Spring Tide

Eight years after I broke up with Greyson Tromp, we met in the hospital. He brought his wife for a prenatal checkup and happened to have their consultation with me. I wore a mask and carefully examined the condition of her baby. The intern beside us asked how they ended up together. Elise Jacob said smugly, "You have to fight for a handsome guy. To get the best, you have to fight for it! He used to like someone else. To win his heart, I stirred up trouble between them, causing them to misunderstand each other and gradually drift apart. "Later, they had a really bad argument, and I hid the apology letter he asked me to pass on to that woman. I still keep it as our token of love. That woman was pregnant at the time, and I used every means to get rid of her baby!" After they left, I removed my mask. My hands instinctively rested on my stomach. There was an ugly scar beneath my clothes. It was from when Greyson forced me to abort our baby. A few days later, Greyson came kneeling before me, holding that apology letter and a divorce agreement.

One of the most painful things on earth is to lose a loved one. Whether in death or heartbreak. It's a pain different from all others. You feel every burn, every ache, your senses awaken, and greedily await a memory to sip in and then wreck your entire being. She took everything. His Light. His Heart. His Soul. It had no end. For years it went on like it would never end. But, it did. Just in passing, a normal day, a day like every other, but it was the day, his heart danced truly and his chest tighten as if a fierce wind had passed by, blending with his soul, leaving a suffocating feeling in his chest, a choking sensation in his throat, there was a pressure making it hard to breathe. ******* "My heart has heated for the human and my blood has flown for him. Every time I thought of him, my heart would ache. It would ache so much I couldn't breathe, the feeling of despair, yet sweetness... Even so, I still couldn't stop thinking about him." So...this is how it feels to love a person. "I belong to you, just as this merman belongs to the seas. Like a falling leaf belongs to its roots." "Nothing can stop me from falling into your embrace." ******* ®®

"Mr. Hamilton, do you have something long and hard? Can I borrow it?" On a spring outing with my daughter, Maddison Hamilton, her best friend, Braelynn Hudson, suddenly asked me that question with a blush. She sat facing me on the grass, her legs spread wide. "The bugs in the grass must've crawled into my skirt. It's driving me crazy... Mr. Hamilton, do you have a stick? Can you scratch it for me?" Looking at her alluring body and snow-white legs, I felt the heat boiling within me. Taking advantage of Maddison's inattention, I quickly pulled down my pants. "What's so comfortable about a stick? I have something better here."

After the Ferguson family went bankrupt, I gave up everything I had and followed Ethan Ferguson to Stormbay. Five years later, he had fought his way back into the top three on the Forbes rich list. He rebuilt the empire everyone believed he had lost for good. He never mentioned marriage, no matter how much we had been through together. I did not understand the reason until the night before Memorial Day. I woke after midnight and saw Ethan standing alone on the terrace of our beachfront house. The cold ocean wind swept through the darkness while he lit three white candles one by one. Their flames flickered softly against the night. He faced the distant horizon across the sea and lowered his voice. “Mom, Dad… I’m sorry I couldn’t come see you again this year.” He paused, and his expression softened. “However, please keep watching over Vivi. Keep her healthy… and bless the two of us with a long, happy life together.” Warmth spread through my chest as I listened. My health had never been good, and every year near Memorial Day, Ethan refused to let me exhaust myself with the long trip home. He always went alone to visit his parents’ graves while I stayed behind in Stormbay. This year, when I saw the homesickness in his eyes, I decided to surprise him. I wanted to make the trip in his place. I never expected my entire world to collapse the moment I arrived at the cemetery. Ethan’s name was carved into the headstone. Beside it was the name of another woman. Olivia Ferguson. My gaze drifted lower. A framed family photograph sat at the foot of the headstone. Its edges had curled from the ocean wind. In the picture, Ethan held a little blond-haired boy in his arms. The child looked no older than three. Olivia stood beside him, smiling softly at the camera. A sharp pain cut through my chest. Only then did I understand the truth. The “Vivi” Ethan prayed for was never Vivian. It had been Olivia all along.

Seven years ago, Selene Ocean was framed and forced out of the world of elite marine research. She lost her career, her future, and the man she once loved—Ethan North, the proud corporate heir who believed the lie that broke her. Now she returns, not as a victim, but as the brilliant founder of the global marine conservation initiative, Heart of the Deep. Armed with unmatched intuition and a mind sharp enough to read the ocean itself, Selene rebuilds reefs, exposes corruption, and rises to international recognition. When the truth is revealed, Ethan collapses under the weight of his regret—but Selene’s heart is no longer his to claim. With the dangerous and manipulative Veronica Shaw closing in, the storm around Selene only grows stronger. In this story of betrayal, resilience, and redemption, one truth stands firm: The past cannot drown a woman who has learned to rise from the depths.

My boyfriend thought I was just a nerd. When he was drunk, he complained to his friends. “Does it matter if she has good grades? Her family’s broke. You know, I could slap a wad of cash in her face, and she’d come crawling like a dog.” However, I later ended up crying and sitting on a certain someone’s lap. He kissed me from behind my ear down to my neck and chuckled softly. “Hmm, a nerd? Does he even know that you’re actually the daughter of the city’s biggest real estate tycoon?”