The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

Astrid chuckled dryly.

Mature enough?

If leaked, the research material in the lab would send shock waves around the globe.

Yet, in Vivienne’s words, it was merely mature enough?

Astrid glanced at her and asked, “So, you agree to stay in the lab?”

Vivienne nodded. “Yeah.”

Astrid breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. “Thanks, Vivienne. I really appreciate you agreeing to be part of this experiment. Our progress will surely skyrocket now.”

Vivienne did not respond. Instead, she turned her gaze to the car window, watching the streetlights fall, and a slow smile spread across her lips.

After dropping Vivienne off at home, Astrid did not go upstairs. Instead, she turned the car around and drove away.

In the back seat lay the experimental data Vivienne had revised that day.

…

Returning home, Dorian and Cordelia were already asleep, and even though the light was on in Thaddeus’ room, he was sound asleep, too.

Vivienne switched off Thaddeus’ light and entered her own room.

The moment she opened the door, her steps faltered, her eyes sharpening instantly.

A chill ran through her as she looked towards the window – a piece of paper was wedged in the crack.

This was the twenty-third floor; unless it was an inside job, this kind of infiltration was extraordinary!

She was sure that apart from Dorian’s family, no one else was here.

Obviously, she was dealing with a pro!

She walked over and pulled out the paper.

The message was a mishmash of newspaper cutouts, and crooked letters forming a single line.

[The TCL Lab.]

the

who sent this was not

who could it

Suddenly, she smirked.

fill of the outside world, that old coot was now

he want to see if

as she pulled out her phone and opened Twitter, posting one simple tweet, [Pay

Twitter, but Matthew had insisted it was the rage and would not stop nagging until she gave

since signing up, just

figure, and her Twitter followers had grown. She had about a million

her nine ‘brothers’ from the same master were the first to get the

only one person in the world who could

bucks, unpaid

faked his death, leaving

for payment, it was

miss out on helping Vivienne

nine tweeted, echoing Vivienne’s

the nine, were baffled, wondering who

Leopold replied seriously,

created a new account for Finnian and tagged him in a post, [Master, a grand isn’t a

their

What was going on?

master dodging a

nowadays would cover

to retweet and tag Finnian, urging him

the other disciples were

[Holy smokes! Leopold, you’ve got guts! Aren’t you

one, Leopold! I support

[I’ll mourn for

fear? A man’s gotta have backbone! Just

Aren’t we supposed to help her get it back? If I were you, I’d be tweeting right now, hounding the old man to pay! Isn’t Vivienne’s happiness worth more than your little troubles? Besides, who knows where that old guy

Jerry: [Makes sense!]

used to be unreliable, but he’s spot-on this time. We stand with Vivienne

I’ve retweeted Leopold’s

the rest of Finnian’s disciples also tweeted, tagging him

star Stephen joined in the retweeting frenzy, shooting Vivienne’s