Chapter 117: The Clown Show

Looking over at Harold Phillips standing by the buffet, Jude shook his head with a faint smile and put his knife down on his plate.

"Got to hand it to you, Harold," Jude said. "Walking this close to me on purpose takes some serious guts."

Harold let out a laugh, sticking his chin up. "And why the hell shouldn’t I walk over here?"

"Not worried you’ll end up with a broken leg like Jovan over by the pillar?" Jude asked, grabbing another piece of steak.

Harold’s eyes flared with hatred, his jaw clenching hard. "Don’t you dare compare me to Jovan! This is my turf tonight, Lawson. You lay a single finger on me here, and I’ll make sure you regret ever being born!"

"Big words," Jude said, his face calm. "Though if you want to walk out of here on your own two feet, I’d take three steps back."

"You arrogant bastard—"

Furious at how Jude looked down on him, Harold took a threatening step forward.

"Chill out, Harold... keep your head!"

Before Harold could do something stupid, Arthur Snyder stuck an arm out and shoved him back.

As much as Arthur wanted to see Jude get smashed, they were in the main ballroom of the Heavens Club.

Starting a fistfight before the auction even began would bring down Vanessa Canfield’s security... and not even the Snyders could save Harold from getting kicked out and blacklisted.

Tonight was about buying the club, and Arthur wasn’t about to let a brawl ruin the deal.

Fixing his suit jacket with a fake, friendly smile, Arthur turned to Jude.

"So, Mr. Lawson... did you come all the way to Midtown hoping to buy the Heavens Club too?"

"That’s the plan," Jude nodded, chewing his food.

Beside Arthur, Harold snorted, laughing in his face. "The Heavens Club isn’t some cheap flea-market junk anyone can just pick up! Tons of clowns claim they’re here for the sale just to save face, when they really just snuck in to stuff their faces at the free buffet and drink expensive wine. Once the bidding actually starts, I doubt they can even afford the starting bid!"

Jude gave Harold a quick, almost pitying look.

He honestly couldn’t understand how the guy’s brain worked...

Jude had already ground Harold’s face into the dirt more than once, yet the second he found a new rich backer to hide behind, he came running right back, begging for another slap.

"Harold sounds a bit harsh, Mr. Lawson, but he’s not wrong," Arthur chimed in with a smug smirk. "The richest families on the East Coast have been prepping for weeks for this auction. Once the bidding opens, the starting price alone is going to be way out of reach for ordinary pockets."

Right on cue, a third guy in a sharp tuxedo, Sadie’s ex, Sheldon walked up right next to Arthur.

"Speaking of deep pockets, Mr. Snyder," Sheldon said, making sure every table around could hear him, "word is the Snyder family is dead set on taking the Heavens Club home tonight. Mind telling us how much cash you guys brought to the table?"

Arthur lifted his champagne glass with totally fake modesty. "Nothing to brag about, Sheldon. Our family only set aside two billion dollars in cash for tonight."

"Two billion dollars?!"

Around the nearby tables, a bunch of rich guests gasped, staring at Arthur in shock.

Dropping two billion dollars in cash for a single club was a terrifying flex!

Standing by the food table, Jude watched the three of them act out their little circus.

It was painfully obvious they had practiced this exact script just to flex in his face...

Since the mystery boss hadn’t walked out yet and Jude had fifteen minutes to kill, he leaned against the table and enjoyed the free comedy show.

None of these three clowns had the slightest clue what real wealth actually looked like.

Even the massive Vanguard-Rockefeller group secretly backing the Snyders tonight was split between dozens of greedy board members and trusts.

Meanwhile, every single cent of the trillions running through Lawson Capital belonged to Jude, and Jude alone!

Loving the shocked gasps around the room, Sheldon turned to Jude with a mocking grin. "What about you, Jude? Since you told Mr. Snyder you’re bidding tonight, how much cash did you bring?"

Jude stopped for half a second with his glass near his mouth, then said casually, "Didn’t bring much."

"How much is ’not much’?" Harold sneered, leaning in.

"Call it five million," Jude said, throwing out the first tiny pocket-change number that popped into his head.

For two whole seconds, dead silence fell over the buffet table.

Everyone listening in stared at Jude like he had lost his mind.

"Lawson, are you joking?!" Arthur blurted out. "You showed up to the Heavens Club auction with five million dollars?!"

"It’s just a four-story building with a bar license," Jude shrugged. "Five million sounds pretty generous to me."

Seeing the perfect chance to humiliate Jude in front of thirty Midtown billionaires, Arthur raised his voice so it echoed across the whole ballroom.

"Come on, Jude! Even if you’re just some boss from Queens, aren’t you supposed to run Empire World and Apex Media?"

"Even a second-rate company could borrow a few hundred million! Telling this room you brought five million bucks to buy the Heavens Club is the joke of the year!"

"Jude, are you insane, or are you just playing dumb tonight?!" Harold barked, laughing his head off. "Five million in Midtown won’t even buy you the lease on a trashy dive bar, and you think you’re buying the Heavens Club?!"

Watching Arthur and Harold dig their own graves with huge smiles on their faces, Jude decided to give them a little more rope to hang themselves with.

"Not everyone has the Snyder family’s bottomless wallet, Mr. Snyder. Where I come from, five million is plenty of cash."

Arthur let out a mocking laugh, shaking his head at Jude so everyone could see.

"You really are something else, Lawson," Arthur sneered. "To be honest, for months now I’ve been hearing rumors in high-level circles that you’re nothing but a disposable puppet propped up by Thomas Sterling... and that Sterling is the real puppet master running Empire World from the shadows! At first, I didn’t buy it. But seeing the so-called ’Chairman’ show up tonight with a pathetic five million dollars in his pocket proves every word! You’re just a fake figurehead!"

Beside him, Sheldon and Harold burst into mocking laughter, and several guests who didn’t know Jude started nodding along.

If Jude was just a salaried puppet holding shares for Thomas Sterling, then there was nothing scary about him at all!

Twenty yards back by the marble pillar, however, Jovan Lambert wiped cold sweat from his forehead, looking at Arthur and Harold like they were two blind idiots dancing on top of an active volcano.

Outsiders who hadn’t seen the slaughter in Queens might swallow that "puppet" garbage, but Jovan knew the horrifying truth in his bones...

He had seen with his own eyes how the ruthless Thomas Sterling bowed before Jude Lawson, shaking in terror at his slightest glare.

If Jude were just a puppet, Jovan’s own billionaire father wouldn’t be losing sleep at night terrified of crossing him...

Meanwhile, thirty feet away by the champagne fountain, every word of Arthur’s mouth reached the ears of Sabrina and Sadie.

Sabrina frowned hard, knowing for a fact that Jude could never be anyone’s puppet.

Beside her, however, Sadie’s eyes lit up.

For weeks, Sadie had been losing sleep, tortured by the fact that the broke loser she once dumped had magically turned into an untouchable billionaire.

Hearing Arthur’s words suddenly made everything make sense to her...

Wait... so his whole billionaire persona was just a fake act?

He’s just a puppet holding shares for Thomas Sterling?!