The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

When Vivienne and Percival turned to look again, the woman in red had vanished without a trace.

Vivienne wanted to chase after her, but Percival grabbed her wrist. “Vivienne, let it go. She hasn’t shown us her full hand yet.”

Even for Vivienne and Percival, it had been a stalemate at best. If they pursued her, their chances of victory were slim.

Besides, their main reason for coming to M State was to rescue people, and now that they had, their mission was complete. However, they still hadn’t figured out why the puppet master behind this charade had gone to such lengths.

Vivienne peered in the direction the red-clad woman had disappeared, her gaze murky and unreadable.

Atop a nearby hill, the woman in red stood, her eyes fixed on the scene below where she could see Vivienne’s group.

Lucky for her, she had packed a smoke grenade, which briefly obscured their vision, allowing her a swift escape.

It had been years, and it was time for her to return to Veridia.

She scoffed disdainfully, snapped her fan shut, and walked away. “Wait for it. We’ll meet again.”

…

Elsewhere.

Huxley had fainted from fright during the scuffle and was now jabbed awake by Vivienne’s needle.

“You guys alright?” Vivienne asked, looking toward Larry and Carl.

Larry, clutching his chest, replied, “Vivienne, we’re fine.”

He had sustained some injuries, but they weren’t a big deal for him.

shook his head, too, indicating he

waking and finding familiar faces – and the red-clad woman gone – he knew he had been

thought I

him out of frustration

if they had met before. The mention of having held Vivienne as a child had also piqued

under the mask was probably not her

masters of disguise; they wouldn’t dare show

she mentioned Samantha.

from Vivienne, part of which was to investigate Samantha’s whereabouts. Instead, he ended up being the one kidnapped, a

chuckled, looking at Percival. “Mr. Wolf, it’s

uncles were full of questions, wondering why they were returning home without having completed their mission. Were they just

“Okay,” Percival nodded.

red. However, she was not exactly going to cause a problem. After

M State? Apart from being third wheels, what

and Percival: Don’t blame

get

bizarre, and this was the first time Vivienne had encountered

a severely shaken Huxley, Vivienne addressed the latter,

sister and I with only each other to depend on. Later, I

was hell! It was torture! But when I almost lost it, she suddenly brought me to

Vivienne’s eyelids lowered, hiding the look in her

you want to come

Huxley replied

lips curved in a

roar of private jets could be heard outside. The uncles peeked out to see two

ask, “Just two planes? How will

back first. In a day,

Everyone was puzzled.