The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

Flynn’s pupils contracted slightly at her words, and then he let out a scornful chuckle. “F-Poison? And who’s Samantha? You’re speaking gibberish to me.”

Vivienne regarded him coolly. “You insinuated yourself into Flynn’s life, became his confidant, and waited till he let his guard down. The day before the shooting, you two switched identities.

In that massacre, the real Flynn died a hero, saving lives. And you—you lived on, wearing his face.

Francis, you’ve schemed for eternity at the cost of everything, even delivering yourself into our hands. Did you ever calculate that this life would be your last within these walls?”

Flynn—no, Francis now—his expression cracked at her words, but he quickly masked it with laughter.

His face, or rather the lifelike mask he wore, began to split, revealing a much younger visage underneath.

Vivienne couldn’t help but feel a pang of surprise. Willa was well into her forties, yet the man before her, supposedly her father, looked to be in his early twenties.

“Vivienne, you’re even sharper than your mother,” F-Poison admitted defeat. There was no point in hiding anymore. He had lost, utterly and without a chance to turn the tables.

Yet, losing to her didn’t feel like a disgrace. Vivienne was the most formidable adversary he had ever encountered.

Her mother, Karen, was formidable too, but he sensed in Vivienne that rare quality of the student surpassing the master. Given time, she would certainly eclipse her mother.

“But I’m curious, how did you unravel my secrets?” Now that his true identity was exposed, he abandoned all pretense, his youthful face twisted with a grotesque smile that was wholly unsettling.

“I’ve explained once to Samantha, and I don’t fancy repeating myself,” Vivienne replied, her gaze piercing.

She leaned in slightly, a smirk playing on her lips. “But there is one thing I will tell you.”

Francis raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“While you and Samantha devoted your lives to the quest for immortality, I haven’t concocted an elixir of eternal life, but I have created a life-extension pill that adds five years to a person’s life. It’s based on your ST-1, and it’s given me a direction for my own studies into immortality.”

The life-extension pill was indeed real.

invention Vivienne had stumbled upon during her

discovered that her first

never brought the pills

with the natural order of life and death was a sacrilege, even

a mere extension of

would cause chaos if released, with people killing for just one dose.

made just ten pills and kept them

to sell, but as

in shock. “What did you

had invented

would have been unnecessary. Capturing

glanced at him dismissively. “I don’t waste words

that, she took Percival’s hand and strode towards the exit, pausing only to deliver a parting shot. “Francis, remember to please your masters in your next life as a lesser creature, to atone

From her backpack,

Boom!

as Vivienne and Percival drove

silent, his face etched

held his

had been Percival’s uncle, the one person in the Ellington family he

Francis’ identity, he had despised Flynn for his perceived betrayal and the threat he posed

uncle who betrayed him,

on Percival and knew how unsettled he must feel. Now that Francis was out of the picture,

Francis to suffer a torment that gnawed to the bone until

act fast. With Samantha still at large, they couldn’t afford to let them continue the search for immortality.

didn’t have the luxury of keeping constant watch

of distrust in their team—it was just that Francis, Samantha, and the shadowy figure behind her were too powerful. Their people simply couldn’t

on the

wave of

him best was,