The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

Clutching her mother tightly, Vivienne’s tears erupted like a fountain. She wept uninhibited, her sobs echoing through the car like a child’s.

In her mother’s embrace, time seemed to stand still. It was different from the time she had swindled Finnian out of 80 million dollars; this was raw, unfiltered emotion.

After crying herself to near exhaustion, Vivienne finally ceased her tears and remembered she had a bone to pick with her mother.

“Mom, you…” Vivienne started but stopped as she noticed Karen dozing against the car window.

How could any mother be so absent? She was crying her eyes out!

“Vivienne, honey?” Karen murmured, waking to her daughter’s voice and wiping drool from her chin. “Oh, it’s been ages since I heard you cry. Still puts me right to sleep.”

Vivienne was speechless, gazing intensely at her mother, who seemed so different from when she had first seen Anna.

“Mom!”

Karen pulled Vivienne into a hug. “Frost, I’m starved. How about we grab some beef stew before we get into all that?”

Overhearing from outside, Percival could not bear the scene any longer and climbed into the car. He had hoped for a heartwarming reunion, yet Karen’s mind was preoccupied with thoughts of beef stew!

Now he knew where Vivienne got her appetite.

“Master, is food all you ever think about?” Percival complained as he got into the car. Vivienne had been crying her heart out, and Karen had not even tried to comfort her.

Karen slapped Percival’s arm. “Shut it and drive.”

“Mom, please don’t knock the sense out of my Mr. Wolf,” Vivienne said, rubbing the back of Percival’s head tenderly.

Percival chuckled softly, grateful for Vivienne’s gentle touch.

Karen scoffed. “It’s not like you peed on him when you were a kid!”

Vivienne blushed crimson, having no memory of such an incident.

you cried about

always had the

house, where Karen feasted to her heart’s content. It was then that she circled back to the matter

android,” Karen said, reclining in her chair and rubbing her

rock to check if she was an

wipes, pondering quietly. “It only shows the androids

Brooks family and the two samples Karen had left

scene was the pinnacle of these experiments—an

android was given to Vivienne by

no progress for years, but now they could

“It seems we have a mole among us

on finding Karen to check on Zachary, William Pendleton, or the Brooks family. She thought they

table. “There’s definitely a leak, but a mole is unlikely. Without Scott Brooks, the Brooks family is clean, and Baron has long retired. Maybe it’s time to look elsewhere, like new contacts

Brooks family has been under surveillance. No issues there, and the Churchill and Pendleton families are out of

the airborne particles, we couldn’t

the tail end of the conversation. “The gun

their gunshots sounded muffled. I thought they’d switched guns. Could it be Vance again?” Karen

saw Vivienne in the same posture as Karen, he frowned

we head home and

mention of home,

family must be in

after everything. It was only because Diana had

her mother’s hesitation, Vivienne reached out and

didn’t really care much for the term ‘family.’ In fact, she was

a person is, there is

learned the truth about her origins, she had been deeply wounded by

long time, Karen had lived in a state of isolation, building walls so high that she would not let

had blood relatives who had been searching for her for

comfort akin to

past decade, Karen had stayed close to Vivienne, watching as she single-handedly established the Nine Mystics