The Million-Dollar Heart by Rebecca Ryan

Midnight.

Above the YQ Research Center, in the manor house nestled under the shadow of night.

In the pitch-dark living room, sobs echoed intermittently.

The ghostly moonlight slipped through the windows, faintly revealing the silhouette of a person writhing on the floor.

"Click!"

Lights flooded the villa, illuminating the figures of Vivienne and Percival as they emerged from the darkness.

Their cold gazes fell upon Ramona, who was bound hand and foot in the center of the room.

By day, she was a damsel in distress, but now her eyes, having adjusted to the light, glared furiously at the two of them.

Percival gestured slightly, and Thomas stepped forward to rip the duct tape from Ramona's mouth.

Instantly, Ramona twisted in agony, collapsing to the floor, groaning uncontrollably.

Anna sauntered over, crouched beside her, and propped her up, gripping her cheek firmly, "Ms. Grimshaw, I'd advise you not to

fight this. Answer our questions, and maybe we can all play nice. Otherwise, well, let's just say we won't be so merciful."

Anna's hand, holding a switchblade, brushed lightly over Ramona's wrist.

Her icy eyes paused momentarily, giving a subtle shake of her head to Vivienne.

Vivienne's fingertip twitched, and Anna stood up, retreating to her position behind Vivienne, her sharp gaze never leaving Ramona.

Vivienne frowned slightly, masking her emotions from view.

Ramona's meridians...

"Vivienne, what on earth do you want?"

Now that it had cto this, there was no need for Ramona to keep up her act. Struggling fiercely, her eyes burning with rage, she

shot at Vivienne, "Letgo this instant! Or you'll regret it!"

After ranting at Vivienne, she turned to Percival with tearful eyes, "Mr. Ellington, are you really going to let your fiancée run wild?

She's already ruined my career; why won't you just leavealone?"

Vivienne propped her head on her hand, thinking that Ramona's ability to switch faces was so much better than Arabella and

Calista's.

It would do them good to take lessons from her. Their performances wouldn't have been so unconvincing back then.

She nudged Percival with her elbow, "Mr. Wolf, your damsel in distress is lodging a complaint."

A look of resignation flickered in Percival's eyes, "Even if you wanted to tear down the palace, I'd be right there with you."

"Do you think I'm Leopold? Tearing down the palace? Mr. Wolf, | seriously doubt the image | have in your heart," Vivienne wrinkled

her nose.

Percival intertwined his fingers with hers, "As heaven is my witness, you are flawless in my eyes, the woman | love most in this

world."

Despite having heard countless confessions from Percival over time, Vivienne still felt her heart race every the looked at her

with those deep, affectionate eyes and spoke those cheesy lines.

Ramona was baffled. Weren't they supposed to be interrogating her?

How had the scene flipped so suddenly?

Thomas and Anna, standing behind Percival and Vivienne, tried to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible, staring up at the

ceiling's intricate patterns with feigned indifference.

How to put it?

Though accustomed to their bosses’ relentless public displays of affection, they still found it somewhat awkward.

"Hey, Vivienne, are you even listening to me? Letgo!" Ramona couldn't stand the bizarre atmosphere any longer.

Her sharp voice popped the bubble of tenderness between Percival and Vivienne.

As if just remembering the bound figure in the room, Vivienne stood up, "Ms. Grimshaw, we really don't want to make this difficult

for you. We just want to know who's pulling your strings."

Ramona's panic was fleeting, "What do you mean "pulling my strings'? Vivienne, I'm telling you, everything you posted online is

fake. | could sue you for slander. Why is your mind filled with such filth..."

Vivienne leaned in, pinching Ramona's chin, "I don't have tfor your games."

Her delicate fingers slowly moved to Ramona's neck, her beautiful eyes shining dangerously, "I'm just curious: what exactly did you

do to alter your meridians, to make yourself look like an ordinary person? Your skills should be quite impressive; you shouldn't have

been caught by my people so easily."

Ramona's pupils dilated, "You, what nonsense are you spouting?! What skills? | don't know what you're talking about."

Vivienne clicked her tongue in disapproval, "Seems like you're not going to give up till the last second, huh? Anna, turn on the

projector!"

"Yes, ma'am," Anna replied in a deep tone.

Ramona frowned, "What are you trying to do?"

Vivienne forced her face toward the projection screen, where Anna tapped a few keys on her laptop, connecting the projector to a

surveillance feed.

On the screen, there was a bleak, dark room.

Under the pallid light, a disheveled woman named Gillian sat askew in a chair.

Her exposed skin was a tapestry of red and purple scars. Her vacant eyes stared blankly at the space in front of her, her mouth

moving silently with no sound.

Then, the crisp, melodic sound of a piano filled the air.

The closed door of the small room opened from the outside, and Brody entered with a syringe in hand. Gillian, who had been as

limp as a rag doll, suddenly stirred.

With a hoarse voice, she screamed at Brody, revealing the horrifying sight in her mouth where her tongue should be - only a dark

mass of flesh, so vile that even through the screen, one could almost smell the stench.

Vivienne looked down, pleased with Ramona's pale complexion, "This is someone who made a mistake. Ms. Grimshaw, you

wouldn't want to end up like her, would you?"

"What do you mean? How dare you treatlike this?" Ramona's voice shook with fear.

Was that even human anymore?

That face, that body - was there a single inch left unscarred?

Vivienne shrugged nonchalantly, dodging Ramona's earlier query without missing a beat.

With a casual wave of her hand, Anna shut off the projector.

Vivienne pressed, "Ms. Grimshaw, that little trick you have—altering the flow of someone's meridians—it's not really yours, is it? If

it were, why haven't you regained your full strength after all this time? If you don't spill the beans about who had you cozy up to

Kala, get close to my father, and set up my mother, then what happened to the person in that video will be a picnic compared to

what I'll do to you!"

"No... no..."

Ramona hadn't anticipated that Vivienne would actually know everything.

Altering the flow of meridians to render them powerless was unheard of, even amongst the ancient warrior lineages.

How could Vivienne have figured it out?

Swallowing hard, the gruesimage of what had befallen Gillian seemed to linger before her eyes.

With pale lips and trembling fingers, Ramona whispered, "I-I'll talk. It was the Grimshaws, the Grimshaw family. They have ties with

the GTO. They plantedby your side. Originally, | was supposed to help the GTO with their agenda. But then, you-you actually

managed to dismantle that whole organization. So, they switched gears, toldto stir up strouble for you, to find an

opportunity to steal the findings you retrieved from the GTO."

Having blurted out everything in one breath, the vast living room fell silent, save for her heavy panting reverberating through the

space.

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