The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

Everyone was absolutely floored by Vivienne's audacious move.

But Arthur? He was thrilled!

His daughter had given an order, and he was determined to see it through.

"Listen up, everyone!" he announced. "Ladies to carry a weight of 10 pounds, gents 20 pounds, and we're going to do an extreme cross-country run along the Rivenwood suburb roads, back and forth to the Perez household for a total of 12 miles!"

The Perez family just stared, dumbfounded.

What in the world were this father-daughter duo thinking?

20 pounds and a cross-country run?

And with added weight?

On one hand?

Did they think they were immortal beings or something?

This was going to kill them if it didn't leave them half-dead!

Seeing the Perez family unmoved, Arthur couldn't issue commands like he might in his squad, so he approached Jasper with a low voice, "Dad! Vivienne seems serious. Let's just go along with it, otherwise, who knows what she'll concoct next if we don't?"

Jasper glanced at Vivienne, unsure of what had gotten into her, but preferring the cross-country challenge to any unpredictable antics, he declared, "Let's do as Vivienne wishes!"

There was no arguing once the head of the Perez family had spoken. Everyone scrambled to fill their backpacks with items weighing exactly 10 or 20 pounds, then lined up and started running!

Vivienne, meanwhile, found a long bamboo stick and hopped into a car, sternly instructing the driver, "Follow them closely!"

Maddox, jogging beside Percival, looked back at Vivienne and whispered, "What did you do to Vivienne?"

Percival responded with a heavy silence, "...Nothing!"

"Why is she acting this way then?" Maddox was baffled. A perfectly fine day, and suddenly they're subjected to an extreme run?

felt like a death

the chance to

reluctantly dialed Jerry's number, but with no response,

answered, "What's

Percival spoke in

"Percival? Why are you calling me with

has us doing an extreme run out of the blue.

at a loss, "I've

drinking. Maybe he knows something," Percival suggested. Leopold, now alarmed,

confirmed,

run 12 miles now, who knows what's next? I better get out of here before she remembers

abruptly hanging

dropped a bombshell, "Vivienne's drunk off ten

response was, "Damn, what are

phone in disbelief. He'd been with Vivienne long enough but had never seen her drink, assuming she didn't

feeling a

everything, grimaced,

Percival sighed, "Yes."

groaned, as they all trudged on, Arthur taking the

call to Shane, "Get some cars and people over here; we need to stop my

confused, complied

crashed into Vivienne's,

Shane and Dante approached,

to take the

having none of it. With a flick of her

ve

leaving them

embarrass themselves in public.

to him, albeit discreetly, to

Though confused by Vivienne's