The Forgotten Mermaid is a captivating short drama that blends fantasy, romance, and mystery into an unforgettable journey. After losing her memories, a beautiful mermaid finds herself torn between two worlds, two destinies, and two men who could change her future forever. As hidden secrets surface, love and sacrifice become the ultimate test.
Watch the Full Episode (ENGSUB) and enjoy an emotional story filled with mermaids, fantasy romance, breathtaking adventures, and unexpected twists.
#TheForgottenMermaid #FantasyRomance #MermaidLove #MermaidPrincess #OceanFantasy #RomanticDrama #DramaSeries #ShortDrama #ShortMovie #FullEpisode #ENGSUB #LoveTriangle #FantasyDrama #SupernaturalRomance
Watch the Full Episode (ENGSUB) and enjoy an emotional story filled with mermaids, fantasy romance, breathtaking adventures, and unexpected twists.
#TheForgottenMermaid #FantasyRomance #MermaidLove #MermaidPrincess #OceanFantasy #RomanticDrama #DramaSeries #ShortDrama #ShortMovie #FullEpisode #ENGSUB #LoveTriangle #FantasyDrama #SupernaturalRomance
Category
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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.
00:40Ice 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.
01:44How much longer are you going to keep up this act?
01:46Rachel's the only one who believes his fake amnesia.
01:49She'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.
02:53Then 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?
03:05She deserves it.
03:06My formulas.
03:08Three 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,
03:42he'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.
04:23Your mission isn't over.
04:24I grabbed his sleeve.
04:25Oh, please.
04:28He 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,
04:39freezing, when Maurice walked up.
04:41He 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, Jacqueline's voice came from behind us.
05:25Maurice let go of me immediately and stepped back,
05:28like I was something inconvenient.
05:30Jacqueline looked at the billing screen through the clinic window.
05:35Rachel, 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.
05:57Something 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.
06:05I never asked him for a cent.
06:08Over five years, you 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, you 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.
06:37Nothing more.
06:38My formulas, the ones I had created
06:40by 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
06:51that didn't reach her eyes.
06:53Rachel, I know you're struggling.
06:55Here, this should help with your brother's bills.
06:59She 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, push me!
07:27She pushed me!
07:28The cash scattered across the cold tile.
07:30Maurice 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!
07:45Maurice 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.
08:06Maurice's 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.
08:47Not anger.
08:48Something he couldn't name.
08:49He lifted his foot.
08:50Pulled 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.
09:07And there really wouldn't be.
09:08That night, Morris called.
09:10He had contacted the coastal clinic and 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.
09:40I checked my phone.
09:41Nothing.
09:42Nothing.
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, clan 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.
10:12On my 99th try, someone finally picked up.
10:15His assistant.
10:17Ms. Heaton.
10:18Mr. Chadwick can't talk right now.
10:20Ms. 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.
10:48Jacqueline's delay gave them time to execute.
10:51I 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.
11:07The 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.
11:17Jacqueline's delay.
11:18The clan's destruction order.
11:20My legs gave out.
11:21I fell to my knees on the cold tile floor.
11:24I cried silently.
11:25Right 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.
11:50I 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?
12:11Wear 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.
12:32He 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.
12:55I went to the clan and demanded Samuel's body back for a proper farewell.
12:58The elder agreed, but only on one condition.
13:02The 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.
13:35The 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.
13:46White 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.
14:05Morris 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?
14:30Just 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.
14:44Morris 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!
14:59Two 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.
15:14Tell 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?
15:24He slapped me.
15:27You'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 livestream 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.
17:46Grounded into the concrete.
17:48Then I saw it, a scale fragment, still glistening with the last trace of mermaid essence.
17:54It flickered once, twice, then faded to gray.
17:57Samuel's scale, the last proof he was one of us,
18:00trampled by humans who had no idea what they were destroying.
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.
18:32Now 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.
18:42Samuel's degradation is accelerating, he's near death.
18:45His merd 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,
18:57and it cost more than I could earn in a 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, save my brother first.
19:11I just need to have a few days to get the money together.
19:15Morris sold my perfumes under Jacqueline's name.
19:18He 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 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.
19:58There was nothing left to argue about.
20:01Samuel was dead.
20:03His remains were trampled into concrete by humans who hunted our kind.
20:06My 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.
20:40Do it.
20:41The 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.
20:54Gone.
20:55His 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.
21:07Gone.
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.
21:15The tide was coming in.
21:17The elder was gone.
21:18I felt nothing, no sadness, no anger.
21:21No love.
21:23I walked out of the cave and into the morning light.
21:26The mission had failed, a 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?
22:07He stared at the screen, his finger hovering over the keyboard.
22:12Jacqueline 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.
22:40He 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.
23:04A 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.
23:52She 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.
24:07Jacqueline 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.
24:52The same way I had once hidden my true nature 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.
25:17Morris 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,
25:54he 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, 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, his 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.
26:36Mixed 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.
26:46Then 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.
27:04Morris'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.
27:53But he had locked me in a freezer,
27:55destroyed 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, just 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.
29:06The 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.
29:15Inside sat a semi-transparent scale and a small sea crystal.
29:20He picked up the scale.
29:22It 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.
29:54Morris 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.
30:05His family had always been in marine industries.
30:10He had heard the stories about mermaids.
30:15He just never thought they were real.
30:18Never 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.
30:35Rash!
30:36I 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.
30:59And 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.
31:46Make 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.
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 screen 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.
32:23Rachel, 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.
32:35I 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. Marfley, 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.
33:00He 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.
33:32Here, I made this for you.
33:37He took it, his eyes lighting up like a kid on Christmas morning.
33:42Morris's lips were trembling.
33:45You 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 perfume 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.
35:12Rachel.
35:13There'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 planned protocol.
35:28But 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?
35:42The clan ordered the destruction of his remains because he was too close to exposure.
35:47I 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 thought.
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.
36:15I won't deny it.
36:16I felt pity for you.
36:17Even though it broke clan law, I didn't want you to lose everything.
36:21Thanks.
36:23Can I see him?
36:24My voice broke.
36:25Soon.
36:26He's getting stronger every day.
36:28I pressed my palms against my face and cried.
36:31For the first time since the memory wipe, I felt something real.
36:37One year later, Rachel, the 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.
36:54I jotted down cedarwood essential oil in the final column of my formula sheet, the 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.
37:19I 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.
37:47So this was the scumbag who had manipulated me, nearly got me killed, and let people trample on Samuel's remains.
37:57The elder had already provided me with a text summary of my past mission to prevent me from being manipulated
38:03again.
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 had touched me and
38:14took 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.
38:32He stood in the freezing wind for hours, holding bouquets of white roses.
38:37I threw every single one in the trash.
38:41The smell made my head pound and my stomach turn.
38:44For a mermaid with hypersensitive olfaction, white roses were a slow, grinding headache that wouldn'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 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!
39:45Roderick 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.
39:53Roderick 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.
40:13That 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.
40:31Roderick's face went dark.
40:33His knuckles whitened around his coffee cup.
40:37I'm going down.
40:38I reached for the door handle.
40:40Roderick 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.
41:12Morris 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, Maurice.
41:53Now it's my turn to use you to boost Brockett's affection.
41:57Thanks for cooperating.
41:59Thanks for cooperating.
41:59His face crumpled off before he could respond.
42:02The apartment door opened behind me.
42:06Broderick stepped out under the umbrella and kissed me hard in the pouring rain.
42:24I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back.
42:28My phone buzzed.
42:29The elder texted me.
42:30I looked into it.
42:32Broderick Marbury filed a prenup request with his family.
42:35You're the one named on it.
42:36Rachel, you are no longer a failed operative.
42:39You 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.
42:52Brash, please!
42:53Just see me this one last time!
42:57He held up the bottle.
43:03You spent three months making this perfume.
43:06You said you'd use it at our wedding.
43:08How 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.
43:23I just don't care anymore.
43:24Morris' arm dropped to his side.
43:28Brash, come home with me.
43:30Tomorrow we'll get the marriage certificate.
43:32I'll transfer all my shares to you.
43:34I took a cold step back.
43:38Maurice, I'm only going to 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.
44:31He stopped going to work.
44:32He drank from morning to night.
44:39Social media called him a pathetic loser.
44:46Jacqueline moved in.
44:47She was a mermaid who had betrayed the clan.
44:53She was no longer permitted to return to the sea.
44:56She could only cling to Morris and live in hiding.
45:03She cooked his meals, poured his drinks, and held him when he cried.
45:12A month later, Jacqueline announced she was pregnant.
45:21To 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, and for a while, it looked like she had.
45:47But the truth has a way of catching up.
45:50Three months into the marriage, Morris hired a private investigator.
45:53The investigator found the child she was carrying belonged to another wealthy man.
46:01Morris sat in his study, staring at the investigator's report.
46:04His mind went blank.
46:12He dragged Jacqueline 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.
46:31Then 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.
46:47Morris stared at the scales, then at her hands.
46:49A mermaid, hands never damaged.
46:52Five years of revenge built on a lie.
46:56Morris, 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.
47:12Our hands kept us alive on land.
47:14And he had crushed mine under his shoe.
47:16He had destroyed me for nothing.
47:18He 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.
47:41Oh my god.
47:44Then he poured the industrial chemicals stored in the corner across the floor.
47:50He 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.
47:57He 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.
48:07The news the next day reported a suspicious fire at an abandoned villa.
48:11Two bodies found.
48:12No survivors, New York's biggest scandal.
48:16The clan moved quickly.
48:19Any trace of mermaid biology in the ashes was quietly removed.
48:23The clan's iron law held.
48:25No human would ever know what had really burned in that basement.
48:33Six months later in Paris, the top floor of the Pallidillo perfumery.
48:38I stood behind my display table, adjusting the final row of bottles.
48:42The label on each one rebirth.
48:47The scent was my mermaid aura fused with human spices at their purest.
48:51Every note carried the ocean.
48:54Every 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.
49:13Buyers, 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.
49:32You 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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