My family burst out laughing. “Oh, look, the broke girl thinks she can bid at an auction.” I stayed quiet. Thirty minutes later, I raised my paddle — and bought the $12 million mansion they’d all shown up to fight over. The worst part wasn’t the words; it was how familiar they sounded. Same tone, same smirks, just a bigger stage and a higher price tag. The gravel crunched under my heels as I stepped out of my Uber in front of that white-columned estate, the American flag snapping in the Virginia