The Million-Dollar Heart

An hour had passed before Mara finally stirred, a ghostly pallor on her face. Her voice was a weak whisper, barely there.

She had never felt so terrible in her life-it was like being on death's doorstep!

That Gillian had actually given her a bottle of sleeping pills, and here she had thought they were vitamins.

If only she had known, she would not have taken a single one!

"Mara, you're awake." Cecilia's voice carried a mixture of relief and worry, as if a great weight had been lifted from her heart upon seeing Mara's eyes open.

To underscore her feebleness, Mara coughed deliberately, a decision she instantly regretted as her stomach convulsed painfully.

"Auntie, what happened to me?" Mara's eyes brimmed with tears, but her pain was genuine.

Cecilia sat by the hospital bed, wiping away the tears streaking Mara's face. "Oh, you silly girl. Do you have any idea how close you came to never seeing me again?" Mara feigned shock, glancing down at her wrist as if seeing it anew, a look of realization crossing her face. "I... I'm sorry, Auntie. I just wasn't thinking straight."

"You really..." Cecilia held Mara's hand, her heart full of unsaid words.

Across the room, Percival sat brooding on the couch, his eyes stormy as the horizon's edge.

Vivienne, on the other hand, watched the scene with a certain amusement.

Such a promising talent, indeed.

Mara seemed to be cut from the same cloth as Gillian had been.

If she were to be signed and groomed properly, she might even outshine Kala!

Kala: Impossible, utterly impossible!

her chin in her palm,

back home? Everything's under control here. I'll stay with her." Slowly sitting up,

stood, looping her arm through Percival's, her

was such that even she would have been

driven-Vivienne was all

true love, Mr.

"Now I'm not only less appealing than a

out to her. Since that was the case, she was not about

IV and stumbled to her feet, only to collapse to her knees with a

Please forgive me. Gillian and Grandma misled me, and I never meant for things to

was too young to understand, at least Cecilia would rush to stop her. After all, if you're going to perform, you need to make it

no one came to

loud but managed to keep

Mara lifted her head, her eyes filled with fear and pleading, "Vivienne, will you forgive

tone. "What are you doing? I never blamed you in the

her barely suppressed mirth. He smiled, affectionately ruffling her hair. "Yeah, Vivienne is so magnanimous,

has the biggest heart. She doesn't hold grudges easily. Mara, don't pull this act again. Admitting your mistake is one thing, but forgiveness comes from genuine remorse, not from such

from the corner,

a kid fresh out of elementary school was too much for Mara's ego

"Mara, Isolde is right. Get up,

or not, she winced at a sudden pain

helping Mara