- 3 minutes ago
The Forgotten Mermaid HD
Category
🎥
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.
00:22Morris' amnesia began that same day.
00:25Who are you? Why are you in my house?
00:28I'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, but the iron law was absolute.
01:00Exposure meant extinction.
01:02So 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.
01:25Five 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.
01:35He 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?
01:45Rachel's the only one who believes his fake amnesia.
01:48She's such an idiot.
01:50Every time, she kneels in the snow, begging us to help you remember.
01:55She 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's voice cut through the door, cold and sharp.
02:15During the car crash, to save her precious hands,
02:19Rachel 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.
02:30Here, 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.
02:54By 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,
03:15all 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.
03:29He 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,
03:42he'd always believe in me.
03:43His kindness was just a trick.
03:45He built up my confidence just to break it completely.
03:50I went to the Mermaid Elder.
03:51I 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?
04:13The ritual takes five days.
04:15Once it's done, you won't feel anything about him anymore.
04:17No 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, then my phone rang.
04:31Ratch, your brother is in the O.R.
04:36I rushed to the hospital on the surface.
04:38It looks like a regular coastal clinic.
04:42But behind a hidden door on the second floor,
04:44there's a mermaid medical facility that no human knows about.
04:48Samuel shouldn't even be on land this long.
04:52The clan forced him to stay.
04:53They needed him to run errands in the human world.
04:56And when he almost exposed our secret, they made him stay as punishment.
05:01Now the land is killing him.
05:03Every day without seawater, his body decays a little more.
05:06The doctor met me at the IQ door.
05:09Samuel's degradation is accelerating.
05:11He's near death.
05:12His merd pipiology is breaking down.
05:15Samuel lay on the specialized pod, his skin pale, faint scale lines visible along his jaw.
05:21The mermaid-specific pod was the only thing keeping him stable, and it cost more than I could earn in
05:26a year.
05:27I walked to the payment desk and handed over every card I had.
05:31One by one, the cashier swiped them, insufficient, insufficient, insufficient.
05:36I begged her,
05:37Save my brother first.
05:39I just need to have a few days to get the money together.
05:42Morris sold my perfumes under Jacqueline's name.
05:45He must give me money.
05:47She looked at me with cold eyes.
05:49No money, no treatment.
05:53No, Samuel wouldn't survive another week.
05:56The people behind me grew impatient and called the security guard.
06:01Security dragged me out and shoved me onto the street.
06:08Then I heard a familiar voice behind me.
06:11Morris.
06:15I was sitting on the curb outside the clinic, freezing, when Morris walked up.
06:20He shrugged off his coat and wrapped it around my shoulders.
06:24What happened?
06:25Are you okay?
06:28He pulled me into his arms.
06:30He always showed up right when I was at my worst.
06:33He knew I depended on him.
06:35That's why I never left.
06:37I grew up alone in the sea with my brother.
06:39Now I was alone in the human world,
06:41hiding my identity every day.
06:43I needed someone to anchor me.
06:45Even after he locked me in the freezer.
06:47Even after he destroyed my hands.
06:49I still forgave him.
06:51Right now, I was so exhausted that for one second,
06:54I let myself be held.
06:58Maurice?
06:59Jacqueline's voice came from behind us.
07:04Morris let go of me immediately and stepped back,
07:07like I was something inconvenient.
07:09Jacqueline looked at the billing screen through the clinic window.
07:14Rachel, do you seriously not even have $3,000?
07:17Did you gamble away the monthly allowance Maurice gives you?
07:20Her voice was loud on purpose.
07:22People on the street turned to stare.
07:24So she's a kept woman.
07:26Gambling away her sugar daddy's cash while her brother's sick.
07:29Disgusting.
07:30Don't embarrass Lena.
07:32Morris didn't defend me.
07:34He leaned in and whispered a warning.
07:35Something inside me went quiet, not broken.
07:38Just done.
07:40$500,000.
07:41He stared at me and Shock Dot in five years together.
07:44I never asked him for a cent.
07:47Over five years, you took my perfume formulas,
07:50put Jacqueline's name on them,
07:51and sold them for way more than $500,000.
07:55You owe me.
08:00Over five years, you took my perfume formulas,
08:03put Jacqueline's name on them,
08:05and sold them for way more than $500,000.
08:08Morris stared at me like I had just spat on his shoes.
08:11Your formulas?
08:13You're nothing but a perfumer's assistant, Rachel.
08:16Nothing more.
08:17My formulas, the ones I had created
08:19by blending my mermaid aura with human spices.
08:22The only bridge between my world and this one.
08:25He had taken every single one
08:27and given them to Jacqueline.
08:28Jacqueline stepped forward with a smile
08:30that didn't reach her eyes.
08:32Rachel, I know you're struggling.
08:35Here, this should help with your brother's bills.
08:38She pulled out $4,000 in cash and held it out to me.
08:41As my fingers reached for the money,
08:43she tilted the cup in her other hand.
08:45Hot water poured directly onto my hand first.
08:47For a mermaid on land,
08:49human skin is only a thin layer of disguise.
08:51The heat sank deeper than it would on any human.
08:53I gasped and yanked my hand back.
08:56Blisters swelled instantly,
08:57the skin peeling back from the burn.
09:00Jacqueline dropped to the floor and screamed.
09:05Rachel, push me!
09:07She pushed me!
09:08The cash scattered across the cold tile.
09:10Morris stepped between us.
09:12Is this how you act when you're begging for money, Rachel?
09:16I held up my blistered hand.
09:22She poured hot water on my hand first!
09:24Look!
09:24Morris cut me off before I could finish.
09:27Don't tell me Lena fell on purpose again.
09:33I lowered my hand.
09:34He would never believe me.
09:36The cash was still scattered across the floor,
09:39the money I needed to keep Samuel alive.
09:42I squatted down and started picking up the bills one by one.
09:46Morris' leather shoe came down hard on my hand.
09:49The blisters popped under his weight.
09:51Blood and clear fluid spread across the floor.
09:53The pain shot up my arm and into my spine.
09:56For a mermaid, hands are survival.
09:59Destroyed hands mean exposure.
10:01Exposure means death.
10:02Every time the cold cracked my skin,
10:05I had burned my own life force to keep the scales hidden.
10:08Now his shoe was doing the same damage from the outside.
10:11He pressed harder.
10:12Apologize to Lena.
10:13Kneel.
10:14I'm sorry, Miss Bray.
10:15I was wrong.
10:16I dropped to my knees on the cold tile floor.
10:19I turned my face up toward Morris,
10:21my voice flat and empty.
10:22Is that enough, Mr. Chadwick?
10:24He froze.
10:25His expression shifted, not anger.
10:27Something he couldn't name.
10:29He lifted his foot, pulled at his tie,
10:31and shoved the remaining cash into my arms.
10:35This is the last time, Rachel.
10:38Don't take your anger out on Lena again.
10:42I kept my eyes on the floor.
10:44There won't be a next time.
10:46And there really wouldn't be.
10:48That night, Morris called.
10:49He had contacted the coastal clinic
10:51and pulled every string he had.
10:53The full treatment cost would be covered.
10:56The payment would process by tomorrow afternoon.
10:59Samuel had a chance.
11:02The next day,
11:03I sat beside Samuel's bed in the clinic.
11:06His breathing was shallow.
11:08The monitors beeped in a rhythm
11:10only our kind understood.
11:12The treatment was supposed to start at noon.
11:15Morris' payment had to clear first.
11:17Noon came.
11:18No payment.
11:19I checked my phone.
11:20Nothing.
11:25The nurse came in and shook her head.
11:28Without the funds,
11:29they couldn't begin.
11:32Samuel's hand twitched in mine.
11:34His pulse was slowing.
11:35If he died on land,
11:37clan protocol was absolute.
11:39Destroy the remains.
11:40Leave nothing human eyes could find.
11:44I called Morris.
11:46No answer.
11:47I called again.
11:48And again.
11:51On my 99th try,
11:53someone finally picked up.
11:55His assistant.
11:56Ms. Heaton.
11:57Mr. Chadwick can't talk right now.
11:59Ms. Brain is upset.
12:01She went to the roof.
12:03Jacqueline.
12:05She had been faking damaged hands for five years.
12:08And now she was on a rooftop threatening to jump.
12:10Morris was with her instead of sending the money that would save my brother.
12:14The payment deadline was 30 minutes away.
12:17I kissed Samuel's forehead and ran.
12:21I burst through the rooftop door and the wind hit me like a wall.
12:24Morris stood near the edge,
12:26one arm around Jacqueline.
12:27She was draped over the railing,
12:29fake sobbing into the wind.
12:30I didn't look at either of them.
12:32I ran straight for Morris.
12:35The payment!
12:36You promised!
12:37Samuel is dying!
12:39Two bodyguards grabbed me and shoved me onto the concrete.
12:44He grabbed my hair and yanked my head back.
12:46Everyone is blaming her for the clinic.
12:48Calling her a liar,
12:50a manipulator.
12:51She can't bear it.
12:52She's threatened to jump.
12:53You need to record a video right now.
12:55Tell everyone you were the one who ruined her life.
12:58I stared at him.
12:59Tell them what?
13:01That I protected her from the glass and you two blamed me for it?
13:04He slapped me.
13:07You're still refusing to admit it, Rachel.
13:11If Lina doesn't come down from that rail,
13:13you don't get the payment.
13:16No payment means no treatment for Samuel.
13:19He was holding Samuel's life hostage for Jacqueline's tantrum.
13:23Samuel was still lying in that clinic,
13:25dying by the second.
13:27I opened my IG live stream and screamed the lie he wanted.
13:31It was me!
13:33I was cruel!
13:34I'm the reason Jacqueline's hands were damaged!
13:37It's all my fault!
13:41Jacqueline kept fake crying while Morris coaxed her down from the railing.
13:48I stayed on my knees,
13:50the wind cutting through me.
13:51The payment authorization form was still in the assistant's hands,
13:55unsigned.
13:5830 minutes had passed.
14:00The mermaid clan had already ordered the destruction of Samuel's remains.
14:04Jacqueline's delay gave them time to execute.
14:07I snatched the consent form from the assistant's hand and ran back to the hospital.
14:17The hallway stretched forever.
14:19A white-sheeted gurney at the end.
14:23The doctor looked at me.
14:26Missed the window by 10 minutes.
14:28Samuel didn't make it.
14:30He died because two forces struck at the same time.
14:33Jacqueline's delay.
14:34The clan's destruction order.
14:36My legs gave out.
14:38I fell to my knees on the cold tile floor.
14:40I cried silently.
14:42Right then, my phone buzzed.
14:44A location pin for a high-end restaurant.
14:52Then Morris called.
14:56Rachel, the payment went through.
14:58Samuel will be fine.
14:59He didn't know.
15:00He had been on that rooftop with Jacqueline the whole time.
15:03The payment cleared,
15:04but the treatment window had already closed.
15:07I didn't correct him.
15:08I couldn't form the words.
15:10Samuel was dead,
15:11and this man was talking about designer dresses.
15:14He paused.
15:15Lena is emotionally unstable.
15:17I couldn't just leave her on that roof.
15:19I'll pay for whatever Samuel needs.
15:22You know that.
15:22His voice shifted back to that familiar, arrogant tone.
15:25You got the designer dress, right?
15:27Wear it tomorrow night.
15:28Meet me at the Glass Conservatory.
15:29I have something important to tell you.
15:31I knew exactly what he was doing.
15:34Tomorrow would be the fifth time he faked getting his memory back.
15:37The fifth time he would confess love like it was real.
15:40Those first few times,
15:41I had cried tears of joy.
15:43I had thought it meant he finally loved me back.
15:46But it was always a staged scene.
15:48He would cry,
15:49blame his illness,
15:50and I would stay.
15:52I had even fallen deeply in love with him.
15:54The kindness and cruelty and alternation had made me dependent on him.
15:58I swallowed hard.
16:00The game is over, Morris.
16:01I don't want your money anymore.
16:03And I don't want you.
16:05The next day,
16:07I didn't go.
16:07I threw the expensive dress in the dumpster.
16:12I went to the clan and demanded Samuel's body back for a proper farewell.
16:16The elder agreed,
16:17but only on one condition.
16:19The cremation must happen within 24 hours.
16:24I was at the funeral home handling the cremation paperwork when Morris's assistant arrived with two men.
16:35They grabbed my arms and forced me into a waiting car.
16:39Mr. Chadwick has been waiting for you.
16:41You can't just give up now.
16:43He went all out for the proposal this time.
16:46You've been through this for years.
16:47You can't walk away.
16:51The glass conservatory was full of white roses.
16:56The smell hit me before I even stepped inside.
16:58For a mermaid,
16:59the olfactory system is hypersensitive.
17:02White roses were worse than any human allergy.
17:06Every breath was a sharp sting behind my eyes.
17:09A wave of nausea rolling through my skull.
17:12I had been dragged through this exact setup for times before.
17:15Those first few times,
17:17I had cried tears of joy.
17:19Now the rose smell made me sick.
17:21Morris stood in the center,
17:23wearing the same tailored black suit.
17:25He recited the same confession he had used every time before.
17:28I raised my hand and swatted the jewelry box away.
17:32The diamond ring flew across the room and hit the marble floor.
17:38The loving look on his face disappeared.
17:44Rach, do you...
17:45You don't want to marry me?
17:46Just then,
17:47his assistant rushed over in panic,
17:49holding a tablet.
17:52He glanced at the screen and quickly tried to hide it against his chest.
17:57I pushed past Morris and grabbed the tablet.
18:00It was the funeral home where Samuel's body was being held.
18:09A crowd had broken into the main hall and was live-streaming the whole thing.
18:16After the rooftop confession went viral,
18:19Jacqueline had been stoking the outrage for days.
18:22She told her followers Samuel helped Rachel plan the crash that destroyed her hands.
18:27That the Heaton siblings tried to murder her for her perfume empire.
18:30She posted the funeral home's address.
18:33Called it justice.
18:34Her followers showed up with cameras.
18:37The mob came for revenge.
18:39They thought they were avenging an innocent woman and punishing a criminal who escaped justice by dying.
18:48I stumbled out of the greenhouse and flagged down a taxi.
18:51In the back seat, I sent messages in the live chat over and over.
18:56Please stop.
18:58Don't touch him.
19:00Nobody read them.
19:06Rachel, admit what you did to Lena.
19:09Someone like you deserves to watch your brother's remains get destroyed.
19:13A loud crash came through the speaker.
19:16They smashed the cremation container.
19:18Ash and fragments scattered across the floor.
19:21Dirty water from a broken pipe mixed with the debris.
19:24People stepped on it.
19:25Grounded into the concrete.
19:28Then I saw it, a scale fragment, still glistening with the last trace of mermaid essence.
19:33It flickered once, twice, then faded to gray.
19:37Samuel's scale.
19:38The last proof he was one of us.
19:40Trampled by humans who had no idea what they were destroying.
19:43I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out.
19:48My phone buzzed out it was the mermaid elder.
19:51Rachel your time is up.
19:53The mission has failed.
19:54We will now perform the memory wipe ritual.
19:57I didn't argue.
19:59There was nothing left to argue about.
20:02Samuel was dead.
20:03His remains were trampled into concrete by humans who hunted our kind.
20:07My hands were destroyed.
20:09My 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.
20:28You will lose every emotion and memory tied to Maurice Chadrick.
20:31You will remember the mission.
20:33You will remember the facts.
20:36But you will feel nothing.
20:37I closed my eyes.
20:40Do it.
20:42The elder placed her hand on my forehead.
20:44Blue light flowed from her palm.
20:46It 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.
20:55Gone.
20:55His hand gripping my hair on a rooftop while I screamed a lie.
21:01Gone.
21:02His 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.
21:12I opened my eyes.
21:14The cave was dark.
21:16The tide was coming in.
21:17The elder was gone.
21:18I felt nothing, no sadness, no anger.
21:22No love.
21:23I walked out of the cave and into the morning light.
21:26The mission had failed.
21:28A 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.
21:42She was crying again, complaining about a splitting headache and the online harassment.
21:46He hesitated.
21:48Then he put down his keys and headed to her apartment instead.
21:54Jacqueline clung to him the moment he walked in.
21:56He couldn't pry himself away and ended up sleeping on her couch.
22:00The next day at noon, a message popped up in his private group chat.
22:04Morris, are we starting the fifth fake amnesia routine?
22:07He stared at the screen, his finger hovering over the keyboard.
22:12Jacqueline shifted beside him, wrapping an arm around his.
22:18Keeping his face blank, he typed a single word in reply.
22:23Yes.
22:25After 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.
22:40He remembered the way my hands shook after each session.
22:43The way I still smiled at him the next morning.
22:49He couldn't sit still.
22:51Two hours later, his bodyguard called.
22:56Mr. Chadwick, Ms. Heaton is missing.
23:03Morris frowned.
23:04A living person doesn't just vanish.
23:07Where else would she go besides the hospital?
23:10He flashed back to the tablet footage from last night.
23:13They destroyed her brother's remains at the funeral home.
23:16Didn't leave a trace.
23:19Morris knocked over his black coffee.
23:21He 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.
23:47Maurice.
23:48Rachel probably just left.
23:50If she wants to go, let her go.
23:52She 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.
24:08Jacqueline was only sent to watch.
24:11In the human world, she had tasted power, wealth, and devotion.
24:18She 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.
24:30Morris went quiet.
24:31She made sense.
24:33But a sharp, suffocating tightness in his chest made it hard to breathe.
24:37In the end, he canceled the search.
24:44Life went back to normal.
24:46He 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
24:55nature from him.
24:56Only Jacqueline's manipulation was all calculation, no heart.
25:03A month later, a thunderstorm rolled through the city.
25:08Jacqueline showed up at his apartment, claiming the storm terrified her.
25:12The vibe shifted.
25:13She stood on her tiptoes, closed her eyes, and went in for a kiss.
25:18Morris jerked his head away on instinct and pushed her back.
25:22He knew she was crossing a line.
25:24He'd known about her feelings and played dumb, figuring it was harmless if unspoken.
25:29But right then, a wave of intense irritation washed over him.
25:33His body was rejecting something.
25:35He didn't understand what.
25:37Looking 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, he grabbed his car keys and bolted out the
25:49door.
25:51He drove without thinking.
25:53By 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
26:09loss.
26:10His hand wrapped around the rusty doorknob, that severe, tight 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.
26:26His composure shattered.
26:27The cramped room was still packed with my things.
26:30Perfume formulas plastered the walls.
26:33Smashed beakers and glass droppers littered the corner.
26:36Mixed in with inexpensive little gifts I had given him over the years.
26:40For the first time, it actually hit him.
26:43My entire universe for the last five years had revolved around him.
26:46Then he saw it, uh, the hand-knit navy blue cashmere scarf.
26:50He had demanded rare mountain cashmere just to be cruel.
26:53I had dragged myself through the snow to get the materials,
26:57ending up with frostbite so bad I almost needed an amputation.
27:00He had tossed that scarf into the dog's bed.
27:04Morris's eyes burned, quickly filling with tears.
27:08Then 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,
27:21planning to give it out at our wedding.
27:22He had dumped it down the drain in front of a crowd just to humiliate me.
27:26I had forced a smile and said,
27:28I'll wait for the day you're willing to marry me.
27:32But 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.
27:53But he had locked me in a freezer, destroyed my career, used my brother's treatment as leverage.
28:00Let strangers trample his remains.
28:04Every item in this room was a confession.
28:06None of it made sense anymore.
28:08The revenge, the five years.
28:11All of it crumbled.
28:13A jagged gasp tore from his throat.
28:15He stumbled to his feet, knocking over the box of my things.
28:21The basement door was heavy.
28:23Just like it had been every time he locked me inside.
28:28He pulled himself up.
28:30He had to find me.
28:31He 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.
28:38Morris, it's over.
28:39I checked the hallway security footage.
28:42Rachel heard everything we said in the private room about you faking your amnesia.
28:46His hands stopped mid-dial.
28:50He tapped the video attachment.
28:52There was me, standing just outside the heavy door.
28:56My face was pale.
28:58The thermos slipped from my grip and shattered against the floor.
29:01I slapped a hand over my mouth, spun on the heel, and ran in absolute despair.
29:06The cherry of his burning cigarette broke off and landed on the back of his hand, scorching the skin.
29:12He didn't flinch jot, then his foot clipped an old box on the floor.
29:15Inside sat a semi-transparent scale and a small sea crystal.
29:21He picked up the scale.
29:22It was cold and moist against his fingers, like it had just been pulled from the ocean.
29:27The surface shimmered with a faint blue light that pulsed once and faded.
29:33His hand went still.
29:34This was not a human thing.
29:37His mind raced.
29:41Her unnatural talent for perfumes, the way she always seemed to carry the ocean in her scent.
29:47She was not human, she was a mermaid.
29:53The weight of it crushed him.
29:55Morris buried his face in his hands.
29:58For 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.
30:06His family had always been in marine industries.
30:11He had heard the stories about mermaids.
30:16He just never thought they were real.
30:18Never thought one was standing right beside him.
30:21The deeper things he would never understand.
30:26But the one thing he knew now was this cold was not just cold for us.
30:30It was agony.
30:33A raw, guttural wail ripped from his throat.
30:41His agonizing cries echoed off the concrete walls of the empty basement.
30:45No one heard him.
30:47The regret had come way too late.
30:51One year later.
30:55Rachel.
30:56The mermaid elder's face appeared on my screen.
30:59Brodicton Marston is clearly attached to you.
31:02Keep up the good work.
31:03I smiled, waving a perfume testing strip in the air to let it dry.
31:08I jotted down cedarwood essential oil in the final column of my formula sheet.
31:12The very last ingredient.
31:15This capture emission will be over soon.
31:18Just then, a rough, trembling voice called out from behind me.
31:24Ratch.
31:26I turned around.
31:28A tall man reeking of stale tobacco yanked me into a crushing hug.
31:32It really is you.
31:33I looked everywhere for you.
31:35A whole year.
31:36His hands clamped down on my waist with an aggressive, desperate strength.
31:40I frowned and shoved him back.
31:41I gave him a flat, impassive, one sober.
31:45His face stirred absolutely no emotion in me.
31:48Who are you?
31:49He went completely rigid, utter disbelief washing over his eyes.
31:53Ratch, what's wrong?
31:54It's me.
31:55Maurice.
31:56The elder texted me again.
31:59Rachel, this is your previous capture target, Morris Chadwick.
32:02So this was the scumbag who had manipulated me, nearly got me killed, and let people trample
32:07on Samuel's remains.
32:12The elder had already provided me with a text summary of my past mission to prevent me from
32:16being manipulated again.
32:19I knew every detail of his five years of abuse.
32:22Keeping my face entirely deadpan, I casually brushed off the spots on my clothes where he
32:28had touched me and took a huge step back.
32:31Excuse me, but I don't know you at all.
32:34Please step aside, or I will call security.
32:39Morris's eyes welled up as if he were the victim.
32:43Rish, I know you hate me.
32:44I know you're a mermaid.
32:46And I know you didn't stay with me by choice.
32:50I was wrong to fake my amnesia and torment you, but my feelings are real.
32:54I love you.
32:56Don't punish me by pretending you've lost your memory.
33:00Even without emotions, I recognize the absurdity.
33:03You treat someone like garbage for five years, then get teary-eyed and claim you love her?
33:08The psych horde is down the hall on your left.
33:11Get out.
33:14Morris's face went pale, because I once shivered in the snow to warm his hands now looked at
33:19him with open hostility.
33:21He reached out to touch my face.
33:23I grabbed a glass dropper and pointed it at his throat.
33:27Morris stumbled back.
33:28He forced a tight smile.
33:31It's okay.
33:32I'll win you back.
33:33Make up for everything.
33:34You changed your number.
33:36Can I have the new one?
33:38He pulled out his phone.
33:42I was about to tell him to leave when I saw a tall guy walking toward the glass doors.
33:47I smiled, took his phone, and started tapping in numbers.
33:51Before I could finish, a large hand reached over and slapped it out of my grip.
33:55The phone hit the floor with a sharp crack, and the screen totally shattered.
33:59Morris's temper flared up instantly.
34:02You looking for a fight?
34:04Broderick didn't even look at him.
34:06He just glared straight at me.
34:10Rachel, yesterday you told me you liked my scent best, and today you're giving your
34:14number to another guy?
34:15Where's your professional integrity?
34:37Broderick's face flushed red, but he was way too stubborn to admit that he liked me.
34:42I don't care.
34:44I'm your lead investor, and I say no.
34:47He pulled me behind him, shifting into fiercely protective mode as he glared at Morris.
34:52Hey, old man.
34:54Aren't you a little too old to be harassing women?
34:57Don't you have any shame?
34:59I'll have my legal team sue you into bankruptcy.
35:02Morris's voice was ice cold.
35:04I was talking to my future wife.
35:06Broderick laughed out loud.
35:09She wouldn't even give you her number.
35:11Are you stupid or just delusional?
35:13I reached under the counter and pulled out a small jar of custom-blended rosin.
35:17I held it out to Broderick.
35:19Here, I made this for you.
35:25He took it, his eyes lighting up like a kid on Christmas morning.
35:29Morris's lips were trembling.
35:32You used to say you'd never make perfume for anyone else.
35:38Broderick raised an eyebrow and wrapped his arm around my waist.
35:42She used to have terrible taste.
35:44She's my perfumer now.
35:47She makes whatever she wants, for whoever she wants.
35:50I only care about making her successful and letting the world experience her work.
35:55Something stirred inside me.
35:56A faint ripple in the emptiness where emotions used to be.
36:01Broderick guided me toward the exit.
36:03Morris grabbed his arm.
36:06Let go of her!
36:08Broderick yanked his arm free in disgust.
36:15He pulled out a checkbook, wrote an enormous figure, and threw it in Morris's face.
36:21That covers the phone.
36:23Use the rest to book a psych appointment.
36:25Morris's fist clenched.
36:27Purple spots appeared on his face.
36:29He clutched his chest and collapsed.
36:31Broderick rolled his eyes.
36:33Heart problems and he still wants to fight?
36:36He called an ambulance, then turned to me.
36:42Do you have any sanitizing wipes?
36:44I touched a trash person and I feel dirty.
36:47That night, I went home to the small rented room where Samuel used to sleep.
36:52I sat on the edge of his bed and stared at the empty space.
36:55The elder texted me.
37:01Rachel, there's something I need to tell you about Samuel.
37:05I went still.
37:07What about him?
37:09The night he was declared dead, I moved him before the clinic could process the paperwork.
37:13I had my people report his death to follow Klan protocol, but I preserved his consciousness.
37:18His body is in a medical pod at a secure location.
37:22He has been alive this whole year at Rachel.
37:26My hands started shaking.
37:28What?
37:29The clan ordered the destruction of his remains because he was too close to exposure.
37:34I followed the order on the surface, but I couldn't let him die.
37:37I helped you fake the cremation.
37:39What Jacqueline's followers destroyed at the funeral home was a decoy container.
37:43The scale fragment you saw in the debris was placed there to make the remains look authentic.
37:49I couldn't breathe thought.
37:50Samuel was alive.
37:51My brother was alive.
37:53I had grieved for a year over a decoy.
37:56Why didn't you tell me sooner?
37:57His condition was too fragile.
37:59I needed to be sure he could recover before giving you hope.
38:02I won't deny it.
38:03I felt pity for you.
38:04Even though it broke Klan law, I didn't want you to lose everything.
38:08Thanks.
38:10Can I see him?
38:11My voice broke.
38:13Soon, he's getting stronger every day.
38:16I pressed my palms against my face and cried.
38:18For the first time since the memory wipe, I felt something real.
38:25Morris started showing up outside my apartment building every day.
38:29He canceled international meetings and conferences.
38:33He stood in the freezing wind for hours, holding bouquets of white roses.
38:38I threw every single one in the trash.
38:42The smell made my head pound and my stomach turn.
38:45For a mermaid with hypersensitive olfaction, white roses were a slow, grinding headache that
38:51wouldn't stop.
38:52Morris had known I was a mermaid since he found my scale.
38:55But he still didn't know roses were poison to my kind.
38:59He just kept sending them day after day.
39:03One night, he stood in the ice wind for a full 12 hours.
39:08I watched from the window as frost formed on his coat.
39:11He didn't leave.
39:13The elder texted me.
39:16Broderick Marbury is at the edge.
39:18One more push and the mission reaches full completion.
39:22The next morning, a sports car engine roared outside my building.
39:26I opened the window.
39:29Morris looked up, his face lighting up with desperate hope.
39:33Rash, you finally looked at me!
39:35Five years was too cruel.
39:37As long as you come back, I'll do anything for the rest of my life!
39:40He was soaked from the ice rain, shouting into the wind.
39:43I really need you!
39:46Broderick stepped out from behind his car.
39:49You say you need her, but you don't even know why white roses trigger her allergy?
39:53Morris went pale.
39:54Broderick held an umbrella in one hand and a cup of hot cocoa in the other.
39:59He pulled out the backup door card I had given him and walked straight into the building lobby.
40:10Morris could only stand in the rain, watching.
40:13He had no right to follow.
40:15That evening, after dinner, Morris' hoarse voice came from the street below.
40:25Rach, please come down and see me one last time.
40:29I dried my hands and headed for the door.
40:32Broderick's face went dark.
40:34His knuckles whitened around his coffee cup.
40:38I'm going down.
40:39I reached for the door handle.
40:42Broderick suddenly pushed me against the door.
40:44He lowered his head and bit down hard on my collarbone.
40:49Don't you dare go soft on him.
40:51Do you hear me?
40:52His voice was rough and possessive.
40:54He had smelled Morris' lingering scent on me.
40:58Another man's scent on my skin.
41:00His jaw tightened.
41:01His instinct reacted like his territory had been invaded.
41:06I pushed him off and opened the door.
41:08The ice wind hit me first, then the rain.
41:13Morris rushed toward me from across the street.
41:15In his hand, he held a bottle of perfume.
41:19Till you marry me.
41:24Morris' voice was forced and broken.
41:30He held up the bottle.
41:37You spent three months making this perfume.
41:39You said you'd use it at our wedding.
41:41How could you forget?
41:43The bottle was the one thing I had left behind in the basement.
41:46He must have kept it all this time.
41:49I looked at the bottle, then at his rain-soaked face.
41:52My expression didn't change.
41:55I didn't forget.
41:56I just don't care anymore.
41:58Morris' arm dropped to his side.
42:02Rash, come home with me.
42:04Tomorrow we'll get the marriage certificate.
42:06I'll transfer all my shares to you.
42:08I took a cold step back.
42:11Maurice, I'm only going to say this once.
42:14We are completely done.
42:15I raised my right hand.
42:17The frostbite scars from five years in the freezer were still there.
42:20White, puckered lines across my knuckles and fingertips.
42:24These scars are because you locked me in a freezer.
42:28For a mermaid, ice is suffocation.
42:30Every time you put me in there, I was dying from the inside out.
42:35My hands will never precisely extract another drop of essence again.
42:39Every winter, I burned years of my lifespan to force the scales back under my skin.
42:44You never even noticed.
42:45You destroyed everything I had.
42:49Morris looked like he had been punched in the chest.
42:52Tears mixed with rain on his face.
42:55Is there really no chance to start over?
42:58None.
43:01I pulled my sleeve over my scarred hand.
43:07You let people trample on Samuel's remains.
43:10You think a little warmth erases everything?
43:12Morris swayed like a man who had just been hollowed out.
43:18Then let me hold you one last time.
43:21Just once.
43:22I took one step closer to him.
43:24I lowered my voice so only he could hear.
43:27You lied to me for five years, Maurice.
43:32Now it's my turn to use you to boost Brockett's affection.
43:35Thanks for cooperating.
43:38His face crumpled off before he could respond.
43:40The apartment door opened behind me.
43:44Broderick stepped out under an umbrella.
43:47Morris' eyes went wide.
43:49The shock and pain on his face swallowed his last shred of hope.
43:54Broderick pulled me under the umbrella and kissed me hard in the pouring rain.
44:00Rachel, you're mine.
44:03I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back.
44:06My phone buzzed.
44:08The elder texted me.
44:09I looked into it.
44:10Broderick Marbury filed a prenup request with his family.
44:13You're the one named on it.
44:15Rachel, you are no longer a failed operative.
44:17You are a mermaid who completed her mission.
44:20Right then, another notification popped up.
44:24Samuel had regained consciousness.
44:26He was awake.
44:29From that night on, Morris fell apart.
44:32He stopped going to work.
44:33He drank from morning to night.
44:40Social media called him a pathetic loser.
44:47Jacqueline moved in.
44:48She was a mermaid who had betrayed the clan.
44:54She was no longer permitted to return to the sea.
44:57She could only cling to Morris and live in hiding.
45:04She cooked his meals, poured his drinks, and held him when he cried.
45:14A month later, Jacqueline announced she was pregnant.
45:22To protect the Chadwick family reputation, Morris married her without a single feeling in his heart.
45:33The wedding was grand and hollow.
45:35He signed the papers with a blank expression.
45:40She smiled like she had won everything, and for a while, it looked like she had.
45:48But the truth has a way of catching up.
45:51Three months into the marriage, Morris hired a private investigator.
45:55The investigator found the child she was carrying belonged to another wealthy man.
46:02Morris sat in his study, staring at the investigator's report.
46:06His mind went blank.
46:07Jacqueline lied to him, too.
46:14He dragged Jacqueline to the basement of the old villa.
46:17The same cold storage room where he had locked me for five years.
46:23He tied her to the chair and turned the temperature dial to maximum.
46:30The cold hit her like a wall.
46:32Then the cold did what it always did to our kind.
46:35Blue scales shimmered on the backs of her hands, pushing through her skin.
46:40She thrashed against the ropes, and her bandages unraveled.
46:44The hands beneath were perfect, unscarred.
46:47Fully intact.
46:48Morris stared at the scales, then at her hands.
46:51A mermaid, hands never damaged.
46:54Five years of revenge built on a lie.
46:57Maurice, please!
46:59She held up her perfect hands, scales pushing through her fingers.
47:03Our hands keep the scales hidden!
47:05Without them I'll be exposed!
47:07I'll die!
47:08He went completely still.
47:11Our hands kept the scales hidden.
47:13Our hands kept us alive on land.
47:15And he had crushed mine under his shoe.
47:17He had destroyed me for nothing.
47:19He had locked me in this exact room and made me burn years of my life to survive what he
47:23was doing to her right now.
47:25Jacqueline's eyes went wide with terror.
47:30Maurice! Please! I'm pregnant!
47:33He looked at her with dead eyes.
47:34The child isn't mine.
47:39He wrapped his hands around her throat and squeezed until she stopped moving.
47:45Then he poured the industrial chemicals stored in the corner across the floor.
47:51He lit a match and dropped it.
47:53The fire spread fast.
47:54He sat down on the floor and watched the flames climb the walls.
47:58He didn't try to leave.
48:00The last thing he saw was the blue shimmer of a mermaid scale fragment on the concrete.
48:05Then the fire took everything.
48:08The news the next day reported a suspicious fire at an abandoned villa.
48:13Two bodies found.
48:14No survivors, New York's biggest scandal.
48:18The clan moved quickly.
48:20Any trace of mermaid biology in the ashes was quietly removed.
48:24The clan's iron law held.
48:26No human would ever know what had really burned in that basement.
48:35Six months later in Paris, the top floor of the Polydillo perfumery.
48:39I stood behind my display table, adjusting the final row of bottles.
48:44The label on each one rebirth.
48:49The scent was my mermaid aura fused with human spices at their purest.
48:53Every note carried the ocean.
48:56Every breath told a story of survival.
49:01Critics called it the most extraordinary perfume of the decade.
49:05They didn't know the half of it.
49:12The exhibition hall was packed at buyers, journalists, competitors.
49:17They all leaned in when they passed my booth, drawn by something they couldn't name.
49:22My mermaid aura, blended into every bottle.
49:26The crowd parted, Broderick walked up, his hands in his pockets, grinning like he owned
49:31the place.
49:33You made them all cry, didn't you?
49:36Three buyers already called me to negotiate exclusive rights.
49:43I told them the perfumer decides, not the investor.
49:48He stepped behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
49:54He pulled a small velvet box from his jacket and opened it, a custom diamond ring.
50:02Mrs. Marbury, Samuel just called.
50:05He wants us back for dinner.
50:10I looked at the bottle labeled and, rebirth and, on the display, then I leaned back against
50:16Broderick's chest.
50:18Okay, let's go home.
50:20you
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