Chapter 261

After speaking, Una took the sample bid sheet and went back to the two sections to re-examine the rough stones. Just like before, when she placed her hand on the stones, she felt nothing. But she couldn’t let anyone notice. She had no choice but to pretend, touching each stone as if she were analyzing them. She couldn’t even remember which stones she had checked before and which ones contained emeralds. All she could do was rely on intuition and pick the ones that seemed promising, filling in the missing numbers on the bid sheet. Even if she couldn’t get all of them right, surely she would at least select a few, right?

It took Una over an hour to hesitantly complete the new bid sheet before handing it to the staff. The staff sealed it in an envelope in front of her. The crowd, having had their fill of the spectacle, gradually dispersed. At that moment, Stanley returned, drenched in sweat. Seeing that Chire wasn’t with him, Una couldn’t hold back her question. “Where is she?”

Stanley shook his head. “We couldn’t find her. She never appeared in the surveillance footage, nor did we see her leaving the premises. We searched outside for a long time and asked around, but no one had seen her. We’re still looking inside. I’ve stationed people at the exits—if she tries to leave, they’ll spot her.”

Una’s eyes darkened. “Then what are you waiting for! Keep searching!”

She joined in the search, checking every women’s restroom. But in the end, Claire was nowhere to be found. Una didn’t believe Stanley, so she went to the surveillance room and demanded to see the footage. But the results were exactly as Stanley had said. The surveillance only showed Claire in the auction hall—after that, she simply vanished from the camera. It was beyond strange. Either someone had tampered with the footage, or some kind of supernatural trick had been used to make Claire disappear from the recordings.

Sundry asked, “What do we do now?”

Frowning, Una said, “Let’s go to the police. We’ll say we suspect someone kidnapped her.” She was almost certain that Phoebe was behind this.

Sundry nodded. “Right.”

So, the group went to the nearest police station to file a report. The officers took down their statement, then asked for Claire’s phone number and called her. The call went through almost immediately, and someone picked up right away. After hanging up, the officer looked at Una and Stanley with mild exasperation.

“You didn’t think to call her first? She says she just suddenly decided to leave early. No kidnapping involved.”

Una and Stanley were momentarily stunned. Neither of them had tried calling Claire. The moment they realized she was missing, they just assumed she had taken the opportunity to escape and wouldn’t answer.

Who would have thought, after leaving the station, Una called Claire. Sure enough, the call connected, and Claire picked up. “What is it!”

Una hadn’t expected this. “Did you go back to the hotel?”

Claire replied, “No, I just left. You guys have fun on your own.”

Chapter 201

Una’s expression darkened. “What do you mean?”

Claire’s voice was cold. “Exactly what I said. I don’t want to play your games anymore. That’s it.”

Before Una could say anything else, the line went dead. She was furious. Claire had gotten bold. She immediately redialed, but her number had already been blocked. Even their contacts on messaging apps had been deleted. Stanley tried calling as well—same result. Claire had definitely run away again. This time, it was almost certainly with Phoebe’s help. But with no surveillance evidence or witnesses, there was no way to prove that Phoebe had anything to do with Claire’s escape. And since Claire was an adult, they had no legal grounds to stop her from leaving.

Frustrated, Una had no choice but to return to the hotel. As soon as she entered her room, she sent a message to a number not saved in her phone. She reported what had happened but deliberately left out the issue with the sealed bids. She believed there was still a chance to fix things tomorrow. She also asked the recipient to send people to retrieve Claire.

The response was quick—they agreed to search for Claire but warned her that tomorrow’s sealed bids must not have any problems.

The next day, everyone gathered at the auction venue. They took their seats in the auction hall and waited. After a while, the staff took the stage to announce the results of the sealed bids for each rough stone. Phoebe had bid on 20 dollars worth of rough stones and won 60 dollars worth. Maddox, who had joined in for fun, bid on over a hundred stones and won twenty. Remy, however, wasn’t so lucky. He bid 30 dollars and only won a dollars worth. The Vaughan Group had bid 1,400 dollars and won 300 dollars worth. Finally, it was revealed that the Woodward Group had the biggest haul, bidding 1,000 dollars and winning 600 dollars worth. Of course, the Woodward Croup had also spent the most–50 million dollars.

Next came the stone cutting. This time, the auction house had arranged for multiple professional stone cutters. Over a dozen cutters worked simultaneously to process the Woodward Group’s stones. Because of Una’s legendary reputation—and the fact that she had successfully won over 2,000 worth of stones despite bidding only 1,000—many spectators gathered to watch, especially those who had heard of her but never witnessed her abilities firsthand. They were eager to see her in action.

But what followed shocked everyone. As one rough stone after another was cut open, the results were just like yesterday’s public auction—a complete failure. Even worse, it wasn’t just that the stones contained emeralds of lesser value than the bid price. They contained no emeralds at all.

Una couldn’t believe it. She watched, wide-eyed in shock, as stone after stone was cracked open, revealing nothing. She murmured, “How… how is this possible?”

Chapter 261

They had bid on 600 dollars worth of stones, and not a single one contained emeralds! Did she really misplace all her numbers by sheer bad luck? Had the backlash from her stolen luck really made her this unlucky? Especially when she saw the Vaughan Group, Phoebe, and others successfully acquire all the stones she had previously identified as valuable. But now, they belonged to someone else. Regret surged through her. Why hadn’t she double-checked before stuffing that bid sheet into the envelope! If only she had kept the original numbers, all these emeralds would still be hers. Now, everything was gone. It was over, 30 million dollars, all down the drain. How was she supposed to explain this to her adoptive parents and the Woodward Group’s executives? And what about the top-tier emeralds that certain people had been expecting from her! She had nothing to show for it. Fear and regret intertwined, twisting in her gut.

Sunley and the Woodward Group executives were just as stunned. They had never expected this. Not a single emerald. Even if they were just picking randomly, 600 dollars worth of stones should have yielded something. What kind of bad luck was this? Wasn’t Una supposed to be the best? Wasn’t she the one who could tell where the emeralds were just by touch!

Stanley’s face was dark as he demanded, “What the hell is going on! You lost everything? That was 30 million dollars!” Just thinking about it made his heart ache. The Woodward Group’s stone gamblers pretended to be upset, but deep down, they were secretly thrilled. One stone gambler, whom Una had suppressed the most over the years, sneered.

Someone sneered at Una and said, “Miss Woodward, we ‘nobodies’ were just practicing, and we lost everything. But who would’ve thought that a genius like you wouldn’t do any better?”

Others joined in mockingly. “Yeah, out of all these raw stones, not a single one contained a base-grade emerald? Mr. Woodward…”

Even the Woodward Group’s executives could no longer hold back. They turned to them, their expressions dark with frustration. One of them, barely containing his anger, demanded, “Mr. Woodward, don’t you think you owe us an explanation?”

What was Una doing! This auction wasn’t just a total failure—they had lost a staggering 50 million. This was the first time The Woodward Group had ever suffered such a disastrous outcome in an auction. Even with the worst stone gamblers they had hired in the past, they had at least managed to pick out a few emerald-bearing stones.

So this is the result after all those tough words. Emmett, taking the opportunity to twist the knife, smirked and said, “Miss Woodward, impressive! You there at us. Who would’ve thought that we’d walk away with solid gain while you ended up with nothing! Truly remarkable. I’m in awe.”

Una wanted to ask the same thing—what the hell was going on? Furious and humiliated under the crowd’s mocking gazes and skeptical stares, she felt her anger boiling over. On top of that, the backlash from earlier was still wreaking havoc on her body. She couldn’t hold it in any longer—she coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed.