Clashing Hearts

9

Carter's POV

I was inside the hotel restaurant having lunch with the two representatives of the International Society of art museum appraisers. One guy a Singaporean Chinese and the other an Indian New Zealander. They proved to be very expert in the field of arts and artifacts museum collection.

"The old man wouldn't allow us to take a look at his collections. He was so mad when we went there and asked for his permission." Mr. Kho shook his head with dismay. "He even threatened to sue us if we would insist." 

"But we found a way to get inside. We had three in our team, all Korean, disguised as tourists. They were able to assess almost everything with the help of Mr. Murphy's granddaughter. She happened to be a Kpop fan and she was very accommodating showing the team every corner of the museum. They even went to the basement." The other guy, Mr. Kaur fed me the details.

"So, what is the result? Were you able to make a rough estimate of all items?" I was curious to know if that museum really worth a fortune or full of trash. 

"Yeah, they were able to list down the items that they found valuable." Mr. Kho answered. 

"And?"

"You're right, Mr. Monteiro. Most of the items there don't have much worth. Many are replicas of original images or paintings. Well, there are some originals collections, but not really that valuable, like the vintage coins, figurines, gems, utensils and wares... you can find it in other museum as well."

"What about the vampire coffin? That skeleton standing at the basement he claimed as old as Cleopatra?"

"That coffin resembled the ones used in the circus by magicians, and that skeleton, there's a brand name stamped at the back, it's what medical students use in their human anatomy class. They also found out from his granddaughter that the knight armour suit was given by his nephew who worked as the costume designer of the movie King Arthur."

"Really? But did you find any special paintings or rare collections in there?"

"Yeah, but there are a few of them. When we'd appraise everything, his collection would only cost around one million dollars."

"One million!" I was so shocked. 

The whole estate was approximately worth ten million, so the selling price of everything would only cost around eleven million. He could go a bit higher but that was it. Two billion dollars was too much!That man never changed, he was still a crook.

Athena should know about this. The old man fooled her by asking two billion dollars and to think she would give in. If not for my intervention, she probably signed the deed of sale and paid Mr. Murphy by now. She would be wasting her trust fund by investing on that museum.

I continued having lunch with the gentlemen but my mind still lingered at Athena.

Yeah, I hated Athena, I did not like her at all. But the thought of her being victimised by someone like Mr. Murphy, really bothered me, to the point that I became mad at her for being so dumb and stupid to agree easily on what was offered in front of her.