Chapter 1
Caspian kept me locked in the basement as a living blood bank.
This mafia don was also my husband. Ever since he discovered I could heal instantly, I became nothing more than a consumable—kept alive to sustain another woman.
That woman in the hospital bed was his stepmother in name, his forbidden obsession in reality—the desire he could never speak aloud.
Unable to claim her, he went mad. He tried to fill her dying body with my life.
When she was poisoned, he forced toxins down my throat to test antidotes, watching coldly as I convulsed on the floor, vomiting black blood.
When assassins came for her, he yanked me in front as a human shield, letting bullets turn my body into a sieve.
Covered in blood, I clutched his pant leg, begging through tears for him to just kill me.
But to protect his precious stepmother, he kicked me away without hesitation, his voice utterly cold: "Stop playing dead, Aria. You're a monster. You can't die anyway."
What he didn't know was that every time a mermaid heals, she burns through her soul's essence.
Through each shattering and mending, he was draining my very source of life.
Today, he strapped me to the operating table again, ready to drain more blood for his forbidden love.
He had no idea this would be the last time.
"Keep drawing." Caspian's voice was void of emotion.
The thick needle pierced my vein. Blood rushed through the tube in a violent torrent—the fourth massive transfusion this month.
I was shackled to the cold operating table, vision darkening from blood loss.
A few steps away, Caspian didn't spare me a glance.
His eyes were locked on the one-way glass of the adjacent room—where Isabella lay, his stepmother in name only.
Unable to touch this forbidden desire, he channeled all his twisted obsession into me, the blood bag that wouldn't die.
"Caspian..." I couldn't control the tremors wracking my body. "I'm... so cold."
"Then get her a blanket!" He spun around and stormed over, gripping my chin hard. Staring at my deathly pale face, his knuckles went rigid for a split second, panic flickering in his eyes.
But the next moment, he snatched his hand away and barked at the doctor: "Isabella's levels are still dropping. Push it to maximum!"
The motor let out a sharp whine. The blood drained so fast I couldn't catch my breath.
"Stop..." I gasped desperately. "If you keep going, I'll die..."
"Die?"
He looked down at me, expressionless. "Drop the act, Aria. I've watched you regenerate from a severed artery in minutes. Something like you doesn't die."
Of course he didn't know.
He thought I was just some genetic anomaly, an endless supply. He had no idea that every time a mermaid healed, she burned through her life essence.
The tail I'd split open for him, along with every last shred of life I had left, was being drained away through that transparent tube.
"Beep—beep—beep—"
The shrill alarm of the vital signs monitor shattered the suffocating silence.
"Mr. Lucchese, we have to stop!" The doctor stared at the plummeting numbers, sweat soaking through his mask. "She'll crash if we continue!"
"Keep going."
Caspian didn't even look up. "As long as she's breathing, keep drawing."
Following his cold command, the blood pump roared even louder.
The last trace of warmth was violently extracted from my body. The surgical lights above exploded into vast darkness.
All sounds around me grew distant, leaving only the sluggish beat of my heart.
Thump.
Thump.
Just as I thought this countdown would finally reach zero, the door clicked open.
Isabella appeared in the doorway, supported by a nurse.
How ironic. Thanks to my blood, her pale face now had a healthy flush.
She gripped the doorframe, tears streaming down her cheeks, shoulders shaking with sobs, as fragile as porcelain about to shatter.
"Caspian, please stop..." Her voice broke between crying. "If anything happens to Aria... I couldn't live with myself..."
"Don't talk like that!"
The man who'd been ruthlessly cold to me moments ago completely lost his composure. Caspian rushed over and swept the trembling Isabella into his arms.
"Your life is all that matters." His voice was tight, eyes filled with sick obsession. "I'd drain her completely dry before I let anything happen to you."
Isabella collapsed into his embrace.
But over his shoulder, she locked eyes with me. That tear-stained face instantly shed its fragility, curling into a cold, vicious smirk.
The next second, Caspian turned and strode away with her, not sparing me a glance.
"Caspian..." I forced a weak rasp from my parched throat.
His steps faltered. He didn't turn around. "What?"
"What if... this time I don't wake up?"
The air went dead silent.
Then came his contemptuous snort:
"Then pray. As long as Isabella needs blood, even if you're a corpse, I'll drag you back from hell myself."
SLAM—
The door crashed shut.
The blood pump stopped. The doctor withdrew the needle, exhaling in relief as he hurried out.
The room fell silent. I lay numbly on the operating table, staring at the crude puncture wound on my arm.
It didn't close like it always had.
A single drop of dark red blood seeped out, sliding weakly down my pale skin.
In that moment, something inside me broke.
My healing ability was gone. Completely spent.
For a man who only saw me as a blood bank, I'd shed my scales, abandoned the deep sea, and drained myself dry.
In the dizzying void, I sank into darkness.
I don't know how long passed before bone-deep cold forcibly woke me.
I found myself thrown back into that sunless basement like a piece of discarded trash.
Before I could adjust to the dim light, a cold voice rang out above me.
"Pathetic."
Isabella swept over in a wine-red robe, stopping in front of me. Thanks to those bags of my blood, her complexion was rosy and radiant now.
She looked down at me, swirling the wine glass in her hand. "Did you really think that monster blood of yours would keep you as the Donna forever?"
SPLASH—
Ice-cold wine poured over my head without warning.
I didn't even have the strength to raise my hand. The dark red liquid streamed into my eyes, stinging.
"I said stop playing dead."
She set down the glass and grabbed my soaked hair, shoving a black onyx ring engraved with the Lucchese family crest in my face.
The ring passed down through every Donna.
"Even if you wear the title, this ring is mine." She savored my dilated pupils, smiling cruelly. "In this family, I'm the real Donna. Caspian just promised he'd bleed you dry to keep me alive."
She released my hair in disgust and tossed the silk handkerchief onto my face.
"Die slowly down here, monster."
The iron door slammed shut. The bolt locked with a heavy click, severing the last sliver of light.
The basement fell into deathly silence. Wine and blood dripped from my hair onto the rough concrete.
My body had no tears left.
In that darkness, my last foolish hope for Caspian, along with all my remaining life, was finally drained dry.
