The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

Kaitlyn knew all too well that things couldn't be that simple; there must have been someone fanning the flames behind the scenes.

But by then, the Littletons had fallen from grace. Those who once flocked around her family with flattering words were nowhere to be found after her parents' untimely deaths. To seek their help now would be nothing short of a pipe dream.

Yet the persecution from the ancient warrior lineages did not cease.

Tears streamed down Kaitlyn's cheeks as she struggled to catch her breath, coughing twice. "My father-in-law, Julian, ever since someone accused him of taking bribes... It's been one thing after another. Private tutoring, disciplining students too harshly. And now... they're accusing him of... of indecency with a student."

Julian had once been a celebrated teacher at Rivenwood High, but now his reputation was in tatters.

His wife, Sadie, couldn't continue with her job either, taken in for questioning by the school board time and again. Only after the school let them go did the tumult finally begin to subside.

say... the girl who accused Julian... she jumped from her building and took her life. Her parents think it's Julian's fault, so... so they called the cops and had him taken away." Vivienne listened intently to Kaitlyn's account, her brow

before finally speaking up, "What's the girl's

"Her name is Cassidy. After the incident, I heard her family was so

"Havenwood?"

name in ages. She paused for a moment before reassuringly smiling, "Don't worry. What's done is done, and it's

but Vivienne had already turned away, dialing on her cell phone, "Check for a family in Havenwood, daughter named Cassidy, moved there five years ago from Rivenwood, left because of a scandal

involving Julian and Sadie.

this really work?" Kaitlyn watched her, at a loss for words, her heart swelling with gratitude for the most impulsive decision she had made years ago,

patting Kaitlyn's

after so much time has passed. Any surveillance from the old office would be long gone. Are there any witnesses who can

Once Cassidy pointed her finger at Julian, those people didn't even bother investigating. They just took her word for it. Julian wasn't jailed, but he was detained for

switched gears, "What about the bribery case?

clenched her teeth, "Who else but that ungrateful brat? Without Julian's financial support, he wouldn't have been able to afford his education. Yet, he was the one who accused Julian of bribery and unauthorized tutoring! And they believed him without considering that his

local precinct, Sophie was in a foul mood, roused from her bed in the dead of

mere fraction of her blouse. But before leaving the Abernathy estate, Madeline had given her instructions: no matter what, they needed to retrieve the item from

the couple behind bars before a venomous plot took root, "Give those two a taste of their own medicine." Lurking in the shadows, she was out of Julian

motioned to the officers, they hesitated, "I'm sorry, Ms.

do you mean you can't? Aren't they accused of murder? A little pressure during interrogation is nothing new. Are you saying you've never done that before?" The officers were in a bind. If not for

your capabilities?" The two old

head of the local Education Bureau was still comforting the girl's mother,