Chapter 121: Burning Millions for Nothing

A wave of knowing smiles rippled through the room.

Dressed up as a "sealed bid" or not, everyone knew the golden rule: whoever wrote the biggest check was taking the prize home!

Near the front, Arthur Snyder puffed his chest out with smug confidence.

He had come ready to bully everyone with pure cash...

Looking around the 300 people in the room, aside from the Thompsons, not a single family could compete with the $2 billion war chest sitting in his bank account!

Up on stage, though, Chelsea had one more bomb to drop.

"Since I know just how many powerful players want the Heavens Club tonight," Chelsea added, a smile touching her lips, "I decided to add one little catch... anyone who enters the bidding has to pay a price."

The word price made every billionaire in the room raise an eyebrow.

Stepping forward, Arthur Snyder spoke up politely, "Miss Lee, what do you mean by paying a price?"

Chelsea looked down at Arthur. "The rule is simple. Once you hand in your envelope tonight, whether your bid wins or loses... you have to pay 10% of your written number to the club as an entry fee that you never get back."

What?

A massive gasp sucked all the air right out of the room.

Every shark on that floor knew this club was going to sell for billions...

Giving up 10% just to hand in an envelope meant that if you lost, you were literally setting hundreds of millions of dollars on fire for nothing.

Up on the stage, Chelsea Lee didn’t give the stunned billionaires a single second to catch their breath before dropping another bomb into the mic.

"And just so we’re completely clear," Chelsea added with an innocent smile, "that 10% isn’t going into my pocket. Every single dollar collected from the losers tonight will go straight into the club’s account and get handed right to the winner! So think very carefully before you put pen to paper... because no matter what happens, you are not getting a single cent of that 10% back!"

Every shark on that floor saw the trap Chelsea had set.

By making every loser hand over 10% of their bid straight to the winner, she put massive pressure on the whole room...

Anyone thinking about throwing out a multi-billion-dollar bid now had to ask themselves: Can we really afford to burn hundreds of millions of dollars in cash if someone beats us by a dollar?

Take Arthur Snyder at the front table: he had walked in bragging about having $2 billion in cash.

Under normal auction rules, bidding $2 billion cost nothing if he lost...

But under Chelsea’s rule, if old man Thompson beat him, the Snyders would instantly lose $200 million for nothing!

For a family like them, losing $200 million in cash would bleed them dry for years.

At the exact same time, that penalty turned the whole auction into an insane gamble.

If the big dogs got scared and bid low to save their cash, some random underdog could swoop in and steal the Heavens Club for cheap!

Jude watched Chelsea on stage with his eyes narrowed.

"Is everyone clear on the rules?" Chelsea called out over the room’s noise.

"Clear!" people shouted back from the tables.

"Awesome. Anyone who wants to bid can grab an official folder from Vanessa at the front table right now. You have 20 minutes to write your number down and seal the envelope!"

With a graceful wave, Chelsea turned around and vanished behind the stage curtain.

The second she walked off, dozens of rich guys pushed forward around Vanessa Canfield’s table to grab their folders.

Jude had thought that losing 10% would scare half the room off...

Instead, human greed did the exact opposite: thinking the big billionaires would get feet and bid low, tons of mid-level bosses who had zero chance earlier rushed to grab folders, praying to hit the jackpot.

Jude didn’t move an inch from his pillar.

This bidding war didn’t interest him nearly as much as getting backstage to corner Chelsea Lee and find out why she had crashed into his car just to get close to him.

Over at the Snyder family table, Arthur Snyder carried a red folder back from the stage and leaned down to his father, Jeremiah Snyder, his voice shaking.

"Dad... what number do we write down now?"

All the cockiness Arthur had at the buffet 10 minutes ago was gone.

If they wrote down $2 billion and lost to Frank Thompson, saying goodbye to $200 million would ruin them...

Jeremiah stared at the blank paper with a frown. "I underestimated this Miss Lee. Using a 10% penalty to scare the top bidders and turn the whole room into gamblers is ruthless... Right now, the Thompson family already made it clear they’re putting up $3 billion. If we write $2 billion, we’re literally throwing $200 million away for free."

Arthur swallowed hard, glancing toward the Thompson table. "Then... what if we write $3.5 billion?"

"Are you out of your mind?!" Jeremiah hissed, glaring at his son. "President Wilson only put $2 billion in our account! Where do you expect to pull an extra $1.5 billion from... and even at 3.5, who says Frank Thompson won’t write down 4?!"

"So what do we do, Dad? Just give up and walk away?" Arthur asked, furious.

"Give up? No way!" Jeremiah shook his head hard and stood up. "Stay right here and watch the folder. I’m calling President Wilson."

5 minutes later, Jeremiah hurried back from the hallway and sat down, sweating bullets.

"What did Wilson say, Dad?" Arthur asked right away.

"Wilson gave it to me straight," Jeremiah whispered, his voice tense. "The syndicate will back us all the way up to $5 billion to lock down the club tonight. But... if we write $5 billion and somehow still lose, our family has to pay the $500 million penalty out of our own pockets!"