Second Chance at Love and Life

"Celine, I want to marry the silver-finned Fourth Prince, Sheldon Reeve."

My younger sister, Princess Caroline Walsh, clung to my sleeve, pouting and pleading like a spoiled child.

"I know you care about appearances, so you'll probably go for the purple-finned Sixth Prince, Reginald Reeve, but personally, I think Sheldon is a real man's man."

Caroline looked at me with a playful smile laced with subtle menace. At that moment, I knew she had been reborn too.

Our father, the emperor, had long maintained a strong alliance with the merfolk, and had arranged political marriages between the two races. However, offspring between humans and mermen were rare, almost impossible.

To prevent the bloodline from dying out, our father made a bold decision. He had us princesses take a secret elixir that would alter our bodies to become fertile for merfolk.

In the end, only Caroline and I succeeded.

In my previous life, Caroline had grown up pampered and proud within the palace walls, her standards impossibly high.

She fell hard for the strikingly handsome Reginald and turned up her nose at the rugged, muscular Sheldon, who was not so easy on the eyes.

With a few sweet words, she coaxed me into marrying him instead.

Not long after, I gave birth to two rare, black-finned children which were seen as the highest, most revered bloodline in the entire merfolk kingdom.

It had been over a thousand years since such a child was born.

After that, the next few children I birthed were also black-finned.

The Mer-King was ecstatic, and he named Sheldon the crown prince and I, by virtue of my children, became the crown princess, draped in wealth and power.

As for Caroline, she bore a red-finned child that was considered the lowest bloodline. She became the shame of the royal family and a laughingstock among the merfolk.

Mad with envy, she waited until I was weak from childbirth. Right after I gave birth to my ninth child, she ripped out the inner pearl that allowed me to breathe underwater. Then, she dismembered me and fed my body to the fishes.

I had yet to speak, but I could already feel Sheldon's cold, calculating eyes fixed on me. The merman hated nothing more than people talking about his looks.

In my past life, Caroline criticized his appearance to my face. After she gave birth to a red-finned child, he had her face slashed and tossed her to the lower-class mermen to be 'enjoyed'.

She was doing it again—deliberately baiting him, trying to drag me down with her. What she did not know was that being Sheldon's consort was a fate worse than death.

Sheldon was insatiable. He dragged me to bed day and night, completely ignoring whether my body could take it.

Pregnancy did not stop him. In fact, it made it worse. He even brought in other male and female merfolk to 'join the fun'.

That was how I ended up having nine children in just three years. To him, I was not a wife. I was a breeding tool and a way to vent his twisted desires.

So, if Caroline wanted him so badly after her rebirth, why would I get in the way?

In fact, I could not be happier to let her have him.