Chapter 3

The surgery was over.

I was placed in a secluded recovery room at the far end of the sanatorium corridor.

The heating in the room didn't seem to be turned on. The late autumn sea breeze seeped through the cracks in the window, filling the air with a lingering, biting chill.

I lay flat on the narrow hospital bed and pulled at the remarkably cold sheets. Looking past the white blanket, my eyes settled on my empty lower half.

There was no longer any outline beneath the covers, only two stumps wrapped in heavy medical gauze.

I withdrew my gaze and stared at the yellowing ceiling above, silently comforting myself.

It's okay, I thought. It's no big deal. The legs have been transplanted to Victoria. Everything will be over soon.

Arthur had promised me before the surgery that as soon as it was done, he would send her away immediately.

Then, this farce would finally come to an end. There would be no more "accidents," and he would take good care of me from then on.

Three days later, the door to the recovery room was pushed open.

Victoria glided slowly into my room, sitting in a top-of-the-line electric wheelchair.

Her face was rosy, and she was in incredibly high spirits, draped in a cashmere shawl meant for going out. She steered the wheelchair right up to my bed, looking down condescendingly at my weak, mutilated state.

I stared at her in shock, thinking I was having a nightmare.

"Why are you still here?"

Victoria smirked. "Why shouldn't I be here? You didn't actually think Arthur would fix my legs and then just send me away, did you?" She looked at me, speaking without the slightest hesitation, instantly shattering the only hope I had held onto for the last three days. "Keep dreaming."

My head snapped up, my fingers gripping the bedsheets tightly. I stared at her in disbelief. "Arthur wouldn't lie to me. This was what he promised."

Victoria let out a scornful laugh and leaned back in her wheelchair, as if declaring her ultimate victory.

"Don't be stupid. You have no more use now. Arthur and I will be getting married very soon. As for you? You'll be thrown out in no time."

Looking at this woman, I finally voiced the question that had plagued me for months: "Victoria, why are you doing this? I have never done anything to hurt you."

"Because I just can't stand the sight of you." Victoria made no attempt to hide her true colors, glaring at me with biting mockery. "As long as I want it, not just these legs, but Arthur's promises are mine too. All I have to do is fake a few tears, and he'll hand everything that belongs to you right over to me."

As she spoke, she leaned in slightly toward my bed, seemingly wanting to get a closer look at my ruined, legless body.

At the very moment she leaned forward, a necklace slipped out from the neckline of her silky blouse, dangling in mid-air.

My eyes were instantly drawn to that necklace.

It was a scale, radiating a faint, ghostly blue glow.

This wasn't merely an ordinary piece of jewelry.

It was the scale I had plucked from my own tail right before I drank the magic potion.

In our mermaid world, gifting a scale to someone was a pledge of eternal love; it meant entrusting one's entire heart to the other person.

I had given it to Arthur as my most precious token of love. He had accepted it, promising to keep it safe forever.

But now, he had casually re-gifted my scale to Victoria, hanging it so carelessly around her neck.

Staring at the dimming glow of my scale, every last shred of my sanity simply vanished.

I lunged from the bed toward the wheelchair, reaching out to snatch the necklace from her neck.

Victoria was caught off guard.

She screamed, instinctively pushing the wheelchair back to dodge me.

In the struggle, I yanked hard on the solid silver chain. The momentum threw the wheelchair completely off balance. Together, the two of us crashed heavily onto the cold, hard tile floor.

Bang. The door was forced violently open from the outside.

Arthur charged into the room. Seeing the scene on the floor, he strode quickly toward us.

Victoria immediately curled up on the floor and began fake-crying. Clutching the scale tight to her chest, she put on a sickeningly pure, terrified act: "Arthur! I don't know what happened, but Aria got blindingly furious as soon as she saw this necklace! She just lunged at me and said she was going to ruin me!"

Arthur's face instantly darkened.

Without even bothering to verify what actually happened, he bent down and lifted Victoria from the floor back into the wheelchair. His movements were remarkably gentle.

Then, he turned his head and reprimanded me harshly. "Aria, what on earth are you throwing a fit about? It's just a necklace. Victoria was only trying it on. Did you really have to push her over something so trivial?"

I lay flat on the freezing tiles. Missing my lower half, I lacked even the strength to push myself into a sitting position.

I tilted my head back and looked at the man I had once trusted. "You lied to me. You promised. You said that once the surgery was over, you would send Victoria away."

Arthur frowned, his expression layered with intense impatience and blame. "Aria, can you stop being so selfish? Victoria just had major surgery. Her condition is extremely unstable, and she could face rejection at any moment. And you insist on kicking her out now?"

Hearing this utterly absurd accusation, my hands gradually turned ice-cold.

"You lied to me..." I looked at Arthur, my lips absentmindedly repeating the same words. "You lied."

Arthur didn't let his eyes linger on my face for even a second. He turned around decisively and grabbed the handles of the wheelchair.

"Let's go," Arthur said, softening his voice for Victoria. "The air in this sanatorium is too stuffy. I had someone book a private island resort out of town. Let's not worry about her. I'll take you there to relax and recover."

Watching their backs as they headed toward the door, I didn't cry. I didn't yell. In my heart, I was bizarrely calm.

Bracing myself on the cold floor with both hands, I lifted my upper body slightly and called out to his retreating back in a very clear voice.

"Arthur."

"Goodbye."

He didn't turn back. Perhaps he thought I had nowhere else to go. But I did. In this human world, the home he had promised me was gone forever—so I would just have to find my own way back to my true home.