The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

Vivienne's gaze shifted across the room, the corners of her lips curling up slightly. "Harrison, surely you must recognize some of these faces. Back in the day, as an intern, you joined the Littleton family's R&D team to develop new products. These people were your partners and mentors."

Harrison's hand, hidden under the table, clenched his shirt tightly. Ignoring Vivienne, he rasped in disbelief, "Blake, Trent, how could you do this to me?"

"How much did Vivienne pay you to bear false witness against me?"

Jerry cleared his throat, "These witnesses haven't spoken yet. How do you know it's perjury?"

Harrison shot back, "Why else would you bring them here if not to pin the crime of ingratitude on me? Mrs. Littleton, I respected your kindness to me back then and didn't quarrel with you. After all these years, why can't you let me go?"

Leopold, sitting among the audience, glanced at Harrison's reddened eyes. "This guy's quite the actor," he remarked.

He elbowed Thomas, "Is this what they call a 'male gold digger' on the internet?"

"Clearly," was the unspoken reply.

Before Thomas could respond, a crisp female voice surprised them from behind.

Leopold turned sharply, just in time to catch a grimace of pain, "Griffin Martinez! A little heads-up next time, you scared me half to death!"

Seeing Leopold's lips turn pale, a flicker of concern crossed Griffin's eyes. "Oh dear, I thought you knew. Are you okay? Need me to check?"

Leopold quickly waved her off, "No, no, I'm fine!"

"Oh." Griffin looked slightly dejected, her disappointment visible.

Thomas couldn't stand it and shot his brother a look that clearly read: That's why you're single!

Leopold silently protested his innocence.

"This Harrison, he's the jerk you were talking about? No wonder he managed to charm Vivienne's friend; he does look

annoyance. "He's nothing but a wolf in

resonated in the small

far

sparked with an idea, thinking of Emrys Abernathy and others

if Harrison's concoction would work, he considered the implications if Emrys and the others recanted.

a pawn being sacrificed, he'd be worrying about his

them?" Gavin fumbled with his

was clearly bored, "When you visited

Victoria, yawning, showed little

could I

and

me because of Richard.

they'd share their plans with me? They're

implied Gavin was the fool for thinking

wondered why Vivienne bothered protecting

someone be plotting against Gavin? What a delightful

deep-seated hatred for Gavin, if he knew someone was after Gavin, he'd likely help them along. Protecting Gavin must serve some other purpose. Victoria's thoughts drifted,

her, Gavin might as well have been dead. His life or death held no

Abernathy family's assets didn't fall into Madeline and her daughter's

between shades of anger, about to lash out, but Percival's icy stare froze him in his

his cane tightened, his demeanour changing

Besides the Grimshaw family, who else

looking, but she missed

piqued, she glanced back at Gavin, then noticed several