- 24 minutes ago
The Forgotten Mermaid - Full EP (ENGSUB) | Mermaid Romance Fantasy
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🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Mermaids hide among humans, one iron law. Exposure means death.
00:05The clan sent me to make Morris Chadwick fall in love. I made him love me. I fell in love
00:10too.
00:11But the sudden car accident made him suffer from amnesia.
00:15Every December, Morris forgot who I am.
00:18Five years ago, a car crash, I protected my hands from the glass.
00:23Morris' amnesia began that same day.
00:26Who are you? Why are you in my house?
00:29I'd explain every time.
00:31I am your girlfriend!
00:33He never remembered. He'd lock me in the cold storage room, where for a mermaid the cold is suffocation.
00:39Ice seeps through my skin, pushing scales to the surface.
00:44Every breath feels like the ocean draining from my lungs.
00:47Blue scales shimmered on the backs of my hands, fighting to break through.
00:51I pressed my palms against the frozen floor and burned my mermaid essence to force them back down.
00:56The suppression tore through me like knives.
00:59But the iron law was absolute.
01:01Exposure meant extinction.
01:03So I paid the price in silence year after year.
01:06Then he'd smash my perfuming tools every bottle I'd blended with mermaid aura.
01:11Shattered on the floor, and I'd pick up the pieces and tell myself it was okay.
01:15He was sick.
01:16When the amnesia passed, he'd hold my cracked hands and whisper.
01:21I'm sorry. I didn't mean it.
01:24I believed him. Five years of this cycle.
01:27I never left, because I thought his illness was real and his tenderness was genuine.
01:32Then one night, I heard his voice through the half-open door. He was laughing.
01:37I pressed against the wall outside the study.
01:41Morris sat with his friends.
01:43How much longer are you going to keep up this act?
01:46Rachel's the only one who believes his fake amnesia.
01:48She's such an idiot.
01:51Every time, she kneels in the snow, begging us to help you remember.
01:56She really thinks you'll marry her.
02:01Laughter rolled through the room.
02:05You're going to pretend not to know her again next week, aren't you?
02:08How many years has it been now?
02:10Five.
02:11Morris' voice cut through the door, cold and sharp.
02:15During the car crash, to save her precious hands,
02:20Rachel let the glass slice through Lena's hands.
02:23She should burn in hell!
02:25Through the crack, I saw Jacqueline sitting next to him.
02:28The clan sent her to monitor me.
02:31Here, she called herself Lena.
02:33He reached over and gently fixed her hair.
02:36Gently held her bandaged hands.
02:38I'm going to make sure she suffers far worse than you ever did.
02:42For five years, I worried about him and gave him everything.
02:45The freezer.
02:46The scales.
02:47The destroyed tools were all just his way of punishing me.
02:50It wasn't amnesia.
02:51It was punishment.
02:52Then someone added.
02:55By the way, Maurice,
02:56you had someone switch Rachel's perfume sample at the competition.
03:00Put Lena's name on it instead, right?
03:04She deserves it.
03:06My formulas.
03:07Three months of testing until my hands bled.
03:10Jacqueline was the brand ambassador for Chadwick Perfumes.
03:13It took everyone for granted that she can make perfume,
03:16all stolen by one word from him.
03:19I sat on the floor for three days without eating or sleeping.
03:23I used to kneel in the snow, begging his friends to help him remember me.
03:28Because I thought he was lost.
03:30He was never lost.
03:31I was.
03:32Last year, after the perfume competition destroyed me.
03:35He held me through those terrible nights.
03:37He told me I was a born perfume genius.
03:40He said no matter what people said, he'd always believe in me.
03:43His kindness was just a trick.
03:46He built up my confidence just to break it completely.
03:50I went to the mermaid elder.
03:52I knelt on the stone floor of the coastal cave,
03:54where the sound of waves echoed from below.
03:58I want to erase everything.
04:01Every feeling, every memory of Maurice, all of it.
04:04The mermaid elder studied my face for a long time.
04:08Last month, you begged me for more time.
04:10You traded years of your life to stay with him.
04:12Now you want to erase him?
04:14The ritual takes five days.
04:15Once it's done, you won't feel anything about him anymore.
04:18No love, no hate, no grief, nothing.
04:20But the clan doesn't erase memories for personal reasons.
04:22Your mission isn't over.
04:23I grabbed his sleeve.
04:25Please.
04:27He pulled away.
04:29Then my phone rang.
04:32Ratch, your brother is in the O.R.
04:36I was sitting on the curb outside the clinic,
04:38freezing, when Maurice walked up.
04:40He shrugged off his coat and wrapped it around my shoulders.
04:44What happened?
04:45Are you okay?
04:49He pulled me into his arms.
04:51He always showed up right when I was at my worst.
04:53He knew I depended on him.
04:56That's why I never left.
04:57I grew up alone in the sea with my brother.
05:00Now I was alone in the human world.
05:02Hiding my identity every day.
05:04I needed someone to anchor me.
05:06Even after he locked me in the freezer.
05:08Even after he destroyed my hands.
05:10I still forgave him.
05:12Right now, I was so exhausted that for one second,
05:14I let myself be held.
05:19Maurice?
05:19Jacqueline's voice came from behind us.
05:25Maurice let go of me immediately and stepped back,
05:27like I was something inconvenient.
05:30Jacqueline looked at the billing screen through the clinic window.
05:34Rachel, do you seriously not even have $3,000?
05:38Did you gamble away the monthly allowance Maurice gives you?
05:41Her voice was loud on purpose.
05:43People on the street turned to stare.
05:45So she's a kept woman.
05:46Gambling away her sugar daddy's cash while her brother's sick.
05:49Disgusting.
05:50Don't embarrass Lena.
05:53Maurice didn't defend me.
05:54He leaned in and whispered a warning.
05:56Something inside me went quiet, not broken.
05:59Just done.
06:00$500,000.
06:02He stared at me and Shock Dot in five years together.
06:04I never asked him for a cent.
06:08Over five years,
06:09you took my perfume formulas,
06:10put Jacqueline's name on them,
06:12and sold them for way more than $500,000.
06:16You owe me.
06:20Over five years,
06:22you took my perfume formulas,
06:24put Jacqueline's name on them,
06:25and sold them for way more than $500,000.
06:29Maurice stared at me like I had just spat on his shoes.
06:32Your formulas?
06:34You're nothing but a perfumer's assistant, Rachel.
06:36Nothing more.
06:38My formulas,
06:39the ones I had created by blending my mermaid aura with human spices.
06:43The only bridge between my world and this one.
06:46He had taken every single one and given them to Jacqueline.
06:49Jacqueline stepped forward with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
06:53Rachel, I know you're struggling.
06:55Here.
06:56This should help with your brother's bills.
06:58She pulled out $4,000 in cash and held it out to me.
07:01As my fingers reached for the money,
07:03she tilted the cup in her other hand.
07:05Hot water poured directly onto my hand first.
07:08For a mermaid on land,
07:09human skin is only a thin layer of disguise.
07:11The heat sank deeper than it would on any human.
07:14I gasped and yanked my hand back.
07:16Blisters swelled instantly,
07:18the skin peeling back from the burn.
07:20Jacqueline dropped to the floor and screamed.
07:26Rachel pushed me!
07:27She pushed me!
07:28The cash scattered across the cold tile.
07:30Morris stepped between us.
07:32Is this how you act when you're begging for money, Rachel?
07:37I held up my blistered hand.
07:42She poured hot water on my hand first!
07:45Look!
07:45Morris cut me off before I could finish.
07:48Don't tell me Lena fell on purpose again.
07:53I lowered my hand.
07:55He would never believe me.
07:57The cash was still scattered across the floor,
07:59the money I needed to keep Samuel alive.
08:03I squatted down and started picking up the bills one by one.
08:06Morris' leather shoe came down hard on my hand.
08:09The blisters popped under his weight.
08:11Blood and clear fluid spread across the floor.
08:14The pain shot up my arm and into my spine.
08:17For a mermaid, hands are survival.
08:19Destroyed hands mean exposure.
08:21Exposure means death.
08:23Every time the cold cracked my skin,
08:25I had burned my own life force to keep the scales hidden.
08:28Now his shoe was doing the same damage from the outside.
08:31He pressed harder.
08:33Apologize to Lena.
08:34Kneel.
08:34I'm sorry, Miss Bray.
08:36I was wrong.
08:37I dropped to my knees on the cold tile floor.
08:39I turned my face up toward Morris,
08:41my voice flat and empty.
08:43Is that enough, Mr. Chadwick?
08:44He froze.
08:45His expression shifted, not anger.
08:48Something he couldn't name.
08:49He lifted his foot, pulled at his tie,
08:51and shoved the remaining cash into my arms.
08:55This is the last time, Rachel.
08:58Don't take your anger out on Lena again.
09:02I kept my eyes on the floor.
09:04There won't be a next time.
09:06And there really wouldn't be.
09:08That night, Morris called.
09:10He had contacted the coastal clinic
09:12and pulled every string he had.
09:14The full treatment cost would be covered.
09:16The payment would process by tomorrow afternoon.
09:19Samuel had a chance.
09:22The next day, I sat beside Samuel's bed in the clinic.
09:26His breathing was shallow.
09:28The monitors beeped in a rhythm only our kind understood.
09:32The treatment was supposed to start at noon.
09:35Morris' payment had to clear first.
09:38Noon came.
09:38No payment.
09:39I checked my phone.
09:41Nothing.
09:45The nurse came in and shook her head.
09:48Without the funds, they couldn't begin.
09:52Samuel's hand twitched in mine.
09:54His pulse was slowing.
09:56If he died on land,
09:57clan protocol was absolute.
09:59Destroy the remains.
10:01Leave nothing human eyes could find.
10:05I called Morris.
10:06No answer.
10:07I called again.
10:08And again.
10:11On my 99th try,
10:14someone finally picked up.
10:15His assistant.
10:17Ms. Heaton.
10:18Mr. Chadwick can't talk right now.
10:19Ms. Brain is upset.
10:21She went to the roof.
10:23Jacqueline.
10:25She had been faking damaged hands for five years.
10:28And now she was on a rooftop threatening to jump.
10:31Morris was with her instead of sending the money that would save my brother.
10:34The payment deadline was 30 minutes away.
10:37I kissed Samuel's forehead and ran.
10:4130 minutes had passed.
10:43The mermaid clan had already ordered the destruction of Samuel's remains.
10:47Jacqueline's delay gave them time to execute.
10:50I snatched the consent form from the assistant's hand and ran back to the hospital.
11:00The hallway stretched forever.
11:02A white sheeted gurney at the end.
11:06The doctor looked at me.
11:09Missed the window by 10 minutes.
11:11Samuel didn't make it.
11:13He died because two forces struck at the same time.
11:16Jacqueline's delay.
11:18The clan's destruction order.
11:19My legs gave out.
11:21I fell to my knees on the cold tile floor.
11:24I cried silently.
11:26Right then, my phone buzzed.
11:27A location pin for a high-end restaurant.
11:35Then Morris called.
11:39Rachel, the payment went through.
11:41Samuel will be fine.
11:42He didn't know.
11:43He had been on that rooftop with Jacqueline the whole time.
11:46The payment cleared, but the treatment window had already closed.
11:49I didn't correct him.
11:52I couldn't form the words.
11:53Samuel was dead, and this man was talking about designer dresses.
11:57He paused.
11:59Lena is emotionally unstable.
12:00I couldn't just leave her on that roof.
12:03I'll pay for whatever Samuel needs.
12:05You know that.
12:06His voice shifted back to that familiar, arrogant tone.
12:09You got the designer dress, right?
12:10Wear it tomorrow night.
12:11Meet me at the Glass Conservatory.
12:13I have something important to tell you.
12:15I knew exactly what he was doing.
12:17Tomorrow would be the fifth time he faked getting his memory back.
12:20The fifth time he would confess love like it was real.
12:23Those first few times, I had cried tears of joy.
12:27I had thought it meant he finally loved me back.
12:29But it was always a staged scene.
12:31He would cry, blame his illness, and I would stay.
12:35I had even fallen deeply in love with him.
12:38The kindness and cruelty and alternation had made me dependent on him.
12:41I swallowed hard.
12:43The game is over, Morris.
12:45I don't want your money anymore.
12:46And I don't want you.
12:49The next day, I didn't go.
12:51I threw the expensive dress in the dumpster.
12:54I went to the clan and demanded Samuel's body back for a proper farewell.
12:59The elder agreed, but only on one condition.
13:01The cremation must happen within 24 hours.
13:08I was at the funeral home handling the cremation paperwork when Morris' assistant arrived with two men.
13:18They grabbed my arms and forced me into a waiting car.
13:22Mr. Chadwick has been waiting for you.
13:24You can't just give up now.
13:27He went all out for the proposal this time.
13:29You've been through this for years.
13:30You can't walk away.
13:34The glass conservatory was full of white roses.
13:39The smell hit me before I even stepped inside.
13:42For a mermaid, the olfactory system is hypersensitive.
13:45White roses were worse than any human allergy.
13:49Every breath was a sharp sting behind my eyes.
13:52A wave of nausea rolling through my skull.
13:55I had been dragged through this exact setup for times before.
13:59Those first few times, I had cried tears of joy.
14:02Now the rose smell made me sick.
14:04Morris stood in the center, wearing the same tailored black suit.
14:08He recited the same confession he had used every time before.
14:12I raised my hand and swatted the jewelry box away.
14:15The diamond ring flew across the room and hit the marble floor.
14:21The loving look on his face disappeared.
14:27Rach, you don't want to marry me?
14:29Just then, his assistant rushed over in panic, holding a tablet.
14:35He glanced at the screen and quickly tried to hide it against his chest.
14:40I burst through the rooftop door and the wind hit me like a wall.
14:43Morris stood near the edge, one arm around Jacqueline.
14:46She was draped over the railing, fake sobbing into the wind.
14:50I didn't look at either of them.
14:51I ran straight for Morris.
14:54The payment!
14:55You promised!
14:56Samuel is dying!
14:58Two bodyguards grabbed me and shoved me onto the concrete.
15:03He grabbed my hair and yanked my head back.
15:06Everyone is blaming her for the clinic.
15:08Calling her a liar, a manipulator.
15:10She can't bear it.
15:11She's threatened to jump.
15:12You need to record a video right now.
15:14Now, tell everyone you were the one who ruined her life.
15:17I stared at him.
15:19Tell them what?
15:20That I protected her from the glass and you two blamed me for it?
15:23He slapped me.
15:26You're still refusing to admit it, Rachel.
15:30If Lina doesn't come down from that rail, you don't get the payment.
15:35No payment means no treatment for Samuel.
15:38He was holding Samuel's life hostage for Jacqueline's tantrum.
15:42Samuel was still lying in that clinic, dying by the second.
15:46I opened my IG live stream and screamed the lie he wanted.
15:51It was me!
15:52I was cruel!
15:53I'm the reason Jacqueline's hands were damaged!
15:56It's all my fault!
16:00Jacqueline kept fake crying while Morris coaxed her down from the railing.
16:07I stayed on my knees, the wind cutting through me.
16:10The payment authorization form was still in the assistant's hands, unsigned.
16:17I pushed past Morris and grabbed the tablet.
16:20It was the funeral home where Samuel's body was being held.
16:29A crowd had broken into the main hall and was live streaming the whole thing.
16:36After the rooftop confession went viral, Jacqueline had been stoking the outrage for days.
16:42She told her followers Samuel helped Rachel plan the crash that destroyed her hands.
16:47That the Heaton siblings tried to murder her for her perfume empire.
16:50She posted the funeral home's address, called it Justice.
16:54Her followers showed up with cameras.
16:57The mob came for revenge.
16:59They thought they were avenging an innocent woman and punishing a criminal who escaped Justice by dying.
17:08I stumbled out of the greenhouse and flagged down a taxi.
17:12In the back seat, I sent messages in the live chat over and over.
17:16Please stop!
17:18Don't touch him!
17:20Nobody read them.
17:23The leader sneered right into the camera.
17:26Rachel, admit what you did to Lena.
17:29Someone like you deserves to watch your brother's remains get destroyed.
17:33A loud crash came through the speaker.
17:36They smashed the cremation container, ash and fragments scattered across the floor.
17:41Dirty water from a broken pipe mixed with the debris.
17:44People stepped on it, grounded into the concrete.
17:48Then I saw it, a scale fragment, still glistening with the last trace of mermaid essence.
17:53It flickered once, twice, then faded to gray.
17:57Samuel's scale, the last proof he was one of us, trampled by humans who had no idea what they were
18:02destroying.
18:03I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
18:08I rushed to the hospital on the surface, it looks like a regular coastal clinic.
18:14But behind a hidden door on the second floor, there's a mermaid medical facility that no human knows about.
18:20Samuel shouldn't even be on land this long.
18:24The clan forced him to stay.
18:26They needed him to run errands in the human world.
18:28And when he almost exposed our secret, they made him stay as punishment.
18:33Now the land is killing him.
18:35Every day without seawater, his body decays a little more.
18:39The doctor met me at the IQ door.
18:41Samuel's degradation is accelerating.
18:44He's near death.
18:45His murd pipiology is breaking down.
18:47Samuel lay on the specialized pod, his skin pale, faint scale lines visible along his jaw.
18:53The mermaid-specific pod was the only thing keeping him stable, and it cost more than I could earn in
18:59a year.
18:59I walked to the payment desk and handed over every card I had.
19:03One by one, the cashier swiped them, insufficient, insufficient, insufficient.
19:08I begged her.
19:09Save my brother first.
19:11I just need to have a few days to get the money together.
19:14Morris sold my perfumes under Jacqueline's name.
19:17He must give me money.
19:19She looked at me with cold eyes.
19:21No money, no treatment.
19:25No, Samuel wouldn't survive another week.
19:28The people behind me grew impatient and called the security guard.
19:33Security dragged me out and shoved me onto the street.
19:40Then I heard a familiar voice behind me.
19:43Morris.
19:47My phone buzzed out.
19:49It was the mermaid elder.
19:51Rachel, your time is up.
19:52The mission has failed.
19:54We will now perform the memory wipe ritual.
19:57I didn't argue.
19:58There was nothing left to argue about.
20:01Samuel was dead.
20:03His remains were trampled into concrete by humans who hunted our kind.
20:07My hands were destroyed.
20:08My mission had failed.
20:10The man I loved for five years had been lying from the start.
20:15I walked to the coastal cave where the elder waited.
20:18The elder stood at the water's edge, her silver hair streaming in the wind.
20:24Once this is done, it cannot be undone.
20:27You will lose every emotion and memory tied to Maurice Chadrick.
20:31You will remember the mission.
20:33You will remember the facts.
20:35But you will feel nothing.
20:37I closed my eyes.
20:38I closed my eyes.
20:40Do it.
20:41The elder placed her hand on my forehead.
20:44Blue light flowed from her palm.
20:45It moved through my skull like water through stone.
20:48Images rose and shattered one by one.
20:51Morris wrapping his coat around my shoulders in the freezing wind.
20:54Gone.
20:55Gone.
20:56His hand gripping my hair on a rooftop while I screamed a lie.
21:00Gone.
21:01His leather shoe crushing my hand until the blisters popped and bled.
21:06Gone.
21:07Five years of love and pain gone.
21:09Like bubbles breaking on the surface of still water, I opened my eyes.
21:13The cave was dark.
21:15The tide was coming in.
21:17The elder was gone.
21:18I felt nothing, no sadness, no anger.
21:21No love.
21:22I walked out of the cave and into the morning light.
21:26The mission had failed.
21:27A new one would begin soon.
21:34Morris had meant to go after me.
21:36He was standing by the door when his phone rang.
21:38It was Jacqueline.
21:41She was crying again, complaining about a splitting headache and the online harassment.
21:46He hesitated.
21:47Then he put down his keys and headed to her apartment instead.
21:53Jacqueline clung to him the moment he walked in.
21:56He couldn't pry himself away and ended up sleeping on her couch.
21:59The next day at noon, a message popped up in his private group chat.
22:03Morris, are we starting the fifth fake amnesia routine?
22:06He stared at the screen, his finger hovering over the keyboard.
22:11Jacqueline shifted beside him, wrapping an arm around his.
22:17Keeping his face blank, he typed a single word in reply.
22:23Yes.
22:24After freshening up, he ordered his bodyguards to lock Rachel in the Sub-Zero cold storage.
22:30Just like he had done the last four times.
22:33Only this time, annoying anxiety built in his chest.
22:37He found himself staring at the cold storage door.
22:39He remembered the way my hands shook after each session.
22:43The way I still smiled at him the next morning.
22:48He couldn't sit still.
22:50Two hours later, his bodyguard called.
22:56Mr. Chadwick, Ms. Heaton is missing.
23:02Morris frowned.
23:03A living person doesn't just vanish.
23:07Where else would she go besides the hospital?
23:09He flashed back to the tablet footage from last night.
23:12They destroyed her brother's remains at the funeral home.
23:15Didn't leave a trace.
23:18Morris knocked over his black coffee.
23:20He thought it was just a stunt.
23:23Never thought they'd destroy everything.
23:27Where is Rachel?
23:29We checked the funeral home and her apartment.
23:32No sign of her.
23:33Find her.
23:34Tear the city apart if you have to.
23:37He hung up.
23:40Jacqueline walked up and wrapped her arms around him from behind.
23:46Maurice.
23:47Rachel probably just left.
23:49If she wants to go, let her go.
23:51She was sick of playing the victim.
23:54She had noticed Morris' gaze on me shifting from disgust to desire.
23:58She had to end this now.
24:01Back in the clan, she was always the second choice.
24:04I was the one sent to capture Morris' heart.
24:07Jacqueline was only sent to watch.
24:11In the human world, she had tasted power, wealth, and devotion.
24:17She was not going back to being nobody's first pick.
24:20The clan's mission meant nothing to her anymore.
24:24Morris was her ticket to staying on land forever, and I was the only thing standing in her way.
24:29Morris went quiet.
24:30She made sense.
24:33But a sharp, suffocating tightness in his chest made it hard to breathe.
24:37In the end, he canceled the search.
24:43Life went back to normal.
24:45He took Jacqueline to evening galas and helped her pick out dresses.
24:48She was a mermaid manipulating him, and he had no idea, the same way I had once hidden my true
24:54nature from him.
24:55Only Jacqueline's manipulation was all calculation, no heart.
25:03A month later, a thunderstorm rolled through the city.
25:07Jacqueline showed up at his apartment, claiming the storm terrified her.
25:11The vibe shifted.
25:13She stood on her tiptoes, closed her eyes, and went in for a kiss.
25:16Morris jerked his head away on instinct and pushed her back.
25:21He knew she was crossing a line.
25:23He'd known about her feelings and played dumb, figuring it was harmless if unspoken.
25:28But right then, a wave of intense irritation washed over him.
25:32His body was rejecting something.
25:34He didn't understand what.
25:36Looking down at Jacqueline's tears, he laid it out cold.
25:40I only see you as my sister.
25:43Ignoring her shocked expression and the tears spilling over her cheeks,
25:46he grabbed his car keys and bolted out the door.
25:50He drove without thinking.
25:52By the time he snapped out of his haze, he was parked outside an abandoned villa.
26:00The basement, the perfumery he had torn apart.
26:04The exact same room where he used to lock me up to punish me whenever he was faking his memory
26:08loss.
26:09His hand wrapped around the rusty doorknob, that severe.
26:12Tight ache hit his chest again.
26:16It took everything he had just to shove the heavy door open.
26:21A blast of stale dust hit him, laced with my faint, familiar scent.
26:25His composure shattered.
26:26The cramped room was still packed with my things.
26:29Perfume formulas plastered the walls.
26:32Smashed beakers and glass droppers littered the corner.
26:35Mixed in with inexpensive little gifts I had given him over the years.
26:39For the first time, it actually hit him.
26:42My entire universe for the last five years had revolved around him.
26:45Then he saw it, uh, the hand-knit navy blue cashmere scarf.
26:49He had demanded rare mountain cashmere just to be cruel.
26:53I had dragged myself through the snow to get the materials,
26:56ending up with frostbite so bad I almost needed an amputation.
27:00He had tossed that scarf into the dog's bed.
27:03Morris's eyes burned, quickly filling with tears.
27:07Then he saw an unopened bottle of custom-blended perfume.
27:11The label was written in my neat, careful handwriting.
27:14Till you marry me.
27:17I had worked myself to the bone formulating it,
27:20planning to give it out at our wedding.
27:22He had dumped it down the drain in front of a crowd just to humiliate me.
27:25I had forced a smile and said,
27:28I'll wait for the day you're willing to marry me.
27:31But he had never intended to marry me.
27:35The memory of that smile made his knees buckle.
27:39He leaned against the freezing concrete wall and slid down to the floor.
27:43His hands were shaking so badly he could barely light a cigarette.
27:47The small red glow illuminated the tears streaming down his face.
27:52But he had locked me in a freezer, destroyed my career, used my brother's treatment as leverage.
27:59Let strangers trample his remains.
28:03Every item in this room was a confession.
28:06None of it made sense anymore.
28:08The revenge, the five years.
28:10All of it crumbled.
28:12A jagged gasp tore from his throat.
28:15He stumbled to his feet, knocking over the box of my things.
28:20The basement door was heavy.
28:22Just like it had been every time he locked me inside.
28:27He pulled himself up.
28:29He had to find me.
28:30He pulled out his phone to call the number he still knew by heart.
28:34Then a notification from his group chat flashed across the screen.
28:37Morris, it's over.
28:38I checked the hallway security footage.
28:41Rachel heard everything we said in the private room about you faking your amnesia.
28:45His hands stopped mid-dial.
28:49He tapped the video attachment.
28:51There was me, standing just outside the heavy door.
28:56My face was pale.
28:57The thermos slipped from my grip and shattered against the floor.
29:00I slapped a hand over my mouth, spun on the heel, and ran in absolute despair.
29:05The cherry of his burning cigarette broke off and landed on the back of his hand, scorching the skin.
29:11He didn't flinch jot, then his foot clipped an old box on the floor.
29:14Inside sat a semi-transparent scale and a small sea crystal.
29:20He picked up the scale.
29:21It was cold and moist against his fingers, like it had just been pulled from the ocean.
29:26The surface shimmered with a faint blue light that pulsed once and faded.
29:32His hand went still.
29:34This was not a human thing.
29:36His mind raced.
29:40Her unnatural talent for perfumes, the way she always seemed to carry the ocean in her scent.
29:46She was not human, she was a mermaid.
29:52The weight of it crushed him, Morris buried his face in his hands.
29:57For all those years, I hid what I was and stayed by his side, while he locked me in that
30:03basement and used the cold to break me.
30:05His family had always been in marine industries.
30:10He had heard the stories about mermaids.
30:15He just never thought they were real.
30:17Never thought one was standing right beside him.
30:20The deeper things he would never understand.
30:25But the one thing he knew now was this cold was not just cold for us.
30:29It was agony.
30:32A raw, guttural wail ripped from his throat.
30:35Rish! I was wrong!
30:37I was so wrong!
30:39I love you!
30:40His agonizing cries echoed off the concrete walls of the empty basement.
30:45No one heard him.
30:46The regret had come way too late.
30:51Morris's eyes welled up as if he were the victim.
30:55Rish, I know you hate me.
30:57I know you're a mermaid.
30:58And I know you didn't stay with me by choice.
31:02I was wrong to fake my amnesia and torment you.
31:05But my feelings are real.
31:07I love you.
31:08Don't punish me by pretending you've lost your memory.
31:12Even without emotions, I recognize the absurdity.
31:16You treat someone like garbage for five years, then get teary-eyed and claim you love her?
31:21The psych horde is down the hall on your left.
31:23Get out!
31:27Morris's face went pale.
31:28Cause I once shivered in the snow to warm his hands now looked at him with open hostility.
31:33He reached out to touch my face.
31:35I grabbed a glass dropper and pointed it at his throat.
31:39Morris stumbled back.
31:41He forced a tight smile.
31:43It's okay.
31:44I'll win you back.
31:45Make up for everything.
31:47You changed your number.
31:48Can I have the new one?
31:50He pulled out his phone.
31:55I was about to tell him to leave when I saw a tall guy walking toward the glass doors.
31:59I smiled, took his phone, and started tapping in numbers.
32:03Before I could finish, a large hand reached over and slapped it out of my grip.
32:07The phone hit the floor with a sharp crack, and the scream totally shattered.
32:12Morris's temper flared up instantly.
32:15You looking for a fight?
32:16Broderick didn't even look at him.
32:18He just glared straight at me.
32:22Rachel, yesterday you told me you liked my scent best, and today you're giving your number to another guy?
32:28Where's your professional integrity?
32:31I laughed at how obviously annoyed he was.
32:34I mean, I appreciate your talent for making perfumes, but that doesn't mean I can't humor a salesman.
32:41I tilted my head, looking right into Broderick's striking eyes.
32:46Besides, Mr. Markley, what gives you the right to tell me what to do?
32:50Broderick's face flushed red, but he was way too stubborn to admit that he liked me.
32:54I don't care.
32:56I'm your lead investor, and I say no.
32:59He pulled me behind him, shifting into fiercely protective mode as he glared at Morris.
33:05Hey, old man.
33:07Aren't you a little too old to be harassing women?
33:09Don't you have any shame?
33:11I'll have my legal team sue you into bankruptcy.
33:14Morris's voice was ice cold.
33:16I was talking to my future wife.
33:18Broderick laughed out loud.
33:21She wouldn't even give you her number.
33:23Are you stupid or just delusional?
33:25I reached under the counter and pulled out a small jar of custom-blended rosin.
33:29I held it out to Broderick.
33:31Here, I made this for you.
33:37He took it, his eyes lighting up like a kid on Christmas morning.
33:41Morris's lips were trembling.
33:44You, you used to say you'd never make perfume for anyone else.
33:50Broderick raised an eyebrow and wrapped his arm around my waist.
33:55She used to have terrible taste.
33:57She's my perfumer now.
33:59She makes whatever she wants for whoever she wants.
34:03I only care about making her successful and letting the world experience her work.
34:07Something stirred inside me.
34:09A faint ripple in the emptiness where emotions used to be.
34:13Broderick guided me toward the exit.
34:15Morris grabbed his arm.
34:18Let go of her!
34:20Broderick yanked his arm free in disgust.
34:28He pulled out a checkbook, wrote an enormous figure, and threw it in Morris's face.
34:33That covers the phone.
34:35Use the rest to book a psych appointment.
34:37Morris's fist clenched.
34:39Purple spots appeared on his face.
34:41He clutched his chest and collapsed.
34:44Broderick rolled his eyes.
34:46Heart problems and he still wants to fight?
34:48He called an ambulance, then turned to me.
34:54Do you have any sanitizing wipes?
34:56I touched a trash person and I feel dirty.
35:00That night, I went home to the small rented room where Samuel used to sleep.
35:04I sat on the edge of his bed and stared at the empty space.
35:07The elder texted me.
35:13Rachel, there's something I need to tell you about Samuel.
35:18I went still.
35:19What about him?
35:21The night he was declared dead, I moved him before the clinic could process the paperwork.
35:25I had my people report his death to follow Klan protocol, but I preserved his consciousness.
35:31His body is in a medical pod at a secure location.
35:34He has been alive this whole year at Rachel.
35:38My hands started shaking.
35:41What?
35:41The Klan ordered the destruction of his remains because he was too close to exposure.
35:46I followed the order on the surface, but I couldn't let him die.
35:49I helped you fake the cremation.
35:51What Jacqueline's followers destroyed at the funeral home was a decoy container.
35:55The scale fragment you saw in the debris was placed there to make the remains look authentic.
36:01I couldn't breathe that.
36:03Samuel was alive.
36:04My brother was alive.
36:05I had grieved for a year over a decoy.
36:08Why didn't you tell me sooner?
36:10His condition was too fragile.
36:12I needed to be sure he could recover before giving you hope.
36:14I won't deny it.
36:15I felt pity for you.
36:17Even though it broke Klan law, I didn't want you to lose everything.
36:21Thanks.
36:23Can I see him?
36:23My voice broke.
36:25Soon, he's getting stronger every day.
36:28I pressed my palms against my face and cried.
36:31For the first time since the memory wiped, I felt something real.
36:37One year later.
36:40Rachel.
36:42The mermaid elder's face appeared on my screen.
36:45Brodicton Marston is clearly attached to you.
36:47Keep up the good work.
36:49I smiled, waving a perfume testing strip in the air to let it dry.
36:53I jotted down cedar wood essential oil in the final column of my formula sheet.
36:58The very last ingredient.
37:01This capture emission will be over soon.
37:04Just then, a rough, trembling voice called out from behind me.
37:10Ratch.
37:12I turned around.
37:13A tall man reeking of stale tobacco yanked me into a crushing hug.
37:17It really is you.
37:18I looked everywhere for you.
37:20A whole year.
37:21His hands clamped down on my waist with an aggressive, desperate strength.
37:25I frowned and shoved him back.
37:27I gave him a flat, impassive, one sober.
37:30His face stirred absolutely no emotion in me.
37:33Who are you?
37:35He went completely rigid, utter disbelief washing over his eyes.
37:39Ratch, what's wrong?
37:40It's me.
37:41Maurice.
37:42The elder texted me again.
37:44Rachel, this is your previous capture target, Morris Chadwick.
37:48So this was the scumbag who had manipulated me, nearly got me killed, and let people trample
37:53on Samuel's remains.
37:57The elder had already provided me with a text summary of my past mission to prevent me from
38:02being manipulated again.
38:05I knew every detail of his five years of abuse.
38:08Keeping my face entirely deadpan, I casually brushed off the spots on my clothes where he
38:13had touched me and took a huge step back.
38:16Excuse me, but I don't know you at all.
38:19Please step aside.
38:21Or I will call security.
38:24Morris started showing up outside my apartment building every day.
38:27He canceled international meetings and conferences.
38:31He stood in the freezing wind for hours, holding bouquets of white roses.
38:36I threw every single one in the trash.
38:40The smell made my head pound and my stomach turn.
38:44For a mermaid with hypersensitive olfaction, white roses were a slow, grinding headache that
38:50wouldn't stop.
38:51Morris had known I was a mermaid since he found my scale.
38:54But he still didn't know roses were poison to my kind.
38:58He just kept sending them day after day.
39:02One night, he stood in the ice wind for a full 12 hours.
39:07I watched from the window as frost formed on his coat.
39:10He didn't leave.
39:12The elder texted me.
39:15Roderick's Marbury is at the edge.
39:17One more push and the mission reaches full completion.
39:21The next morning, a sports car engine roared outside my building.
39:25I opened the window.
39:28Morris looked up, his face lighting up with desperate hope.
39:32Rash, you finally looked at me.
39:34Five years was too cruel.
39:35As long as you come back, I'll do anything for the rest of my life.
39:39He was soaked from the ice rain, shouting into the wind.
39:42I really need you.
39:45Broderick stepped out from behind his car.
39:48You say you need her, but you don't even know why white roses trigger her allergy?
39:52Morris went pale.
39:53Broderick held an umbrella in one hand and a cup of hot cocoa in the other.
39:58He pulled out the backup door card I had given him and walked straight into the building lobby.
40:09Morris could only stand in the rain, watching.
40:12He had no right to follow.
40:14That evening after dinner, Morris' hoarse voice came from the street below.
40:24Rach, please come down and see me one last time.
40:28I dried my hands and headed for the door.
40:31Broderick's face went dark.
40:33His knuckles whitened around his coffee cup.
40:37I'm going down.
40:38I reached for the door handle.
40:40Broderick suddenly pushed me against the door.
40:43He lowered his head and bit down hard on my collarbone.
40:47Don't you dare go soft on him.
40:49Do you hear me?
40:51His voice was rough and possessive.
40:53He had smelled Morris' lingering scent on me.
40:56Another man scent on my skin.
40:58His jaw tightened.
41:00His instinct reacted like his territory had been invaded.
41:05I pushed him off and opened the door.
41:07The ice wind hit me first, then the rain.
41:11Morris rushed toward me from across the street.
41:14In his hand, he held a bottle of perfume.
41:18Till you marry me.
41:22I pulled my sleeve over my scarred hand.
41:28You let people trample on Samuel's remains.
41:31You think a little warmth erases everything?
41:34Morris swayed like a man who had just been hollowed out.
41:40Then let me hold you one last time.
41:42Just once.
41:43I took one step closer to him.
41:45I lowered my voice so only he could hear.
41:48You lied to me for five years, Morris.
41:53Now it's my turn to use you to boost Brockett's affection.
41:57Thanks for cooperating.
41:59His face crumpled off before he could respond.
42:02The apartment door opened behind me.
42:06Broderick stepped out under an umbrella.
42:08Morris' eyes went wide.
42:10The shock and pain on his face swallowed his last shred of hope.
42:15Broderick pulled me under the umbrella and kissed me hard in the pouring rain.
42:21Rachel, you're mine.
42:24I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back.
42:27My phone buzzed.
42:29The elder texted me.
42:30I looked into it.
42:31Broderick Marbury filed a prenup request with his family.
42:34You're the one named on it.
42:36Rachel, you are no longer a failed operative.
42:38You are a mermaid who completed her mission.
42:41Right then, another notification popped up.
42:45Samuel had regained consciousness.
42:47He was awake.
42:50Morris' voice was forced and broken.
42:52Rash, please!
42:53Just see me this one last time!
42:57He held up the bottle.
43:03You spent three months making this perfume.
43:05You said you'd use it at our wedding.
43:07How could you forget?
43:09The bottle was the one thing I had left behind in the basement.
43:13He must have kept it all this time.
43:15I looked at the bottle, then at his rain-soaked face.
43:18My expression didn't change.
43:21I didn't forget.
43:22I just don't care anymore.
43:24Morris' arm dropped to his side.
43:28Rash, come home with me.
43:30Tomorrow we'll get the marriage certificate.
43:32I'll transfer all my shares to you.
43:35I took a cold step back.
43:37Maurice, I'm only gonna say this once.
43:40We are completely done.
43:41I raised my right hand.
43:43The frostbite scars from five years in the freezer were still there.
43:46White, puckered lines across my knuckles and fingertips.
43:50These scars are because you locked me in a freezer.
43:54For a mermaid, ice is suffocation.
43:57Every time you put me in there, I was dying from the inside out.
44:01My hands will never precisely extract another drop of essence again.
44:05Every winter, I burned years of my lifespan to force the scales back under my skin.
44:10You never even notice.
44:12You destroyed everything I had.
44:15Morris looked like he had been punched in the chest.
44:18Tears mixed with rain on his face.
44:21Is there really no chance to start over?
44:25None.
44:28From that night on, Morris fell apart.
44:30He stopped going to work.
44:32He drank from morning to night.
44:38Social media called him a pathetic loser.
44:46Jackalyn moved in.
44:47She was a mermaid who had betrayed the clan.
44:52She was no longer permitted to return to the sea.
44:55She could only cling to Morris and live in hiding.
45:02She cooked his meals, poured his drinks, and held him when he cried.
45:12A month later, Jackalyn announced she was pregnant.
45:20To protect the Chadwick family reputation, Morris married her without a single feeling in his heart.
45:32The wedding was grand and hollow.
45:34He signed the papers with a blank expression.
45:39She smiled like she had won everything.
45:41And for a while, it looked like she had.
45:47But the truth has a way of catching up.
45:49Three months into the marriage, Morris hired a private investigator.
45:53The investigator found the child she was carrying belonged to another wealthy man.
46:00Morris sat in his study, staring at the investigator's report.
46:04His mind went blank.
46:06Jackalyn lied to him too.
46:12He dragged Jackalyn to the basement of the old villa.
46:15The same cold storage room where he had locked me for five years.
46:21He tied her to the chair and turned the temperature dial to maximum.
46:28The cold hit her like a wall.
46:30Then the cold did what it always did to our kind.
46:33Blue scales shimmered on the backs of her hands, pushing through her skin.
46:39She thrashed against the ropes, and her bandages unraveled.
46:43The hands beneath were perfect, unscarred.
46:45Fully intact.
46:46Morris stared at the scales, then at her hands.
46:50A mermaid, hands never damaged.
46:52Five years of revenge built on a lie.
46:56Maurice, please!
46:57She held up her perfect hands, scales pushing through her fingers.
47:01Our hands keep the scales hidden!
47:04Without them I'll be exposed!
47:06I'll die!
47:07He went completely still.
47:09Our hands kept the scales hidden.
47:11Our hands kept us alive on land.
47:13And he had crushed mine under his shoe.
47:16He had destroyed me for nothing.
47:17He had locked me in this exact room and made me burn years of my life to survive what he
47:22was doing to her right now.
47:24Jacqueline's eyes went wide with terror.
47:29Maurice!
47:30Please!
47:30I'm pregnant!
47:31He looked at her with dead eyes.
47:33The child isn't mine.
47:37He wrapped his hands around her throat and squeezed until she stopped moving.
47:43Then he poured the industrial chemicals stored in the corner across the floor.
47:49He lit a match and dropped it.
47:51The fire spread fast.
47:53He sat down on the floor and watched the flames climb the walls.
47:56He didn't try to leave.
47:58The last thing he saw was the blue shimmer of a mermaid-scale fragment on the concrete.
48:03Then the fire took everything.
48:06The news the next day reported a suspicious fire at an abandoned villa.
48:11Two bodies found.
48:12No survivors.
48:14New York's biggest scandal.
48:16The Klan moved quickly.
48:19Any trace of mermaid biology in the ashes was quietly removed.
48:23The Klan's iron law held.
48:24No human would ever know what had really burned in that basement.
48:33Six months later in Paris, the top floor of the Pallidillo perfumery.
48:37I stood behind my display table, adjusting the final row of bottles.
48:42The label on each one was a rebirth.
48:47The scent was my mermaid aura fused with human spices at their purest.
48:52Every note carried the ocean.
48:53Every breath told a story of survival.
49:00Critics called it the most extraordinary perfume of the decade.
49:03They didn't know the half of it.
49:10The exhibition hall was packed at buyers, journalists, competitors.
49:15They all leaned in when they passed my booth, drawn by something they couldn't name.
49:20My mermaid aura blended into every bottle.
49:24The crowd parted, Broderick walked up, his hands in his pockets, grinning like he owned the place.
49:31You made them all cry, didn't you?
49:34Three buyers already called me to negotiate exclusive rights.
49:41I told them the perfumer decides, not the investor.
49:46He stepped behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
49:52He pulled a small velvet box from his jacket and opened it, a custom diamond ring.
50:00Mrs. Marbury, Samuel just called.
50:04He wants us back for dinner.
50:08I looked at the bottle labeled and
50:10Rebirth and
50:12On the display, then I leaned back against Broderick's chest.
50:16Okay, let's go home.
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