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.

cried about diapers

settled it; Karen always had the

heart’s content. It was then that she circled back to the matter at

at the scene was a bionic robot, an android,” Karen said, reclining in her chair and rubbing her belly

sipped her soda and burped. “I tossed that rock to check if she was an android. Never

handed the pair wet wipes, pondering quietly. “It only shows

androids, now enhanced by the Brooks family and the two samples

the pinnacle of these experiments—an android being capable of

given to Vivienne by Zachary Churchill just

progress for years, but now they could

“It seems we have a mole among us

to check on Zachary, William Pendleton, or the Brooks family. She thought they had found the mole,

wipe neatly on the 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,

under surveillance. No issues there, and the Churchill

of the airborne particles, we couldn’t risk using any

after settling the bill, caught the tail end

up, their gunshots sounded muffled. I thought they’d switched guns. Could it be

turned around and saw Vivienne in the same posture as Karen, he frowned even

why don’t we head home and

the mention of

family must be

everything. It was only because Diana had pushed Vivienne to the brink that she

hesitation, Vivienne reached out and

for the term ‘family.’ In

person is, there is always

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

isolation, building walls so high that she

had blood relatives who had been searching for her for over thirty years, the prospect of getting close

for us,” Vivienne said, her hand warm in Karen’s—a comfort

past decade, Karen had stayed close to Vivienne, watching as she single-handedly established the Nine Mystics Society, witnessing her transformation from