The Million-Dollar Heart

Flynn's pupils contracted slightly at her words, and then he let out a scornful chuckle. "F-Poison? And who's Samantha? You're speaking gibberish to me."

Vivienne regarded him coolly. "You insinuated yourself into Flynn's life, became his confidant, and waited till he let his guard down. The day before the shooting, you two switched identities. In that massacre, the real Flynn died a hero, saving lives. And you-you lived on, wearing his face.

Francis, you've schemed for eternity at the cost of everything, even delivering yourself into our hands. Did you ever calculate that this life would be your last within these walls?"

Flynn-no, Francis now-his expression cracked at her words, but he quickly masked it with laughter.

His face, or rather the lifelike mask he wore, began to split, revealing a much younger visage underneath.

Vivienne couldn't help but feel a pang of surprise. Willa was well into her forties, yet the man before her, supposedly her father, looked to be in his early twenties.

"Vivienne, you're even sharper than your mother," F-Poison admitted defeat. There was no point in hiding anymore. He had lost, utterly and without a chance to turn the tables. Yet, losing to her didn't feel like a disgrace. Vivienne was the most formidable adversary he had ever encountered.

Her mother, Karen, was formidable too, but he sensed in Vivienne that rare quality of the student surpassing the master. Given time, she would certainly eclipse her mother.

"But I'm curious, how did you unravel my secrets?" Now that his true identity was exposed, he abandoned all pretense, his youthful face twisted with a grotesque smile that was wholly unsettling.

"I've explained once to Samantha, and I don't fancy repeating myself," Vivienne replied, her gaze piercing.

She leaned in slightly, a smirk playing on her lips. "But there is one thing I will tell you."

Francis raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"While you and Samantha devoted your lives to the quest for immortality, I haven't concocted an elixir of eternal life, but I have created a life-extension pill that adds five years to a person's life. It's based on your ST-1, and it's given me a direction for my own studies into immortality."

The life-extension pill was indeed real.

accidental invention Vivienne had stumbled upon during

that her first attempt could prolong life-though it wasn't what she was

she never brought the pills

with the natural order of life and death was a sacrilege, even if

be a mere extension of life, but

released, with people

pills and

drug intrigued her not to sell, but as a scientific challenge, one she was determined to conquer. Francis' pupils dilated in shock. "What

invented the life-extension

would have been

"I don't waste words on the hard of

please your masters in your next life as a lesser creature, to atone for your sins in

air, she and Percival stepped out. From her backpack, she

Boom!

valley as Vivienne and Percival drove away from the

the road, Percival was silent, his face etched

was in a bad mood, Vivienne turned to him, held his hand, and said,

the one person in the

been another man wearing his uncle's face. Before uncovering Francis' identity, he had despised Flynn for his

learning the truth-that it wasn't his uncle who betrayed him, but Francis-filled him with remorse for

knew how unsettled he must feel. Now that Francis was out of the picture,

that gnawed to the bone