The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

Vivienne was no stranger to using her imagination. She rummaged through her bag and handed Aaron a stack of papers. “I need the final product in three days. Get it done.”

Aaron accepted the papers, and to his surprise, they contained plans for a state-of-the-art camera system made from transparent crystal material. If installed as the eyes of a bionic robot, they would be indistinguishable from human eyes!

“I assure you, the task will be completed.”

This was Aaron’s first mission since joining the Nine Mystics Society, and he could not afford to take it lightly.

He had to nail it to impress Vivienne and to prove that he, not Percival, was her most capable assistant.

“Good.” Vivienne nodded, watching Aaron’s confident demeanor.

This was his chance to prove himself, and whether he succeeded or failed, she would finally be able to flush out the traitor.

The reason she had tasked Aaron was to test him, to ensure he was not naively treating the Society like some kind of adventure game.

As Vivienne prepared to leave, Aaron opened his mouth to speak when a deep, magnetic voice called out from ahead.

“Vivienne, I’m here.”

Both Vivienne and Aaron looked up, their expressions changing. Vivienne was elated. Aaron, on the other hand, was clearly annoyed.

“Mr. Wolf! Did you bring the strawberry cheesecake?” Vivienne ran over like a schoolgirl, throwing herself into Percival’s arms, her eyes lighting up at the thought of her favorite treat.

Percival chuckled and ruffled her hair. “Don’t you want to see me instead of just eyeing the cheesecake?”

like a strawberry cheesecake made by Mr. Wolf himself. Give

into the cheesecake, and the

its dying light across the playground, the two

savored each bite of the cheesecake, while the one he had waited half an hour in line to purchase sat abandoned on the

highlighted the cake box before fading away, along

whispers of the wind seemed to scoff at his futile effort. “How laughable, your painstaking efforts couldn’t outshine a

distance, Mara watched the scene unfold,

had bought. The cloying sweetness made

timely offering of iced coffee.“I heard the campus heartthrob was

the iced coffee. Though he had not spent much time with Mara, their mutual friend

but what’s this about a campus

cake and popping it into her mouth. “You and Kenneth, man. The gaming ace and the future finance mogul, the ideal

“What’s all

one for the campus gossip, I guess. I knew about it on my first day. The top-liked post on the campus network is about you and

her phone. “Look at all the confessions. People are saying if you guys were not a thing,

tea. “There’s nothing between us. If anything, he’s

bros, but it’s fun for us to fantasize. There are plenty who have secret crushes

of secret crushes, Aaron’s

crushes were painful. No amount of strawberry cheesecake could cure that kind of

through Aaron, having witnessed

If you want, I’m here

needing to vent, did not care who was

entire youth, but she doesn’t like

to get her to

begin with! You’re outstanding, but Percival is many