Chapter 2

Adrian’s father goes pale when he sees my jellyfish in the treatment tank.

“Nerissa, I warned him again and again not to hurt you, and never to touch her.”

His gaze falls on her severed tentacles, and his voice turns grim.

“I never thought he would go this far for Celeste.”

He closes his eyes.

After a long silence, he says quietly,

“I’ll deal with Adrian, and I’ll make Celeste leave.”

“As long as you stay, I promise no one will ever touch either of you again.”

I look up.

“Stay?”

He finally hears something in my voice.

Long ago, Adrian’s ancestor risked his life to save a stranded mermaid and stopped others from destroying the waters where she lived.

To repay that debt, my people promised to protect his family’s coast.

I have stayed longer than any of my people.

At first, I stayed to honor that promise. Later, I stayed because I fell in love with Adrian, and for a long time, I could not separate the two.

I even believed that as long as I kept protecting his family, I would always have a place in his world.

Now I look down at my dying jellyfish.

“I’ve stopped enough storms for your family.”

“Your ancestor once saved one of my people, so I protected your coast and your family for years.”

“That debt is paid. Once she is strong enough to travel, I’m going home.”

The words bring me back to the first time I came ashore.

The ocean did not look like this back then.

Sunlight filtered through the clear water deep into the sea.

Schools of silver fish flashed between coral branches, while transparent jellyfish drifted above them, their long tentacles glowing blue.

After storms, I loved swimming to the surface.

The sky would be bright and clear, sometimes with a rainbow stretching across the horizon.

Later, the sea began to change.

Storms came more often.

I first left the deep to find out why.

But Adrian was the reason I stayed.

The first time I took human form and stepped onto land, I was barefoot. I did not even know how to put on shoes.

Seawater dripped from my hair while strangers stared at me.

Adrian was the only one who walked toward me.

He took off his coat and wrapped it around my shoulders.

“You must be freezing.”

That was the first thing he ever said to me.

Later, Adrian learned I was a mermaid.

I expected him to be afraid. Instead, he kept me awake half the night with questions. Did fish really glow in the deepest water? Could mermaids sing? Did every tear become a pearl?

I told him he was annoying.

He only smiled wider.

Among my people, pearls can carry more than grief. Some are said to hold memories that refuse to fade.

When I finally brought my bonded jellyfish onto land, Adrian had an entire wall turned into a saltwater tank for her.

There was white sand, seagrass, coral, and even shells and tiny pearls he had bought for her.

I laughed when I saw it.

“She doesn’t need all this.”

“She might like it.”

The first time my jellyfish glowed in front of him, Adrian stood by the glass for a long time.

“She’s been with you since you were born?”

“Yes.”

“Then she’s family too.”

I believed him.

Back then, I truly thought we would always be this happy.

We weren’t.

Everything changed when Adrian’s boat disappeared during a storm. He survived that night, but something between us seemed to die in that storm. It was also after that night that Celeste truly became part of our lives.

Adrian began to change little by little.

He stopped asking about the deep, stopped coming with me to watch the tides, and rarely entered the room he had built for my jellyfish.

Eventually, he even began questioning the things I told him about mermaids, our bond, and the sea.

I did not understand why.

I only told myself that maybe human love was like that.

Maybe it simply grew quieter with time.

Then, a few months ago, I caught Adrian and Celeste in our bed for the first time.

I cried until I could barely breathe, black pearls scattering across the floor.

Adrian chased after me.

“It was fake. All of it.”

“The storm is about to hit. There are still people near the port.”

He held my face and kissed away my tears.

“I only need the black pearls.”

“You’re the one I love.”

I believed him.

Because back then, I still wanted desperately to believe him.

The marine specialist’s voice pulls me out of the memory.

“She should survive.”

I immediately look down at the treatment tank.

“But she cannot be hurt like this again.”

I carefully lift the tank.

Before I can leave, an assistant runs after me carrying another small tank.

Inside is an ordinary pale jellyfish.

“Adrian sent this for you.”

A card is taped to the glass.

Since you care so much about jellyfish, here’s another one.

I stare at the words for a long time.

Once, Adrian told me my bonded jellyfish was family.

Now he thinks if one dies, he can simply buy me another.

I leave it behind.

I take only my bonded jellyfish with me.

Once this storm passes, I will return to the sea.

For the first time, the thought feels real.

I am going to leave Adrian.

But when I return home to collect my things, I hear a woman’s muffled moan behind the bedroom door before I even reach it.

I stop.

The door is not fully closed.