My Fiance Kept a Mermaid, and She Thought She Owned My Home Chapter 01
My fiancé spent $3 million on a breathtakingly beautiful mermaid.
He had a temperature–controlled saltwater habitat built just
for her and stocked it every day with the freshest seafood money could buy.
Apparently, that was enough for our little guppy to decide she owned the place.
The second Calder Whitlock left town on business, she told
me to pack my bags and get out.
“I’m just going to tell you the truth. Every night, Calder
brushes my scales himself, one by one.”
“The way he looks at me? Like he thinks I’m already his.”
“I’ve already decided. When he gets back, I’m drinking the
transformation elixir and getting rid of this tail for him.”
I stared at her for a few seconds, then calmly took her phone
and deleted the trashy romance novel app she’d been bingeing.
“You’ve watched way too much of that stuff.”
“Calder didn’t drop $3 million on you because he fell in love
with your face”
“So do yourself a favor. Eat. Relax. Enjoy the pool. Stop trying
so hard to impress him, because you’re going to regret it.”
Naturally, she took my advice as jealousy.
She was dead set on becoming the lady of the house.
What she didn’t know was that Calder texted me every single
day with updates.
[BABE, I scrubbed every single one of her scales with that
odor–neutralizing marine wash again. They’re clean, shiny,
and they smell amazing.]
[Once we have enough scales for that custom gown, you’re
going to look INSANE.]
[She’s still too skinny, though. Gotta fatten her up.]
[The healthier she gets, the bigger that mermaid pearl should
grow. Then maybe we can finally get rid of your migraines for good.]
I genuinely had no idea a fish could be this hopelessly
delusional over a man.
So I showed her Calder’s texts.
“Wake up.
The only things he wants from you are your scales
and that pearl.”
Bonnie didn’t even hesitate.
She snatched my phone out of my hand and threw it straight into the pool.
Her iridescent tail flicked smugly behind her as she lifted her chin.
“I know what you’re doing.”
“You’re scared I’m going to replace you, so now you’re trying
to sabotage us with fake texts.”
“But I’m Calder’s precious little treasure. Unless he tells me
himself that he doesn’t want me, I’m not believing a word
you say.”
I was officially done arguing with a fish.
I grabbed my tablet and video–called Calder.
The second he picked up, I snapped, “Tell her. Right now. Tell
this fish exactly why you brought her home.”
Calder blinked at me from the screen.
Then he spotted Bonnie and smiled.
“Well, obviously I picked Bonnie because she’s prettier than
the other fish.”
He waved at her,
“Hey, Bonnie. Be good and eat a few more octopuses for me,
okay? You’re way cuter when you’re nice and chubby.”
My vision nearly went black.
Oh.
So THIS was how he talked to her when I wasn’t around.
Forget a fish. If he sweet–talked a golden retriever like that, it
would probably propose by morning.
I glared at the screen.
“Calder Whitlock, can you please act like a decent human
being for five minutes? You’re literally leading on a fish!”
He pointed at himself, looking deeply offended.
“Me?”
“Babe, I’m innocent!”
“The care manual says mermaids shed scales when they’re stressed.”
“And what was I supposed to say? Hey, I paid $3 million for
you because I need your scales and I need your scales and
might eventually take your mermaid pearl to treat my
fiancée’s migraines“?”
“She’d drop dead on the spot!”
Before he could finish, Bonnie was already asking Orson Pike,
her marine caretaker, for fifty more octopuses.
Apparently, she wanted to film proof that she’d eaten
everything Calder told her to.
I stared at her, then back at Calder.
“Your $3 million fish demolished 30 pounds of tuna half an hour ago.”
“At this rate, she won’t die of shock.”
“She’ll eat herself to death first.”
Before I could say anything else, the tablet died.
I rubbed my temples and watched Bonnie enthusiastically
shovel food into her mouth for the camera.
Whatever. For the next few days, she could believe whatever she wanted.
She was a fish, for God’s sake. Why was I arguing with a fish?
Unfortunately, Bonnie was not just a fish.
She was a fish with more nerve than sense and absolutely no survival instincts.
That night, she dragged Orson into the pool and forced him
to order a bottle of transformation elixir.
By the time I woke up again, the water in the habitat had turned nearly black with blood.
The surface was littered with broken scales.
And when Bonnie finally dragged herself out, pale and barely conscious, her tail was gone.
In its place was a pair of pale human legs.
She could barely walk.
Every step made her suck in a sharp breath of pain.
But the second she saw the shock on my face, she visibly perked up.
“Before, Calder couldn’t really get close to me because I didn’t have legs.”
She straightened despite the pain.
“When he comes home and sees me like this, he’s going to lose his mind.”
“So take the hint and leave before he has to choose me in front of you.”
Then she deliberately shouldered past me.
She found herself a pink nightgown, staggered into Calder’s
bedroom, and collapsed across his bed to wait for him.
Orson approached me soaked from head to toe.
“Ms. Harker, that elixir has serious side effects.”
“If she doesn’t get back into saltwater within seven days, she could die.”
He glanced toward the bedroom.
“But don’t worry. She’s not getting very far.”
I looked down at the ruined gray–white scales floating across the habitat.
For a moment, I said nothing.
Calder might look laid–back, but underneath all that
easygoing charm was a control freak. Once he decided on
something, he wanted it exactly right.
For months, he’d come home at the same time every night to clean and care for those scales, determined to make my gown
truly one of a kind–something no one else in the world could ever have.
And now?
Those scales looked worse than something scraped off a fish
at a grocery–store seafood counter.
I grabbed my spare phone and texted him.
[How do you like fish? Grilled or smoked?]
His answer came almost instantly.
[Blackened.]
[Why?]
I sent him a grimacing emoji.
[No reason.]
[You’ll see when you get home.]