two, she just looks like herself. Tired. Scared. Real.
She uses one of the angry ones because angry is better than desperate.
Her hands shake as she types the profile description.
"Fashion designer. Honest conversation and genuine company. One day only."
She deletes it and rewrites it.
"Artist. Real person. One day, one chance."
She deletes that too. It sounds pretentious.
Third try: "Fashion designer. Honest conversation and genuine company. One day only."
Same as the first one. She's going in circles.
Lily reads the terms and conditions one more time. She skips most of it because the words are blurring together and she's terrified if she reads too carefully, she'll back out. She just needs to understand that people bid, someone wins, she gets money. That's the transaction.
She sets the opening bid at five thousand dollars.
That's enough for the first hospital payment. That's enough to tell her mother the surgery can happen next week. That's enough to breathe for one more week.
Her finger hovers over submit.
She thinks about her mother in the hospital. The cough. The way her mom looked smaller every day. The surgeon's words. Forty thousand or she dies.
Lily hits submit at 11:47 PM.
She closes the app immediately because she can't watch people reject her. She can't see the opening bid stay at five thousand forever. She can't handle the humiliation of being worth nothing on a platform designed to measure women's value.
She lies in bed with her eyes closed and tries not to think about what she just did.
At 11:50 PM her phone buzzes.
Her eyes snap open.
Someone bid. Fifty-five hundred dollars.
Just fifty more. Just enough to prove someone thinks she's worth something.
Lily opens the app even though she promised herself she wouldn't.
She watches the bids come in.
Six thousand.
Sixty-two hundred.
Seven thousand.
Each notification is a small electric shock. Someone. Somewhere. Wants to spend time with her. Is willing to pay for it.
Sixty-eight hundred.
Seven thousand five hundred.
She should close the app. She should go to sleep. She should let this play out without watching it happen in real time.
She doesn't.
Eight thousand.
Eighty-two hundred.
Nine thousand.
Her savings account has twelve thousand dollars in it. Someone just matched two thirds of her entire life savings for one day with her.
Ninety-one hundred.
Ten thousand.
At ten thousand, Lily realizes she's crying. Silent tears running down her face while she watches strangers decide what she's worth.
This is the moment she's crossing a line she can never uncross.
This is the moment everything changes.
Eleven thousand.
Eleven thousand five hundred.
Twelve thousand.
Someone is bidding her entire savings account back at her like they're saying look how little you've built, let me rebuild you.
At twelve thousand she almost closes the app.
But then another bid comes in.
Thirteen thousand.
And another.
Fourteen thousand.
And Lily can't look away because this is real and it's happening and she started it and now it's alive and moving without her permission.
Fifteen thousand.
The number that makes her hands go completely numb.
Fifteen thousand dollars for one day with a girl who can barely afford to eat.
She doesn't recognize herself on this auction platform. She doesn't recognize the girl in the photo. She looks like someone's property already. Like someone is preparing to own her and she agreed to it by hitting submit.
Sixteen thousand.
Seventeen thousand.
Twenty thousand.
At twenty thousand, the bids start coming faster. Multiple people fighting for her now. Three different usernames competing. Driving the price higher and higher.
Twenty-two thousand.
Twenty-five thousand.
Thirty thousand.
At thirty thousand, there are still three bidders. All of them willing to spend what Lily makes in an entire year just to meet her. Just to spend eight hours with her.
The realization makes her feel sick and alive at the same time.
She watches the numbers climb through the night.
Thirty-five thousand.
Forty thousand.
Forty-five thousand.
At forty-five thousand, two of the bidders drop out. They can't compete anymore. They've reached their limit.
There's still one person bidding against the remaining competitor.
Fifty thousand.
Fifty-two thousand.
Fifty-five thousand.
At sixty thousand, one of the bidders stops fighting.
Now there's just one person left.
Just one person willing to keep climbing higher and higher with no competition.
Username: XavierThorne
He keeps raising his own bid like he's talking to himself. Like the money doesn't matter. Like he's decided he'll pay whatever it takes.
Sixty-five thousand.
Seventy thousand.
Seventy-five thousand.
Lily watches his numbers climb and she realizes something is wrong. This isn't normal. This isn't how the auction is supposed to work. Nobody bids that high on a stranger. Nobody throws away money like this.
Unless they're not bidding on a stranger at all.
Unless he knows who she is.
Unless he's hunting her.
Eighty thousand.
Ninety thousand.
One hundred thousand.
At one hundred thousand dollars, Lily's hands are shaking so badly she can barely hold her phone.
One hundred and twenty-five thousand.
She needs to cancel. She needs to call the auction house and tell them to stop this. To stop him. To stop whatever is happening.
But the money. The surgery. Her mother.
One hundred and fifty thousand.
Two hundred thousand.
Xavier keeps bidding.
And Lily keeps watching.