My Fiance Kept a Mermaid, and She Thought She Owned My Home Chapter 02
By the time I got home after finalizing the wedding venue,
Orson had apparently spent the entire day trying to talk
Bonnie back into the water.
She refused.
She had decided she was going to be the new lady of the
Whitlock estate, and nothing was going to stop her.
To stake her claim, she’d smashed every framed engagement
portrait in the house.
Calder had personally chosen every frame and spent forever
deciding where each photo should go, right down to the angle.
The second Bonnie saw me walk in, she exploded.
“This is all YOU, isn’t it?”
“You’re trying to force me back into the water because you
know Calder’s going to fall hopelessly in love with me now!”
I sighed and patted her on the head.
“Little guppy, listen to me. Get back in the water before
Calder sees what you did to those pictures and loses his mind.”
I wasn’t threatening her.
If she’d behaved herself, I would’ve talked Calder into
releasing her back into the Pacific once Calder had gotten the
scales and pearl he needed.
She could have gone home and lived happily ever after as the
world’s most spoiled little mermaid.
Instead, she had decided to turn human for Calder and had
been creating one disaster after another ever since.
I already had a wedding to plan.
I did not have the energy to clean up after a delusional fish.
Orson looked even worse.
He clasped his hands together like a man begging for mercy.
“Bonnie, please. I’m just the guy on payroll here.”
“You cost THREE MILLION DOLLARS.”
“You already destroyed your own scales. What am I supposed
to tell Mr. Whitlock?”
“If you get back in the water now, there’s still time for them
to regenerate.”
“But after tonight, the damage could become permanent!”
Bonnie ripped her arm away from him.
Not a chance. She had zero intention of getting back into that pool.
I sighed.
“Okay,”
“If asking nicely doesn’t work, do it the hard way.”
One second, Orson was pleading with her.
The next, he pulled a stun wand from his pocket and knocked
her out before she even knew what hit her.
When Bonnie woke up again, her luxury habitat had officially become a prison.
She slammed both hands against the reinforced acrylic wall
and glared at me like she wanted to rip my face off.
“Orson already explained this. You need to stay in the water
if you want your scales to grow back–and if you want to stay alive.”
“And for the record, I don’t want your scales anymore.”
“I don’t want your pearl either.”
“Once you recover, I’ll send you back to the Pacific.”
If I thought that would calm her down, I was very wrong.
Bonnie started pounding the wall so hard her knuckles split.
“CALDER brought me here!”
“You don’t get to send me away!”
Orson looked ready to cry.
“Bonnie, take the deal!”
‘Most merfolk that get captured never see the ocean again.
Ms. Harker is giving you a second chance!”
None of it got through to her.
Instead, she started listing all the reasons Calder was
supposedly madly in love with her.
“He gave me my name.”
“That means I’m HIS fish!”
At the mention of her name, I almost laughed.
Ever since Calder started calling her Bonnie, she’d been
looking at him like he hung the moon. Of course, this was
entirely his fault. He’d once told her the name suited her
because she was pretty.
What Bonnie didn’t know was that Calder had picked it for a
much less romantic reason. He thought it sounded like
exactly the kind of ridiculously cute name someone would give a pet fish.
I’d never had the heart to crush her romantic fantasy, so I kept that part to myself.
Bonnie kept going.
“And if Calder didn’t care about me, why would he tell me
stories every night?”
My migraine immediately started pulsing again.
Fine.
If she wanted the truth, she was getting the truth.
“Bonnie, have you ever noticed that every single story Calder
tells you ends tragically?”
She froze.
“Because we made a bet. Calder thinks mermaid tears can
turn into pearls, so he’s been feeding you depressing stories
just to make you cry.”
Bonnie stared at me for a second.
Then she scoffed.
“No.”
“You’re just jealous because he spends more time with me.”
“He even comes here to drink with me every night!”
“He must be miserable with you. Why else would he need
alcohol just to cope?”
I slowly turned toward Orson.
“Drink?”
“Can mermaids even drink alcohol?”
Orson gave me a pained smile and leaned closer.
“That was Mr. Whitlock’s idea.”
“What she’s actually been drinking is… cooking sherry.”
I stared at him.
He whispered, “He said it helped with the fishy smell.”
I stared at him for two full seconds before I lost it.
“What the HELL is wrong with that man?!”
Bonnie heard me and immediately threw herself headfirst at the wall. Again.
The impact knocked her out, but just before her eyes closed.
she managed to mumble,
“Don’t insult Calder…”
“He obviously loves me more than anything…”