The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

An hour had passed before Mara finally stirred, a ghostly pallor on her face. Her voice was a weak whisper, barely there.

She had never felt so terrible in her life—it was like being on death’s doorstep!

That Gillian had actually given her a bottle of sleeping pills, and here she had thought they were vitamins.

If only she had known, she would not have taken a single one!

“Mara, you’re awake.” Cecilia’s voice carried a mixture of relief and worry, as if a great weight had been lifted from her heart upon seeing Mara’s eyes open.

To underscore her feebleness, Mara coughed deliberately, a decision she instantly regretted as her stomach convulsed painfully.

“Auntie, what happened to me?” Mara’s eyes brimmed with tears, but her pain was genuine.

Cecilia sat by the hospital bed, wiping away the tears streaking Mara’s face. “Oh, you silly girl. Do you have any idea how close you came to never seeing me again?”

Mara feigned shock, glancing down at her wrist as if seeing it anew, a look of realization crossing her face. “I… I’m sorry, Auntie. I just wasn’t thinking straight.”

“You really…” Cecilia held Mara’s hand, her heart full of unsaid words.

Across the room, Percival sat brooding on the couch, his eyes stormy as the horizon’s edge.

Vivienne, on the other hand, watched the scene with a certain amusement.

Such a promising talent, indeed.

Mara seemed to be cut from the same cloth as Gillian had been.

If she were to be signed and groomed properly, she might even outshine Kala!

Kala: Impossible, utterly impossible!

her palm, her mind

to Percival. “Percival, why don’t you take Isolde back home? Everything’s under control here. I’ll stay

Mara looked at Percival with

Percival’s, her smile beaming at

that even she

was driven—Vivienne was all about

her true love, Mr. Wolf merely

“Now I’m not only less appealing

expected that Vivienne would actually reach out to her. Since that was the case, she was not about to miss this opportunity to overplay

her IV and stumbled to her feet, only to collapse to her knees with a

for things to

assumed that even if Percival did nothing and Isolde was too young to understand, at least Cecilia would rush to stop her. After

dismay, no one came to her

but managed

into an awkward silence until Mara lifted her head, her

Mara’s tone. “What are you doing? I never blamed

her barely suppressed mirth. He smiled, affectionately ruffling her

true. Vivienne has the biggest heart. She doesn’t hold grudges easily. Mara, don’t pull this act again. Admitting

snorted from the corner,

a kid fresh out of elementary school was too much for

Get

do to apologize?” Mara screamed silently. Reluctantly, she climbed back onto her feet, and whether by design or not, she winced at a sudden pain in her

the bed, she

move to her side, helping Mara back into bed. “You need to

Cecilia’s hand, her eyes betraying a fragility,

softly. “With today’s technology, there’s hardly anything that can’t be