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.]

she clenched the paper

who sent this was not

who could

Suddenly, she smirked.

the outside world,

Did he want to

lips curled slightly as she pulled out her phone and opened Twitter, posting one simple

resisted signing up for Twitter, but Matthew had insisted it was the rage and would

not used it since signing up, just letting it

public figure, and her Twitter followers

posting, her nine ‘brothers’ from the same master were the

others were clueless, they knew there was only one person in the world who could owe Vivienne money:

thousand bucks,

his death, leaving them grieving

Vivienne’s public call for payment, it was clear the old man was

how could they miss out on

tweeted, echoing Vivienne’s message, [Pay

as well as those of the nine, were

Leopold replied seriously, “The debtor is

tagged him in a post, [Master, a grand isn’t

their followers into a

What was going on?

dodging

job nowadays would

Vivienne’s followers began to retweet and tag Finnian,

tweet, the other disciples were

was the first to message the group, [Holy smokes! Leopold, you’ve got guts! Aren’t you afraid the master

one, Leopold! I support you. Keep it

[I’ll mourn for

to fear? A man’s gotta have

help her get it back? If I were you, I’d be tweeting right now, hounding

Jerry: [Makes sense!]

[Leopold used to be unreliable, but he’s spot-on this time.

[Enough talk. I’ve retweeted Leopold’s

Finnian’s disciples also tweeted, tagging him and

even the pop star Stephen joined in the retweeting frenzy, shooting