The Highest Bidder

❊ Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ Eɪɢʜᴛ ❊

Sophia and I stood at the sidelines while the twenty people ate their breakfasts in silence. The woman I flipped off didn't look at me again, nor did any of the other women. But the men kept sneaking glances at me with little grins on their faces, to which I cocked an eyebrow. I wasn't what they were used to. That was obvious enough.

"So, the new girl." One of the women spoke up.

Enzo looked at the red headed woman. "What about her?"

Sophia was basically bouncing next to me, her eyes moving around the room restlessly. I probably wouldn't need to clean anything in the house. She'd have all three stories cleaned before she crashed into a heap of tired flesh. The thought made me smile. I had been drinking Red Bull mixed with coffee for quite some time, but I started small and didn't drink it often. She, on the other hand, had one-third of her cup filled with the energy drink.

"Where is she from?" She chanced a look at me. "Like, other than the auction?"

I cringed at the memory of the auction. It didn't last long, but the few moments that I spent in the hands of the auctioneer and the men that worked with her were some of the most horrifying moments of my life. I knew I should have been thankful that I ended up with Enzo, but I wished he would just let me go.

"I'm not sure." Enzo shrugged. "She hasn't been here for an entire day yet, so I haven't had the chance to get her to sign her contract for me either."

The red-headed woman looked at me. "Where are you from?"

"That's none of your business." I smiled.

It really wasn't any of her business where I came from and how I got to be in Enzo's hands. It wasn't any of their business. If I had anything to do with it, I'd be gone by the end of the night. The nineteen other people had to leave at some point, to which I would follow them out and slip through the gate. It was the only plan I could think of. It was full proof as long as he didn't realize I was missing until I was long gone.

Enzo sighed again and stood. "Sophia, will you clean up after they're done? I need to speak with Eva."

"Yes, sir." She nodded a little too enthusiastically, to which he turned narrowed eyes on me. I shrugged as if to tell him that I had no idea how she got that way. But the look in his eyes was enough to tell me that he knew damn well that I had something to do with the way she was acting.

He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. The look he shot me was enough to tell me that he expected me to follow him out. And follow him out I did, feeling every single eye on my retreating back as I walked.

He was silent, leading me up to the second floor and down a long hallway to a black door. He opened it and motioned for me to go in. The room smelled of vanilla. The entirety of the room was made up of wood and had one long desk facing the door with one white leather chair on one side and two on the other. The room had a sink and a microwave to the left with a cupboard beside it, closed off so that I couldn't see what was in it. A coffee pot sat, seemingly untouched, next to the microwave.

There was a large bookshelf to the right of his desk with books of every variety - classic literature to modern literature and to screen plays.

"Sit," he commanded after he shut the door behind us.

I watched him circle his desk and begin typing on his keyboard, his eyes locked on something on the screen. He didn't look up at me, but the annoyed twitch to his lips had me moving forward and sitting across from him.

He reached under his desk and grabbed a stack of papers before facing them towards me. He placed a black pen on top of the stack. "Sign on each dotted line unless it asks for your initials. This is what I'll send your parents to tell them where you are and what you'll be doing. You will have no contact with them in the year that you will work for me, which it clearly states on the contract. If you sign it, they have no legal say in the matter."

"I'm not signing some shitty contract that you thought up to try and save the day." I crossed my arms and leaned back in the soft chair. "I don't know how many times that I have to say this, but I do not want to be here. I do not want to work for you."

"Where are you from, Eva?" He still didn't look at me.

"I'm from a little town called mind your own damn business." I smiled and he finally looked at me. I leaned forward in the chair and looked directly into his eyes. "I will not be your little toy, Enzo Bianchi. I didn't need saving. I don't need saving. I do, however, need to go back to my apartment and back to my job where I'll actually be making money."

"Eva Whelan." He ground out.

I threw my hands up. "Whoa, buddy. The full name trick only works if you know my full name and if you're my mother. You don't have the body parts to be my mother. You're about four cup sizes too small and I'm sure you don't have a vagina."

His dark eyes flickered in anger. Usually that would have frightened me, but my annoyance was bigger than his anger. I did not ask to be taken into the auction, I didn't ask to be purchased by him, and I sure as hell didn't ask to work for the guy.

He let out a slow, even breath and looked back at his computer. "Eva Rose Whelan. Twenty four years old. Born on June first to Tania and Roy Whelan in Charleston, South Carolina. You moved to Columbia, South Carolina at age twenty-two for your journalism career. You've been a success as an intern, and were offered a full-time job there. You're a runner and have completed six 10k's, two half marathons, and one full marathon. You were pregnant at the age of nineteen, but miscarried. No prior arrests and only two minor traffic violations."

I gaped at him for only a second before I stood.

He looked at me and tilted his head. "No witty comebacks? Do you have a problem with me looking into your history?"

"That is none of your business!" The only real problem I had was the fact that he somehow got the hospital records from when I was nineteen. No one knew of the miscarriage, since it was only four months into the pregnancy and the bump wasn't noticeable under baggy clothes. Well, no one but my parents and the father of the baby, who was more than happy to find out that his child was no longer growing in my stomach.

He looked into my background, which was fine. He found out where I was from, which was fine. He found out what I did as a job, which was fine as well. Everyone who knew me knew that I ran and that I abided by the law. But no one...no one knew of my pregnancy. And he just pulled it up without even batting an eye. He spoke the one thing that could still make me crumble to my knees in a fit of tears without any remorse whatsoever.

I didn't think. I reached out, grabbed his computer and flung it across the room, causing the screen to crack and break, along with shatter the coffee maker upon impact. Even after the sound of breaking glass diminished, I continued to breathe heavily, my hands shaking at my sides.

I leaned across his desk and got into his face. "Don't you ever...ever speak of my miscarriage again, do I make myself perfectly clear? You can look into anything and everything that has to do with me, but that baby was never, and will never, be any of your business."

He remained silent, but I could see the pity in his eyes as I backed away. Tears were filling my eyes as I took a few steps away from him before turning and leaving his office. I slammed the door shut and ran down the hall, down the stairs, and to the room I would have to stay in - my prison for the next three hundred and sixty four days unless I found a way to escape.

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A/N: If one more person compares The Highest Bidder to 365 DNI, I'm going to lose my mind 😂

THB was published on Wattpad in 2018. I first started writing it mid 2017. 365 DNI (the movie) came out in 2020. I wrote it first, gosh darn it 😂 (totally kidding about being salty about it. I just find it funny).