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.

continued, “Or the time you cried about diapers and not wanting to break the rule of

settled it; Karen always had the last

feasted to her heart’s content. It

android,” Karen said, reclining in her

soda and burped. “I tossed that rock to check if she was an android. Never thought I’d

pair wet wipes, pondering quietly. “It only shows the androids inside GTO are evolving just

and the two samples Karen had

pinnacle of these experiments—an

android was given to Vivienne by Zachary Churchill

progress for years, but now they could match the

“It seems we have a mole among us

too focused on finding Karen to check on Zachary, William Pendleton, or the Brooks

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.

nodded. “Right. With Scott gone, the Brooks family has been under surveillance. No issues there, and the Churchill and Pendleton families are out of

“Because of the airborne particles, we couldn’t risk using any chemicals. Even Percival’s shot wouldn’t have set them

the

sounded muffled. I thought they’d switched guns. Could it be Vance again?” Karen propped her chin on her hand, tapping

and saw Vivienne in the same posture as

“Master, Vivienne, why don’t we head home and think this

of

must be

everything. It was only because Diana had pushed Vivienne to

out and took Karen’s

for the term ‘family.’ In fact, she was downright resistant to

there is always a tender scar hidden away deep

about her origins, she had been deeply wounded by her foster parents—left

a long time, Karen had lived in a state of isolation, building walls so high that she

had been searching for her for over

waiting for us,” Vivienne said, her hand warm in Karen’s—a comfort akin to the cozy sweaters her mother used to wrap her

single-handedly established the Nine Mystics Society, witnessing her transformation from