The Million-Dollar Heart

Vivienne locked eyes with Astrid.

There was no denying it, Astrid was stunning. She really had inherited all of Cordelia's best features.

Vivienne chuckled softly, "No need to be so formal with me, we're family."

She had uttered those words many times before, but this time, it came from the heart.

This Astrid was the one she should truly call Sister.

Astrid felt a rush of emotion. She had, in fact, used her clearance to dig into Vivienne's past. After all, showing up after years away and causing such a stir in the Brooks family raised suspicions. Yet, she found nothing.

Vivienne was an enigma, the more Astrid delved, the deeper she sank.

So, when they first met, Astrid had her guard up.

Later, after Vivienne's visit to Rivenwood, the Brooks family invited them for a family reunion. It was then Astrid received a classified tip.

Alfred was a spy from a rival organization! Just when she was about to arrest Alfred, Mr. B appeared.

Collaborating with Alfred, Mr. B kidnapped her, and she had been in captivity ever since.

Each day, they injected her with a sedative that kept her unconscious for long periods, obscuring any knowledge of the outside world.

On the rare occasions she was lucid, she found herself tossed in the trunk of a car, unable to discern much else.

Vivienne passed a peeled apple to Astrid, "While you were missing, Mr. B impersonated you around us. But don't worry, he didn't get anywhere near the core of your work, and Alfred didn't manage to steal any intel."

Indeed, Astrid was an agent working on classified national projects, which meant she couldn't spend much time with Cordelia. Every leave request meant paperwork, waiting for notifications, and getting signatures from top to bottom.

nature of Astrid's work. She only knew that Astrid's superiors were strict, rarely approving family visits. Initially, Alfred had approached Astrid

let alone work matters, leaving him clueless about the information he sought. Eventually, Mr. B found Alfred, and they

while he used the impostor Astrid to attempt to

meeting. Meanwhile,

B believed he had gone undetected, falling short only in gaining access to the core secrets. Moreover, he didn't care much, his sole objective being to get close to Vivienne and bring her to a

B, pretending to be

Instead of using

always dealt in shady transactions for profit, but she had never done anything like human

the fact that Astrid

Group, Fiona had orchestrated Astrid's transport across various vehicles, following no

of hiding made it challenging for anyone to readily trace

ousted Fiona from the Ellington Group, she no longer had the transportation means to move Astrid, forcing her

Mystics Society figured out the general route, and

daring to make a scene, they risked endangering Astrid's

dramatic exit from the Ellington

relief. Her work was vital to national security, and it could not fall into enemy hands. During her captivity, she had been worried about this very issue.

you for your contribution to protecting national secrets. I'll recommend you for the highest medal of honor. Without you, who knows what crisis our nation could have faced,"

the country; I just

was taken aback. The medal was a symbol of the highest honor, coveted even among their own ranks, let alone by

And Vivienne wasn't interested!

tired of seeing them around. In a family, not everyone needs a medal of honor. If Leopold were here, he probably would put on a scene, resulting

want one! I can't have

retorted, "Scram!

"You're picking

interjected, "What did