The Million-Dollar Heart

Clutching her mother tightly, Vivienne's tears erupted like a fountain. She wept uninhibited, her sobs echoing through the car like a child's.

In her mother's embrace, time seemed to stand still. It was different from the time she had swindled Finnian out of 80 million dollars; this was raw, unfiltered emotion. After crying herself to near exhaustion, Vivienne finally ceased her tears and remembered she had a bone to pick with her mother.

"Mom, you..." Vivienne started but stopped as she noticed Karen dozing against the car window.

How could any mother be so absent? She was crying her eyes out!

"Vivienne, honey?" Karen murmured, waking to her daughter's voice and wiping drool from her chin. "Oh, it's been ages since I heard you cry. Still puts me right to sleep."

Vivienne was speechless, gazing intensely at her mother, who seemed so different from when she had first seen Anna.

"Mom!"

Karen pulled Vivienne into a hug. "Frost, I'm starved. How about we grab some beef stew before we get into all that?"

Overhearing from outside, Percival could not bear the scene any longer and climbed into the car. He had hoped for a heartwarming reunion, yet Karen's mind was preoccupied with thoughts of beef stew! Now he knew where Vivienne got her appetite.

"Master, is food all you ever think about?" Percival complained as he got into the car. Vivienne had been crying her heart out, and Karen had not even tried to comfort her.

Karen slapped Percival's arm. "Shut it and drive."

"Mom, please don't knock the sense out of my Mr. Wolf," Vivienne said, rubbing the back of Percival's head tenderly.

Percival chuckled softly, grateful for Vivienne's gentle touch.

Karen scoffed. "It's not like you peed on him when you were a kid!"

Vivienne blushed crimson, having no memory of such an incident.

time you cried about diapers and not wanting to break the rule of 'no touching between the sexes.'

feasted to her heart's content. It was then that she circled

at the scene was a bionic robot, an android," Karen said, reclining in her

soda and burped. "I tossed that rock to check if she

handed the pair wet wipes, pondering quietly. "It only shows the

family and the two samples Karen had left behind, had reached their highest version. "Zelda" at the scene was the pinnacle of these experiments-an android being capable of connecting with human

given to Vivienne by

for years, but now they could

"It seems we

too focused on finding Karen to check on Zachary, William Pendleton, or the Brooks family. She

Without Scott Brooks, the Brooks family is clean, and Baron has long retired. Maybe it's

family has been under surveillance. No issues there, and the Churchill and Pendleton families are out

of the airborne particles, we couldn't risk using any

bill, caught the tail end of the conversation.

Vanguard Agency showed up, their gunshots sounded muffled. I thought they'd switched guns. Could it be Vance again?" Karen propped her chin on her hand, tapping her

don't we head home and

mention of home,

Perez family must be

ready to face Jasper, not after everything. It was only because

and

Karen didn't really care much for the term 'family.' In fact,

a person is, there is always a tender scar hidden away deep

origins, she had been deeply wounded by her foster parents-left