Lily's Point of View
Two hundred and twenty thousand.
Two hundred and fifty thousand.
Xavier Thorne's bids keep climbing and Lily can't move. Can't breathe. Can't do anything except watch the number on her screen get bigger and bigger.
She refreshes the app every five seconds like the number might change. Like he might stop. Like this might be some kind of glitch.
It's not a glitch.
Two hundred and sixty thousand.
Two hundred and seventy-five thousand.
Three hundred thousand.
At three hundred thousand dollars, a notification appears that's different from the others. The platform alert is bold and urgent.
XavierThorne has made a FINAL OFFER of $300,000. All other bidding is now closed. This is the maximum bid. The auction is complete.
Lily stares at the number.
Three hundred thousand dollars.
That's enough to pay for her mother's surgery. That's enough to pay off half her business debt. That's enough to give her employees real salaries. That's enough to breathe for months instead of days.
That's enough to change her entire life.
But the price is a man named Xavier Thorne who just paid that much money to own one day of her time.
A private message appears on her screen.
Her heart stops reading it.
"I don't share. One day, all of it, belongs to me."
Lily reads the message five times to make sure she understands it correctly.
She does.
This man just told her that he doesn't share. That she belongs to him now. That the auction wasn't just about buying a date. It was about buying her.
She should be terrified.
She is terrified.
But underneath the terror is something else. Something that feels like relief. Something that feels like maybe someone finally thinks she's worth the price. Worth the investment. Worth fighting for.
She googles Xavier Thorne at 2 AM because she can't sleep.
His company is called Thorne Industries. He's a billionaire. Multiple times over. He made his fortune in tech and then diversified into everything. Real estate. Fashion. Finance. He's ruthless in every article. Cold in every photo. Dangerous in every headline.
There's one photo from three years ago at a fashion showcase.
He's in the background looking at the runway.
His expression makes her breath catch.
He's not looking at the models.
He's looking at someone offstage.
Someone in the corner.
Someone who looks exactly like Lily.
She was at that showcase. She was eighteen years old and showing her designs for the first time and too scared to stand on the runway so she stayed in the corner.
And Xavier Thorne was watching her.
Not the models. Her.
For three years.
Lily closes the browser and sets her phone down.
She lies in bed in the dark trying to understand what just happened.
She posted a profile hoping to make five thousand dollars.
A billionaire named Xavier Thorne just paid three hundred thousand for the privilege of owning her for one day.
And he's been watching her for three years.
And she just gave him permission to claim her.
At 3 AM her phone buzzes with another private message from Xavier.
"I know you're awake. I know you've been googling me. I know you're scared. That's good. Fear means you understand. My offer is real. The money is real. I'm real. And tomorrow at 10 AM, I'm coming to collect what I bought. Be ready, Lily. Your life is about to change."
She doesn't respond.
She can't.
Because she's already decided what she's going to do.
She's going to say yes.