Mira Pov
The first bid came so fast that I almost missed it. The announcer had barely finished introducing me when somebody near the front called out a number that would have paid every bill Grandma and I had struggled with for years. For a second, I honestly thought I'd heard wrong, but then another bidder raised it before the announcer could finish repeating it, and a third voice jumped in right after that.
I stood there under the bright lights trying not to look completely terrified while people argued over amounts of money that didn't even sound real anymore. Back home, I spent most of my time worrying about rent, groceries, and whether the diner would give me extra shifts. Here, people were casually throwing around enough money to buy entire neighborhoods.
The worst part was how n
