Epilogue
“Alin, come on! Luca and Mariano are on their way home,” Cora shouts to me from outside the bathroom door.
“Get your tail out of the water and come down already,” she continues to push, and I roll my eyes in response, but inside, I’m just as excited as she is.
Luca and Mariano have been out of the country for two weeks, visiting their father and closing some deals they weren’t willing to share with either Cora or me. I missed him so much, especially since he couldn’t talk to me much on the phone.
“Come on!” Cora bursts into the bathroom, pulls back the shower curtain, and surprises me.
“Now, let’s go!” she orders, watching every move I make until my legs return to me.
“I still can’t believe you kept this a secret from me; it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” she exclaims excitedly, making me laugh.
Cora hasn’t changed, and I hope she never does. She’s a part of me I wouldn’t give up for anything.
I stand up, and the dizziness of the past week hits me again. I have to lean on Cora for a few moments but quickly recover.
“Sorry, the dizziness hit me again,” I apologize, seeing the worry on her face.
I smile at her, trying to show that everything is fine, but she doesn’t buy it.
“Alin, you need to see a doctor,” she states.
“No, I can’t see a doctor. I can’t let anyone do tests on me,” I try to reason with her, and she sighs, frustrated with my stubbornness.
“Besides,” I add, “I never got sick when I was in the ocean, so if there’s a problem, I can go back home and get rid of it.”
She nods reluctantly, and we hurry downstairs.
Within ten minutes of waiting on the couch in the entrance hall, the door opens.
“Alin? You waited for me at the door?” Luca laughs, and Mariano follows him inside. Cora and I immediately stand up with joy and jump on them in a hug.
Suddenly, loud breaking noises are heard, and I jump in place. Luca and Mariano draw their weapons.
I look toward the bar in the entrance hall, where the noise came from, and see the floor covered in broken glass.
“How did that happen?” I ask in surprise, and everyone seems to be trying to figure out what’s going on.
“Look!” Cora says suddenly, pointing to the ceiling where a large bubble of liquid is hovering above us, the alcohol from the broken bottles.
“Alin! This isn’t funny! What a waste of all that alcohol,” Mariano says as he and Luca lower their weapons.
“It wasn’t me, really!” I say, but then another wave of dizziness hits me, and I rush to the bathroom with an unfamiliar pressure in my throat, emptying the contents of my stomach into the toilet.
Cora follows me into the bathroom immediately.
“Alin, something’s not right with you. Even your powers are going haywire. If you don’t want to see a doctor, at least go see your parents,” she pleads, and I have to agree with her.
Luca stands behind Cora, seeming to have overheard the conversation and supports her stance.
“It looks like I’m going to visit my parents,” I announce, raising my hands in surrender.
“Alin, Cora, we’re here!” Suddenly, Bay’s voice is heard from the doorway.
The three of us step out of the bathroom stall, finding Bay, who has arrived with Pedro.
It seems something is developing between them, and I still haven’t decided if I like it or not.
“Alin isn’t feeling well, Bay. Could you go with her to her parents?” Cora immediately asks, starting to worry too.
“What happened, Alin? What are you feeling?” Bay immediately asks, pulling me aside from everyone and seating me on the couch in the living room.
“I don’t know. I’ve been dizzy all week, and it turns out my powers are acting on their own. Oh, and something weird happened before you came—I expelled a lot of fluid, like water,” I tell her, and her face lights up.
She quickly runs to the bar faucet, fills a glass with water, and pours it over me without any warning.
My tail appears, and everyone looks at Bay, trying to figure out what she’s doing. Even I can’t understand her craziness sometimes.
“I knew it!” she suddenly exclaims, jumping up and down with excitement.
“The scales around your chest, they were light purple. Look how dark they are now,” she points out, trying to explain herself. She’s right; my scales have darkened.
“What does that mean? Am I sick?” I ask, panicking.
“No, it just means congratulations to you and Luca—you’re pregnant,” she announces, and everyone stares at me.
I’m pregnant?
I’m going to have a merling with Luca?
The idea flushes my cheeks with excitement and nervousness all at once.
I glance at Luca eagerly, but his expression is unreadable. Doesn’t he want this child with me? He seemed so sure when he spoke to my father. Why isn’t he reacting?
Mariano and Pedro immediately congratulate Luca, patting him on the back with genuine joy, while Cora and Bay share in the excitement, their faces lit up.
Luca steps closer, bending down to meet my eyes. His gaze scans me intently.
“Is it real? You’re pregnant?” he asks in disbelief.
“It seems that’s the only explanation,” I reply nervously, still trying to decipher his thoughts.
“I can’t believe it, I’m going to be a dad...” A smile finally breaks across his face. He pulls me close, kissing me deeply, and a wave of relief floods through me.
“Now seems like the perfect time to tell you why we went to visit my father,” he declares ceremoniously, pulling a small black velvet box from his pocket. My heart races with anticipation.
“Alin, you came into my life like a tsunami. I never understood what Mariano and Cora meant, and I never knew love until you shattered every wall and belief I had,” he takes a deep breath, his eyes locked on mine, now moist with understanding.
“Not only did you open my heart,” Luca continues, his voice steady but filled with emotion, “but you also turned my entire world into something more enjoyable and full. I swore I would never let you go; I’m yours until my last day.”
His words wash over me, and tears well up in my eyes. It’s all so overwhelming, the depth of his feelings laid bare before me.
“The past two weeks, Mariano and I were with my father planning the future for me, for us as a family, and for the family business,” Luca says, his voice softer now, carrying a sense of vulnerability.
“It took us a bit of time to come to an understanding, but now, to make everything official, I have just one more thing to ask you.”
He takes a deep breath, his hand trembling ever so slightly as he opens the velvet box. Inside gleams a delicate gold ring, adorned with three small diamonds on each side and a polished, perfect aquamarine stone in the center.
Aquamarine. A stone with so much history with the oceans and has always been my favorite gemstone. How did he know? I wonder if the girls knew and kept it from me.
In an instant, I jump on him with the full weight of my tail, knocking us both to the floor.
“I’ve always been yours and always will be,” I declare, catching him off guard with a kiss.
Cheers of joy echo behind us, with Cora capturing everything on her phone and Bay jumping on us in an excited hug.
“Congratulations again, brother. It looks like a period of new and wonderful beginnings is ahead of us,” Pedro congratulates us, sending a smile our way, though his gaze seems more directed at Bay than at us.
I’m so happy that I decide to ignore my curiosity this time and don’t ask about it.
“I’ve never met a mixed merling before. I wonder which world they’ll belong to,” Bay suddenly says, making everyone ponder.
“No matter how they turn out, we’ll love them just as they are, and they will belong to both worlds.
They’ll never have to choose,” I declare confidently, touching my belly.
A tiny, sweet being is growing inside me now, a being created by the love between Luca and me, with my whole family here, strong, big, and happy.
This family may have gotten me into a lot of trouble, but they’ve saved me in so many other ways.