Chapter 7
After my brother rescued me and brought me back to the depths of the ocean, I slept for many days.
The clan said that when I returned, my body was covered in wounds, and even the last scale on my chest was barely hanging on.
My brother saved me by giving me his heart–protecting scale, but it cost him a hundred years of sleep.
“Melanie, you must survive!”
Those were his last words to me before he drifted into slumber.
For his sake, I continued to live.
I gently placed the single scale left by Sophie among the coral clusters.
As
per Merfolk tradition, I would remain there for three days and nights, singing a final requiem for my daughter,
“Sophie, I’m so sorry.”
For countless days and nights, I had been tormented by the decision to sacrifice my daughter’s life to repay a debt of gratitude.
Ever since I returned, I felt like a completely different person. The vibrant and cheerful individual I once was had turned into a mere shadow of my former self.
To lift my spirits, members of my brother’s clan took me to the shallows every morning to unwind. But I no longer chased the schools of fish as I
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once did; instead, I simply gazed silently at the sea, lost in my thoughts.
“Melanie, see how bright the sun is today. Want to explore the reefs?” a clan member attempted to cheer me up.
I gently shook my head, my tail sending up a trail of tiny bubbles.
Suddenly, a familiar yet distant shout faintly reached my ears.
“Melanie!”
The raspy cry pierced through the seawater and struck my eardrums.
For a moment, I felt disoriented.
Whose voice was that?
I instinctively moved toward the sound, and as I approached, the voice became clearer, causing my body to tremble uncontrollably.
“Melanie, please come out and see me. I know you’re in the sea!”
I quickly looked up–Shawn’s voice.
I surfaced quietly from behind the reef.
On the distant shore, a disheveled man staggered along, his shirt wrinkled and hair unkempt, lacking any sign of his former handsome and dignified appearance.
A fisherman nearby murmured to his friend, “That man shows up every day, yelling from sunrise to sunset like he’s lost his mind.
“I heard his wife jumped into the sea with their child. What a tragedy! To drive his own wife to this–he must be facing his comeuppance!”
Chapter 7
2014
Shawn knelt on the shore, submerging his head in the seawater.
“I know you can hear me! Melanie, please—give me a chance to make things right. I realize I was wrong!”
His voice cracked, breaking apart in the midst of the crashing waves.
I observed him quietly, my heart now still and unfeeling.
“Melanie…”
Shawn suddenly lifted his head, his bloodshot eyes locked on the reef where I was hidden, his entire body trembling with desperation.
“I saw your silver hair!”
He sprinted barefoot toward the reef, unfazed by the cuts and blood on his feet.
I quickly plunged into the water, swimming directly toward the deep sea without looking back.
His anguished cries echoed in the distance, but I never turned around.
