Chapter 466

Giselle pursed her lips and let out a derisive laugh.

"Biting off more than they can chew with all these massive projects—let's see if NovaSight Labs doesn't choke on them."

But even as the words left her mouth, they rang hollow, dripping with envy rather than conviction.

If NovaSight Labs dared take on such an ambitious workload, they clearly had the resources to back it up.

Beside her, Malcolm Lancaster's expression mirrored his daughter's bitterness.

The Lancaster family's tech enterprise and Vertex Dynamics had been hitting roadblock after roadblock, while NovaSight Labs's progress seemed unstoppable.

"How does Gabriel Ashcroft keep finding such exceptional talent?" Malcolm grumbled under his breath.

Ever since NovaSight Labs rose to prominence, both their competitors had tried poaching their engineers.

But with NovaSight Labs's skyrocketing reputation, every major corporation—domestic and international—had joined the bidding war.

The Lancasters and Vertex Dynamics found themselves outmatched in this fierce competition.

Despite offering generous compensation packages, luring away top-tier innovators proved nearly impossible.

The fact that NovaSight Labs continued releasing groundbreaking innovations despite constant poaching attempts only proved their deep bench of brilliant minds.

This realization burned like acid in their throats.

Selene Lancaster kept her head down, pushing food around her plate in silence.

Both families had pinned their hopes on her technical expertise, but the deeper she delved into the industry, the more she understood the staggering difficulty of true innovation.

When she offered no solutions, no one pressed her—they assumed she too was frustrated by Vertex Dynamics's stagnation.

The next morning, Camille Hartwell entered the conference room for her scheduled meeting.

Moments after she took her seat, Gabriel Ashcroft arrived.

Before the meeting commenced, he leaned toward her and murmured, "My mother mentioned an interesting auction coming up. They're selling a rare, flawless diamond—one of a kind."

Camille froze.

"Are you certain?"

"Absolutely."

Gabriel remembered because years ago, when they'd first met—barely acquaintances then—a similar diamond had gone to auction with a starting bid exceeding two hundred million.

Camille had been sixteen.

That was when he'd learned about her family situation.

She'd confessed wanting to buy her mother the diamond because Audrey Hartwell adored them—especially the rarest, most exquisite specimens.

Perhaps, just perhaps, such a treasure might help rouse her mother from her catatonic state.

But diamonds of that caliber were nearly impossible to acquire.

Back then, the Hartwell family finances couldn't stretch to such astronomical sums.

Besides, the notion that a gemstone could heal Audrey had always been Camille's desperate hope, not a medical certainty.

Who would gamble their entire fortune on such a fragile chance?

Her younger cousins had still been children, and the family business barely stayed afloat.

So Camille had watched helplessly as that opportunity slipped away.

Over a decade had passed.

Now another legendary diamond had surfaced—this time from a private collection, carrying centuries of provenance.

If they missed this chance, another might not appear in their lifetime.

Camille's pulse quickened.

"I want to go."

Even if the diamond didn't perform miracles, if it brought her mother a moment of joy—even just to hold and admire—that would be enough.

She wouldn't regret it.