The Million-Dollar Heart

Vivienne's gaze shifted across the room, the corners of her lips curling up slightly. "Harrison, surely you must recognize some of these faces. Back in the day, as an intern, you joined the Littleton family's R&D team to develop new products. These people were your partners and mentors."

Harrison's hand, hidden under the table, clenched his shirt tightly. Ignoring Vivienne, he rasped in disbelief, "Blake, Trent, how could you do this to me?"

"How much did Vivienne pay you to bear false witness against me?"

Jerry cleared his throat, "These witnesses haven't spoken yet. How do you know it's perjury?"

Harrison shot back, "Why else would you bring them here if not to pin the crime of ingratitude on me? Mrs. Littleton, I respected your kindness to me back then and didn't quarrel with you. After all these years, why can't you let me go?"

Leopold, sitting among the audience, glanced at Harrison's reddened eyes. "This guy's quite the actor," he remarked.

He elbowed Thomas, "Is this what they call a 'male gold digger' on the internet?"

"Clearly," was the unspoken reply.

Before Thomas could respond, a crisp female voice surprised them from behind.

Leopold turned sharply, just in time to catch a grimace of pain, "Griffin Martinez! A little heads-up next time, you scared me half to death!"

Seeing Leopold's lips turn pale, a flicker of concern crossed Griffin's eyes. "Oh dear, I thought you knew. Are you okay? Need me to check?"

Leopold quickly waved her off, "No, no, I'm fine!"

"Oh." Griffin looked slightly dejected, her disappointment visible.

Thomas couldn't stand it and shot his brother a look that clearly read: That's why you're single!

protested his

high spirits, "This Harrison, he's the jerk you were talking about? No wonder he managed to charm Vivienne's friend; he does look pretty

much to Leopold's annoyance. "He's nothing but a wolf in sheep's clothing. Just watch, he's going

resonated in the small

not too far from them, caught every

thinking of Emrys Abernathy and others they

if Emrys and the others recanted. That could

he was already a pawn being sacrificed, he'd

with them?" Gavin

gaze lingered on the courtroom drama before turning to Victoria, who was clearly bored, "When you visited Vivienne, did

Victoria, yawning, showed little

could I

Vivienne and

me because of

plans with me?

was the fool for

Vivienne bothered

plotting against Gavin? What a delightful

Gavin, he'd likely help them along. Protecting

as well have been dead. His life

was ensuring the Abernathy family's assets didn't fall into Madeline and her daughter's

between shades of anger, about to lash out, but

his cane tightened, his demeanour changing to one of