The Million-Dollar Heart

Fiona lay on the operating table, her eyes wide with horror as she watched Vivienne slice away her necrotic organs before stitching her abdomen back together. Machines that signified the waning of her life were now, bit by bit, displaying signs of vitality.

Speechless, Fiona could only gawk at Vivienne with her mouth half-open, like a dummy.

Having finished the last stitch, Vivienne scrutinized Fiona's belly, frowning deeply. "This won't do. It's unsightly. I'll have to redo everything," she lamented, and with those words, she began to undo the stitches. Fiona heard the sutures tearing through her skin but felt no pain. Yet the phantom agony in her mind, coupled with the sight before her, tormented her so fiercely that death seemed a sweet release. Vivienne repeated the process three times until, at last, she was satisfied.

"Fiona, darling, was it worth risking your life for White Tiger?" Vivienne covered Fiona's body, and as she spoke, she lifted Calista-who had a scalpel stuck in her eye-off the table and dropped her into a nearby chair.

Fiona's head was immobilized; she could only glance sideways to see.

"When will you tire of these little games? There's no thrill left in it." Vivienne sighed, pulling the scalpel from Calista's eye. Blood followed the blade, splattering Fiona's face.

Calista screamed, her fingers trembling uncontrollably, her mind teetering on the brink of unconsciousness but unable to succumb. One eye was a bloody, hollow mess; the other brimmed with pleas no one heeded.

Vivienne scooped out the useless eyeball with a clinical detachment and tossed it into the trash like yesterday's leftovers.

Calista, now half-blind, was easier to manage this way-for Vivienne had little patience for those unwilling to cling to life.

Numb to it all, Calista knelt on the floor, her voice a broken record of mercy pleas. "Vivienne, please... I won't dare again, never again..."

She had now realized that Vivienne was a fearsome force, eclipsing even the infamous F-Poison.

Calista had once thought that having her bones shattered by F-Poison was the height of suffering, yet in Vivienne's grip, that was mere child's play.

Unmoved by the begging, Vivienne dusted Calista's empty socket with a powder. "This will save your life," she said thoughtfully.

"A Life-saving pill goes for five million, but this powder-it's twice that. Plus my services... you owe me a fortune, Calista. How will you repay?" Vivienne mused, shaking her head.

Calista's mind was a void; she would agree to anything Vivienne said.

do whatever you

Vivienne nodded. "Then you'll work for Rex. He needs

who actually was Brody, from the YQ Lab had contacted Vivienne with an unusual request some time ago. He needed a human subject for an experiment, assuring her it would not be life-threatening. Initially, she

be a valuable asset to

while Fiona, still on the table, could

the monitors, Vivienne noted, "Not bad, recovery's

remove the tubes from Fiona. "But how will you repay

shuddered inwardly, her

covering Fiona with a blanket.

organs forever on the brink of collapse, unable

wheeled Fiona out and

was on the mend, save for her newfound

cried a single sincere tear, mourning the loss of her comfortable life as much

pressing matters, or else Brody's messages would become a nuisance. After sending Vivienne and Calista, now concealed in a trash bag, onto the car to

casting one last look at the bustling Ellington family, the people he had grown

Lab, fresh from a restful sleep in

trash bag, revealing Calista, who had curled up

eye, Calista's world was blurrier

the trunk, her body aching all over. "Where... where is this?"

lab, which looked the same as ever, save for

Vivienne, Holden hurried over. "Ma'am,

toward the