The Auctioned Wife

Chapter 2

The room fell quiet for a moment. Every eye turned toward Nathan and me.

My whole body shook as tears poured uncontrollably down my face. "Nathan, we dated for five years and were married for five. We spent ten whole years together. Why are you doing this to me?"

Nathan regarded me without emotion.

"Why?" He rose, tightening his arm around Sophia's waist. A trace of amusement colored his voice.

Sophia nestled against him and rested a hand lightly on her stomach, flaunting the gesture.

Nathan's gaze followed her hand. Then he spoke to me in a gentle voice. "Sophia is pregnant. The baby is mine."

It hit me like a bolt of lightning. Without thinking, I touched my flat stomach.

In five years of marriage, I had never conceived. I had secretly visited countless doctors, swallowed endless bitter medicines, and even been branded barren by the media.

Nathan looked at me with derision. "You can't give me a child. Do you expect the Carter family line to end with me?"

Sophia gazed at me with tearful innocence. "Evelyn, don't blame Nathan. He did it all for me."

Nathan kissed her cheek. When he turned back to me, his eyes were cold again.

"Do you remember when the Reed family went bankrupt five years ago? Because she offended you, I reduced her from a pampered heiress to an orphan with nothing."

At that point, Nathan fell silent for a moment before continuing.

"But she forgave me. She even fell in love with me. Loving the man who destroyed her family tormented her conscience and sent her into depression. Then, of all times, she discovered she was pregnant."

"The doctor said only the right person could heal the wounds in her heart. So I decided to let her watch the person truly responsible for her family's ruin lose everything and be publicly disgraced."

Nathan's voice turned glacial as he looked at me. "Why would I have destroyed her family if not for you? You were the real culprit."

I stared at him blankly. I couldn't believe his reason for taking revenge on me could be so absurd.

Nathan walked up to me. His fingertips gently brushed the tears from my cheek, and his voice was tender, though his words were unspeakably cruel.

"Don't worry. After the auction, you'll still be my wife. You just won't be Mrs. Carter anymore."

"I'll keep you protected in a villa no one can find. Your identity, your property—everything you own—will belong to Sophia."

"But you'll remain my wife. That's the last mercy I'll show you."

With that, he returned to the place of honor and signaled for the auction to continue.

I stood frozen, as if I had been plunged into an icy abyss.

The man who had once promised to love me forever had destroyed my reputation and now wanted to turn me into a plaything stripped of all dignity.

The filthy remarks around me gradually blurred into a dull buzz. Someone shouted, "Keep the auction going! Don't let one crazy woman waste everyone's time!"

"Exactly! Two million for that recording! No one else better bid against me!"

After anger and despair engulfed me, an almost numb calm settled over me.

I looked around steadily and beckoned to a young staff member wearing the Bennett Group's crest on his chest.

The Bennett Group held a controlling stake in the auction house, so naturally, it had placed its own people there.