The Million-Dollar Heart (Percival and Vivienne)

N&S Psychiatric Hospital in Havenwood was steeped in urban legends. It was said that many of the

patients locked within its walls were not just mentally ill but dangerous criminals who, due to their

psychological conditions, could not be incarcerated in a regular prison.

Even the doctors and nurses who work there have been known to fear some of the patients. Aside from

confining them within the hospital, they seldom exerted further control. In fact, it was rumored that staff

members had been killed by patients on occasion.

Now, Arabella found herself in a truly terrifying situation. Surrounded by five menacing men, she

screamed out in fear. Kicking the brooding figure who grabbed her, she scrambled to her feet and took

off running.

She dashed down the corridor, passing many patients who were wandering aimlessly, engaging in

bizarre behaviors that marked them as anything but normal.

Some patients ignored her, others beckoned her to join their games with eerie grins, and some lunged

towards her with twisted faces and terrifying shouts.

The commotion of her footsteps and screams woke the sleeping patients in nearby rooms. Lights

flickered on one by one, revealing dozens of mentally ill individuals who emerged to either observe her

with indifferent eyes or leer at her with unsettling smiles.

The man chasing her, a rather large individual, was still bellowing behind her, demanding that she

become his wife.

"Open up! Hurry! Open the door!" Arabella fled back to the main entrance, but she had previously

locked the small door in her panic. She banged on the security office window, shouting for help, but the

room inside was pitch black, void of any sign of life.

Terror gripped her, causing her body to tremble as she broke down into a fit of desperate crying.

She made another frantic call to the police. Before the operator could even respond, she cried out,

"Why haven't you sent anyone to save me yet?! I'm at N&S Psychiatric Hospital! Please! Send

someone to help me!"

Just as she finished her plea, the large man caught up to her once again. She spun around and dashed

away, darting around the hospital like a scared animal, playing a horrifying game of hide-and-seek with

her pursuer.

In her desperation, she attempted to call the Hawthorn family for help. She reached out to Joseph first,

but was promptly declined. The same happened when she tried to contact Michael and Beatrice. All of

them had switched off their phones.

The chilling automated message, “The number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable,” sent a

shiver down Arabella’s spine.

Who else could help her?

Suddenly, she saw Dorian’s name in her contacts, and a spark of hope ignited within her.

Yes, she still had a foster father. She still had a dad.

Dorian would surely come to her rescue, just like he did the last time.

But her hope was quickly extinguished when Cordelia, Dorian's wife, answered the phone. She

dismissively refused to believe Arabella's plea for help, accusing her of trying to trap Dorian again.

Arabella was reminded of the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."

She realized that whether it was Cordelia or Dorian, they would never come to her aid again, no matter

the circumstances. She had squandered all the goodwill between them.

When Cordelia hung up the phone, Arabella felt herself teetering on the brink of despair.

But then she spotted a man sitting on a bench in the deserted corridor. He had shaggy hair, wore black-

rimmed glasses, and was dressed in a hospital gown. He was absorbed in a medical textbook in his

hands.

Spotting the title "Hippocrates' Corpus" on the cover, Arabella felt a surge of hope.

Surely, someone who read medical books must have been kind-hearted. He would surely help her.

"Sir, please help me!" Arabella pleaded while tugging at the man's clothes. "Someone is chasing me.

I'm terrified!"

"How did you get in here?" The man looked up from his book, casting a curious glance at Arabella, who

was not dressed in the usual patient attire. "This isn't a place you can just waltz into."

"I don't know! I was being chased, and I saw the door open, so I ran in to hide. I didn't know this was a

mental hospital." Arabella cried as she explained.

"That's quite peculiar." The man mumbled, his eyes hidden behind his glasses, glinting with intrigue.

"My wife! My wife!" The large man's voice grew closer.

"He's coming! Please help me hide!" Arabella's hand trembled as she clung to the man's clothes.

"That's my room over there. You can hide in it." The man kindly pointed to a room across the corridor.

Arabella hesitated.

"Don't worry. It's a single room. There's nobody strange inside." The man reassured her in a gentle

voice.

"Thank you, thank you." Arabella muttered her gratitude before darting into the man's room.

She hid inside, listening as the large man's heavy footsteps approached. He queried the bespectacled

man. "Bro, have you seen my wife?"

Arabella's heart skipped a beat.

"No." The man with the glasses responded.

Arabella's heart settled.

"That's... that's strange. I saw her run... run this way." The large man gnawed on his fingers, his anxiety

mounting as he started to yell and cry. "I... I want my wife! My wife... my wife..."

"Hush!" The bespectacled man raised a finger to his lips, signaling for silence before gently coaxing

him. "I'll help you look for her, okay?"

The large man, seemingly a bit scared of him, stopped his tantrum and nodded.

Arabella listened closely as the two men's footsteps receded. Their search took them to various places.

The corner with a giant potted plant, the cabinets in the main hall, and the stairwell. Each time, the

bespectacled man sighed in disappointment. "She's not here."

Unable to find Arabella, the large man grew increasingly anxious, his fingernails bloody from his

anxious gnawing. He looked ready to start yelling again.

"Hush!" The bespectacled man gestured for silence again before suggesting, "Let's go look in another

place, okay?"

The large man, still seemingly afraid of him, nodded in agreement.

As Arabella heard their footsteps growing fainter, her frantic heartbeat finally calmed down.

She took a moment to observe her temporary sanctuary. The room was clean, and the bed was neatly

made with sheets that bore the "N&S Psychiatric Hospital" logo. Content rights by NôvelDr//ama.Org.

The table beside the bed was stacked with books, mostly medical textbooks.

She breathed a sigh of relief, grateful to have put her trust in the right man. Now, she was safe. She

pulled out her phone, intending to call the police again, only to find that her battery was dead.

She internally cursed the unreliable police; she couldn't understand why they hadn't shown up yet.

She'd given them the exact location.

She thought about her previous calls to the Hawthorn family and about Dorian as anger bubbled within

her, especially towards Cordelia. She'd answered her call only to cruelly reject her, giving her hope and

then snuffing it out. It was truly wicked.

So what if she'd lied once before?

Would Cordelia treat Thaddeus or Vivienne this way? In the end, it was all because she was an

adopted child.

Once she escaped, she would make Cordelia pay!

As she gritted her teeth and plotted her revenge, the door to the room was suddenly flung open. The

man with black-framed glasses pointed at her, telling the chubby man next to him, "Look, your wife's

been found."

Arabella's face turned deathly pale. She stared incredulously at the man in glasses, who still held a

copy of “Hippocrates' Corpus” in his left hand. His smile carried an unspeakable malice.

"Wife!" The chubby man slobbered, laughing as he lunged at her.

Arabella let out a shrill scream, dodging him and running for the door.

She was grabbed by the man in glasses, who dragged her by her hair back to the chubby man. He

then picked up a folding chair from the side, asking, "Do you know what to do when your wife

misbehaves?"

The chubby man gnawed on his finger, asking, "Make babies with her?"

A wave of revulsion and terror rose in Arabella's heart.

The man in glasses laughed. "No. You break her legs."

He lifted the folding chair high, and with Arabella watching in horror, he mercilessly smashed it down on

her left leg.

"Aaaahhhh!"

Arabella's piercing scream echoed through the entire hospital.

The man in glasses dropped the chair, smiling as he watched the chubby man drag Arabella back into

the room while her broken leg left a fresh trail of blood on the floor.

Through her pain-blurred vision, Arabella saw him pick up the medical book again, reading it with

relish.

Today, heaven and hell were only separated by one small step.