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!

in her palm, her mind

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

sitting up, Mara looked at

her smile beaming

that even she would

was

true love, Mr. Wolf merely a

appealing than a

to her. Since that was the case, she was not

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

misled me, and I never meant for things to

floor. Though intentionally hard, she had assumed that even if Percival did nothing and Isolde was too young to understand, at

one came

nearly laughed out loud but managed to keep

her head, her

responded with a smile, mimicking Mara’s tone. “What are you doing? I never

He smiled, affectionately ruffling her hair. “Yeah, Vivienne is so

pull this act again. Admitting your mistake is one thing, but forgiveness comes from genuine remorse, not from such theatrics. Why make everyone

from the corner,

scolded by a kid fresh out of elementary school was too much for Mara’s

“Mara, Isolde is right. Get up, what’s with this kneeling

Reluctantly, she climbed back onto her feet, and

bed, she clutched her cheek. “Ah,

side, helping

heal?” Mara clung to Cecilia’s hand, her eyes betraying a fragility, like a delicate

there’s hardly anything that can’t be