The auction had been Sera's idea, which meant it ran exactly the way she wanted.
She had chaired the organizing committee for six weeks, quietly, through emails and one in-person meeting where she sat at the far end of the table and let the committee director think he was running things until the last twenty minutes. Then she restructured the entire budget in four decisions and smiled when he said it was a good idea.
The Hardwick ballroom held three hundred guests. Eighteen auction lots. A dinner program she had timed to the minute, because programs that ran over made people restless and restless people bid less.
She had been there for two hours before the room filled.
She moved through it the way she moved through any room she had prepared for, which was without effort, because the ef
