Chapter 1

Ryan came back just as the caretaker was bringing in the nutritional supplement.

"Perfect timing," he said, tossing his coat over the chair back and turning to grin at me. "Were you waiting for me to feed you?"

He settled onto the edge of the bed, scooped up a spoonful, and held it toward my lips.

I just stared at him.

All those years of waiting, and now I could finally go home.

The supplement was bitter, more bitter than anything he'd ever mixed for me before. It made me cough and cough.

Ryan patted my back, shaking his head with a mix of exasperation and amusement. "What's the rush? Nobody's taking it from you."

"How come you're being so good today? Don't need me to feed you anymore?"

His palm pressed against my back through the thin fabric of my shirt, warm and steady.

I used to crave that warmth.

I straightened up and pulled a corner of my mouth into something like a smile. "I don't need that anymore. Not ever again."

He paused. The smile in his eyes slowly faded. "Still angry about Vicky?"

"She's just young, her heart's in the right place," he murmured, chin resting against the top of my head, voice low. "You're fine now—can you let it go?"

His arms were wide. He smelled faintly of antiseptic, and underneath that, a trace of sea salt.

I used to think that was the most reassuring smell in the world.

Now it just made it hard to breathe.

I pulled away from him without making a scene, my voice flat. "What if something had actually happened to me?"

"With me here, how could anything happen?"

My husband is the world's most brilliant marine biologist. There isn't a poison he can't break down.

Over the years, Vicky had tried all manner of things on me. The serious incidents triggered full-body allergic reactions that nearly exposed the scales beneath my skin. The minor ones left me with rashes and stomach troubles. Every single time, Ryan had dealt with it without breaking a sweat.

He looked at me now, a faint smile playing in his eyes, indulgent and fond.

Everything I'd suffered was, to him, nothing but a little drama.

A few years ago, I was still the youngest daughter of the Deep Sea Kingdom's Ocean King.

Liam was my oldest friend.

Liam was a humpback whale. Every year when he migrated through our waters, he would always make a detour to find me. I would ride on his back, and he would carry me across the whole ocean. Those were the happiest days of my life.

The day of the storm, it came on fierce.

I felt Liam slowing in the water, and my chest seized with dread. By the time I found him, he had already run aground on the rocky beach.

The sun was merciless. The rocks were scalding. His skin was beginning to crack.

A crowd had gathered onshore, some taking photos, some just standing there watching. A construction crew waited in the distance. They said the beach was slated to be cleared for a new dock next month, and one whale wasn't going to hold up the schedule.

I wanted to save Liam, but I didn't know how.

Then a man arrived.

He wore a white research coat and carried an equipment case on his back. He took one look at Liam, said nothing, parked his car in front of the bulldozer to block it, opened the case, pulled out testing equipment, and began checking Liam's vitals one by one.

He contacted the coast guard for rescue, then grabbed a bucket himself and started scooping water from the rock crevices, pouring it over Liam little by little to keep him from drying out.

He stayed from daylight into darkness, from darkness back into daylight.

Three days and three nights, and he barely left.

Eventually the tide came in. He jumped into the water, rallied people to push Liam inch by inch toward the deep. The moment Liam entered the water, I saw his face from beneath the surface.

His hair was completely soaked, plastered to his cheeks. The research coat was drenched through. He looked like a wreck.

Afterward I asked the sprite whether there was anyone among humans who could be trusted.

The sprite said lazily, “this the question was too profound and I don't know.”

I said: “I've seen one. He stayed three days and three nights for a whale.”

I decided to come ashore.

Mermaids who stayed away from the water for long periods lost their strength, and scales would faintly ghost through the skin when they were exhausted or emotionally overwhelmed. The kingdom had rules: royalty must never reveal their identity, and contact with humans was strictly forbidden.

I took human form. I traded the pearl formed from my tears for a set of clothes, and found my way to his laboratory.

I spent three months there as a volunteer at his marine research lab.

Every day he came to check on my health. He thought I had some rare condition: always running slightly cold, skin with an odd luminescence on overcast days, hypersensitive to certain synthetic chemicals.

He carefully built out a health file for me, morning and evening.

He knew I couldn't stand bitter supplements.

Every time, he would adjust the flavor for me. Sea salt and lemon.

"Your body needs trace minerals. This will help," he'd say.

He also knew which convenience store stocked the chicken sandwich I liked.

One time he went out for lab supplies and came back with one, his palm visibly sweaty even as his expression stayed perfectly casual.

"Passed by the convenience store. Picked one up on the way."

I found out later that he wasn't like this with everyone.

When he proposed, the whole community was buzzing.

Everyone said Ryan's standards were impossibly high. So many women with doctorates from top schools, not one had caught his eye. How did he end up falling for some mysterious "ocean enthusiast" with no traceable background?

"Elena," he said. "From now on, you're Ryan's wife."

Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of candy, holding it out to me.

I unwrapped it. Sea salt and lemon.

"You looked nervous," he said. "Have something sweet."

I thought I had married the best man in the world.

I thought I would be happy like this forever.

Then Vicky came back.

And after that, everything changed.

The day she returned, I was on the balcony watering my succulents.

She pushed the door open and walked straight in without knocking.

Red coat, hair in a high ponytail, metal sample case in hand.

She looked me up and down, let out a short scoff. "You?"

Then she turned and left.

But I never imagined that once she came back, she would never leave, and that she would find new ways to make my life miserable.

How did it come to this?

In the beginning, he actually cared.

We hadn't been married long. Vicky had added industrial-grade chemical preservatives to my drinking water.

I was a mermaid, and I was acutely sensitive to that kind of thing. A normal person would never notice anything wrong, but after I drank it, my entire body broke out in hives, the pattern of my scales ghosting up through the skin, itching like fire, and I nearly gave myself away.

Ryan rushed home. When he saw me, his face went white on the spot.

His hands were shaking while he examined me.

"Don't be scared," he said. "Nothing's going to happen to you."

After he treated me, he took the lab records and went to find Vicky.

"I made myself clear," he said, his eyes red. "From now on, we go our separate ways."

I caught his arm. "Let it go. She probably didn't mean it."

He gritted his teeth and said nothing.

That night, he tossed and turned.

But he still couldn't hold the line.

Within three days he caved under her tears.

Vicky had cut her wrist.

By the time he arrived, the wound wasn't deep, but blood had pooled on the floor. She was sitting there sobbing, barely able to catch her breath.

Ryan held her, shaken and frightened, torn between guilt and tenderness.

"She was hurting. She just needed to let it out. She didn't mean to harm you."

He came home exhausted, rubbing his temples.

"Elena, let's just drop it."

I looked at his face.

He'd lost weight in those few days.

I nodded.

It was only later that I found out they'd had an old promise between them.

They'd agreed: if they ever achieved a major research breakthrough together, they would co-publish it, and build a life together.

But before that promise could be kept, he had met me.

Love at first sight.

Vicky cried and threw fits, but he was completely set on marrying me.

"In a way, I did wrong by her," he said, holding my hand, his voice quiet. "Elena, we're husband and wife. Can you just give way to her? For me?"

His fingers were cool.

I held on.

"Okay."

After that, I gave way. Again and again and again.

Until the day she injected that toxin into my body.