“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 wouldnever 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 theyare, 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.
