The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

With a thunderous bang, Diana’s gun fired, but the bullet whizzed past Vivienne’s ear, barely grazing a hair.

Unfazed, Vivienne did not even flinch.

Diana, panic-stricken, stared at the figure before her, feeling her wrist trapped as if in an iron vise, pain radiating through her bones like a fracture in progress.

“You… you’re Sasha!”

Karen’s gaze was heavy, a mix of the strange and the familiar.

She had never imagined that the story behind her kidnapping was so convoluted!

Clenching her fist, Karen threw a punch that landed squarely in Diana’s gut with the force of a sledgehammer.

“Touch my daughter, and you’re dead meat!”

Diana’s punch could take down a full-grown mastiff, but Karen’s blow could kill a full-grown bull.

The difference in strength was enormous.

Diana felt as if her insides had been rearranged, her nerves and flesh overwhelmed by pain. It was as if she was about to be ripped apart. The agony was excruciating!

Karen then slapped Diana’s face repeatedly, and in no time, Diana’s once delicate features swelled up like a balloon.

Diana tried to steady herself, to take another look at her adversary, but her swollen cheeks pressed so tightly against her eyes that they would not open!

Lifting Diana off her feet, Karen’s fingers flew, sending needle after needle into Diana’s scalp.

“Ah!”

Diana fell to her knees, screaming in torment.

The pain was unbearable!

Rolling on the ground, Diana banged her head against rocks as if the blunt trauma could somehow dull the sharper pain within.

Even as her head was bloodied and bruised, Diana hardly noticed.

inside Karen was far

herself. Karen had already neutralized the

was still bound, and

F-Poison was their next formidable

watching the display as if

really do look so alike. I wonder if all daughters look like their mothers.” Wearing Gillian’s face, she sipped a glass of red wine with a smile, as

the silver needles in her hand ready to

was on high alert, determined not to let F-Poison slip away

you F-Poison?” Karen asked softly, as if in casual conversation, “You seem… younger

soft stroke as if indulging in

face is all I have left to charm the

Karen and Vivienne, the skin

“Frost!”

skin-blade, and kicked a few rocks

gain momentum, Karen accelerated, grabbing a rock and turning it into a projectile. With a burst of energy, she hurled it towards

skin-blade buried itself in the tree where Vivienne had been tied, while the rock pierced F-Poison’s thigh, embedding itself in

F-Poison’s wound, and

about to unleash her poison, Karen raised

air—particles that could trigger a violent explosion upon contact with poison. It was the reason

there’s no escape

Vivienne stood side by

clutching her wounded leg, threw

Karen and

Zelda at the

hostage, what can you really do?” F-Poison taunted, gripping Zelda’s neck tightly, ready

a helicopter’s rotors

go up

Percival aimed his machine

took a step back, pebbles tumbling down the cliff into the abyss below,

now!” Karen stood protectively in front of Vivienne, resolute

a decade ago. Even against many more enemies back

Over a

it be the

than Vivienne—how old was

trained to grow into this

perhaps F-Poison was not the