Veiled Auction Queen: Bidding For His Ex-Wife's Heart

"Emilia, the service is about to start. Is Daniel seriously still not here?" someone called out.

Wearing a simple black dress, Emilia Moore sat before her mother's coffin inside the church as the stark overhead lights washed her already pale face in a ghostly glow.

She glanced down at her phone, its battery nearly dead, and the call she had made to Daniel Wright—her husband of three years—remained unanswered.

With her mother gone, Emilia—now seven months pregnant—had spent the past week handling every detail of the funeral alone. Her husband hadn't shown up once.

Work always consumed him, and she had consistently tried to be patient and considerate about that.

Wanting to believe in him, she kept persuading herself that he must simply be overwhelmed with responsibilities.

"He must be busy. Probably can't make it," she whispered as tears slid down her face. She then slowly pushed herself upright despite the heaviness of her swollen belly and added in a hoarse, trembling voice, "Let's begin the service."

Beside her, her aunt, Lynda Moore, spoke with open scorn. "Emilia, just how busy could Daniel really be? It's been a full week, and he hasn't shown up even once. It's like your mother means absolutely nothing to him."

Kimberly Moore, Lynda's daughter, let out a derisive laugh. "Mom, you're wrong. It's not that he doesn't care about her mother—he doesn't care about her at all. And the baby she's carrying? Obviously not them either."

Their harsh laughter cut straight through Emilia, and a bitter weight tightened in her chest, yet she stubbornly reminded herself that Daniel had always fulfilled his responsibilities as a husband and would never skip something like this intentionally; he must truly be swamped with work.

Just as she barely convinced herself of that explanation, the truth struck her like a sudden blow.

Kimberly glanced down at her phone and exclaimed, "Hold on—isn't that Daniel? He's trending in the news right now!"

She intentionally turned the phone toward Emilia.

Emilia lowered her eyes. The screen showed a video that had begun spreading online that very morning, though it had clearly been recorded the night before.

The headline read, "Daniel Wright Goes All Out for Isabel Hayes' Birthday."

In the footage, dazzling fireworks burst across the dark sky while a man sat calmly in a chair, composed and authoritative, his deep gaze resting steadily on the young woman beside him as she pointed upward at the fireworks with a radiant smile.

Though the fireworks lit the sky brilliantly, Emilia's eyes remained fixed on the man.

She recognized him immediately as Daniel, her husband.

Shock and humiliation crashed over her when she realized he had spent the previous night celebrating another woman's birthday beneath those blazing fireworks.

For a long moment, her mind emptied completely. Her whole body went rigid, leaving her unable to move.

The crackling fireworks continued in the video while Kimberly's mocking voice rang out beside her. "Emilia, didn't you say your husband was busy? Oh, he's definitely