The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

Percival's eyebrows arched in surprise.

Indeed! Floyd knew a lot, those symbols turned out to be his family's script.

"Wow, they belong to your family? Why would your family create such complicated scripts? It seems pretty hard to write, doesn't it tire you out?"

"We don't use them anymore, actually. They were used by our ancestors long ago. They thought of these as family secrets, so they developed a script only our family could decipher." "How come you know about it if it's that ancient?"

"Every child in our family learns it from a young age, along with English. Plus, my dad still has some of these books at home, so I picked it up over time."

Floyd looked towards Vivienne in the driver's seat, "But my dad always said this was unique to our family. Why do you have something with our family's script on it?"

His eyes were filled with a thirst for knowledge, driven by his father's stern warnings that these secrets must never be shared with anyone, under any circumstances!

Vivienne didn't turn back, "We found these and are still trying to decode them. They might be related to a case."

"So, you're detectives?"

Percival and Vivienne remained silent.

Taking their silence as confirmation, Floyd turned to Juliette, impressed, "No wonder you wouldn't tell me what was going on at lunch. It's because you're detectives, that's so cool!" Juliette chuckled awkwardly.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone!" Floyd promised, covering his mouth.

Vivienne glanced at him, saying nothing.

Soon, they arrived at the house, and Vivienne stepped out with the kids.

slippers Floyd had worn the day before were gone, but Vivienne pulled out an identical pair from the

the familiar slippers, Floyd gave Vivienne a sweet smile,

items from the floor were now on the desk. "Let's sort through everything you can understand. I'll help you with these," Vivienne said, dragging two chairs over, one big and

of the symbols Vivienne had drawn, according to his memory. For the symbols he couldn't write, he used phonetic spelling. Vivienne and Percival sat quietly beside him, not saying a

the next half hour, the whole family watched

head sheepishly, "That's all I can remember for now. Can I tell you the rest after

written neatly, making the complex symbols easy to understand, and even

and called everyone down. Floyd was well-behaved, eating everything without complaint, adhering to the good

neared time for Floyd to go home, Vivienne, not Percival, took it upon herself to

at least she hadn't scared him

buzzing with excitement in the

glanced at Floyd through the rearview mirror at a red light, "There's something I've been curious about." "What's

your family. Aren't your family members going

of silence

saw yesterday,

always fighting, mostly over this script. My dad wants to keep using

on using the script. If telling you about it can somehow prevent a tragedy, then maybe it's the

sorrow, didn't

her gaze, her own emotions

door for Floyd and straightened his clothes, "You're home

something crashing came from

if

can go in by myself." Floyd's face was red, his eyes darting towards the yard, not wanting Vivienne to witness such an embarrassing scene. The doorbell attracted the