Chapter 6 - THE AUCTION ON THE LAWN
Two weeks later.
The autumn sky over Bryn Mawr was crisp and bright.
A large yellow-and-black sign stood in the front lawn of 1428 Oakwood Drive:
PUBLIC AUCTION: FORECLOSED REAL ESTATE PROPERTY.BY ORDER OF FIRST NATIONAL BANK.
A crowd of thirty prospective buyers, real estate investors, and curious neighbors gathered on the driveway.
Standing near the front porch were my parents. All their expensive furniture had been loaded into a moving truck forty-eight hours earlier. They were moving into a small, one-bedroom apartment in a rundown neighborhood forty minutes away.
Evander wore an old jacket, holding a paper coffee cup, staring at the ground. Kalista sat on a folding lawn chair, looking hollowed out.
I stepped out of a black town car wearing a dark navy coat. Beside me walked Marcus and Harrison.
The auctioneer stood on the front steps with a microphone.
“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen,” the auctioneer called out. “Starting bid for 1428 Oakwood Drive is three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Do I hear three-fifty?”
An investor in a leather jacket raised his paddle. “Three-fifty!”
“Four hundred!” another man called out.
“Four-fifty!”
I raised my hand cleanly. “Seven hundred thousand.”
The crowd went dead silent.
Evander’s head snapped up. Kalista gasped, staring at me in total shock.
The auctioneer blinked. “Seven... seven hundred thousand dollars from the lady in navy. Do I hear seven-fifty?”
Silence fell over the lawn. No investor was going to pay seven hundred thousand for a house that needed fifty thousand dollars in roof repairs.
“Going once... going twice... SOLD to the lady in navy for seven hundred thousand dollars!”
BANG!
The auctioneer struck his wooden block.
Evander stumbled toward me, his hands shaking. “Rowena... you bought the house? You saved our home?”
I looked at him calmly. “I bought the property, Dad. I didn't save your home.”
“What do you mean?” Kalista asked, standing up from her lawn chair. “If you bought it, we can move back in! We can fix this!”
Harrison Vance stepped forward, pulling a legal document from his coat.
“Mr. and Mrs. Vance,” Harrison announced cleanly. “My client has purchased this real estate as an institutional asset for her foundation. You have precisely two hours to clear your remaining personal items from the lawn before a civil trespass order is enforced.”
Kalista looked as if she had been slapped across the face. “You’re... you're kicking us out of our own house?!”
“It’s not your house anymore,” I said softly. “You sold it to the bank when you stopped paying your bills to finance Vesper’s fake lifestyle.”
I walked past them, up the front steps, and opened the double mahogany doors.
The foyer was completely empty. The marble floor was polished clean.
Standing in the center of the foyer, I looked at the bottom of the stairs—the exact spot where I had laid bleeding three weeks ago.
I turned to a contractor standing behind me.
“Tear out these marble floors,” I ordered smoothly. “Tear out the staircase. We are converting this entire building into a free housing shelter for young women recovering from domestic abuse.”
The contractor nodded, writing on his clipboard. “Understood, Miss Vance. Work begins tomorrow.”
May you like
Behind me, on the driveway, I heard my mother weeping as my father pulled her toward their old secondhand car.
I closed the front doors, locking them behind me.
