His dark eyes stared intently at her tear-stained face. Though she had longed to see him, Kian now seemed like a completely different person from the one she knew.

“…Is this who you really are, Kian?”

Her voice trembled, thick with tears.

Kian offered no response. He simply examined her thoroughly—his dark eyes moving from her quivering pale lips to her hunched shoulders and her disheveled appearance as she sat crumpled on the floor.

Time seemed to stand still. After a long silence, Kian took a deep breath and spoke slowly.

“Whoever did this, it has nothing to do with you.”

He neither confirmed nor denied anything.

As always, he habitually avoided giving direct answers. Normally, she would have whined, begging him to respond quickly because his evasiveness felt cruel.

But this time…

Strangely, she didn’t care to know.

What good would it do now? She hadn’t asked because she needed the truth.

The truth was right before her eyes. What more did she need beyond Annabel’s taxidermied corpse?

The answer was already there. Seeking a verbal response, trying to confirm what was obvious—it all seemed pointless now.

Vivianne could only weep endlessly as he held her chin.

“Why are you crying?”

Like someone comforting a child, he wiped her damp cheeks with the back of his hand and fixed his gaze on her. His eyelashes trembled slightly.

Kian, whom she expected to be angry, somehow looked anxious and completely dazed.

“You’re just scared of taxidermy. That’s it, right?”

…What on earth was he saying?

Her lips wouldn’t move; she couldn’t utter a single word in response.

“Poor Vivi.”

Crouching directly in front of her to assess her condition, he suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace. His arms constricted around her body with firm pressure.

Though likely meant to provide comfort, it felt more like he was choking her.

“Matilda told me. She said you were quite shocked yesterday when you saw the taxidermied eagle at the outpost.”

“Hic… sob…”

“Let’s go. I’ll put you to bed.”

Her entire body began to tremble again like an aspen leaf. The sobbing consumed her, and she couldn’t stop shaking.

“…Let me go.”

Cradled in his arms like a doll, Vivianne struggled violently. Despite fighting with all her might to break free, she was no match for the man’s strength.

“Tell me it’s nothing.”

His voice, which had been gentle and soothing, suddenly turned cold and sharp like a well-honed blade. Goosebumps spread across her skin, feeling the blue edge of a knife against her throat.

“Let… hic… let me go…”

“Tell me your tears mean nothing.”

He grabbed Vivianne’s arms as she shook her head frantically and wailed, forcing her body to face him directly.

“Whatever you say, I’ll believe it. So just say one thing—that it’s nothing.”

“…Let go! Please, please…”

“Say it!”

Startled by his threatening voice, Vivianne reflexively squeezed her eyes shut and curled up. It was pure instinct.

“…Sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

He buried her wet face against his shoulder with his large hand and pulled her close.

Then he slowly began to stroke the back of her head. His touch was tender, treating her like something precious.

“I don’t want to be like this with you. So just say it’s nothing, and that’s all.”

Yet even as he said this, he continued demanding to hear what he wanted.

He was like the moon—brilliantly luminous one moment, then gone the next.

He could be as full and warm as the full moon, then disappear like the new moon, making her yearn to reach him again. To reach this male, to become a worthy female for him, she had erased and shed herself countless times, but all that remained was avoidance and demands.

Even in this moment, he tried to blind her to the truth. Because of her misguided stubbornness in choosing him, she had lost Annabel, who was like a sister to her.

All it took was just a single moment.

To go from loving someone with your entire soul to finding them terrifying and revolting.

She couldn’t believe it.

So you should know the truth too, just like me.

The more cruel, the better. Every detail.

You should be cut to pieces just like I am.

“…I can’t. Because I… I’m a mermaid.”

“Don’t lie.”

“I wanted you so badly that I got legs, and because I wanted to stay by your side… I deceived you, knowing only your name.”

She felt his grip loosen, the strength draining from his hands that had been holding her tightly.

Vivianne slowly pushed against his collarbone.

“It’s all my fault. I didn’t know you were this kind of person. So… please let me go.”

The tears that had momentarily stopped began to fall again.

She wanted to scream at him—why did you kill Annabel? Why do you hunt mermaids and take such pride in it?

Were we such magnificent game that you had to taxidermy us and hang us on your wall? She wanted to rage at him, but decided against it.

She already knew that for humans, hunting was merely entertainment with no special meaning.

Could she really claim that a mermaid’s life was worth more than the bird’s life hanging on the wall?

To them, weren’t birds and mermaids just the same—mere animals?

No, there was no difference.

Her heart felt torn into a thousand pieces, but it was an inescapable fact.

Being a mermaid and daring to desire a human—that was her mistake.

She had staked her soul on someone whose true nature she didn’t even know.

Even knowing he wasn’t right for her, she had stubbornly persisted.

Annabel had tried to correct this and ended up taxidermied for it.

So it was all her fault, and now she was paying the price.

She didn’t want his child. She wished she could just dissolve into sea foam. Annabel had died trying to save her—how could she possibly live alone? Especially carrying this male’s child?

The mere thought was disgusting and horrifying.

Why had she agonized so much over his fiancée, taken contraceptives, and cried her heart out? It had all been foolish. Everything now seemed meaningless.

She was tired of wondering if she had unknowingly done something wrong, of waiting endlessly with anxiety, of clinging blindly to him out of insecurity. She just wanted it to end.

Vivianne abruptly stood up and left the room with the taxidermied mermaids.

It didn’t matter where she went. She needed to leave this house—anywhere without this male would be fine.

But her resolve didn’t last long. At the doorway, her wrist was roughly grabbed and yanked. In an instant, her body was spun around.

He quickly pushed her against the wall, trapping her with his body. Bang! Her back hit the wall, causing a dull pain.

“If you’re a mermaid, I should let you go? Why would I?”

Even as he spoke these sharp words, his gaze wavered.

“You said it’s all your fault. If you’ve done something wrong, you should be punished or take responsibility somehow. You’re just going to abandon everything and run away?”

It was sophistry. She knew it, yet she was swayed because she didn’t want to let him go.

But not anymore.

“You appear before someone who was minding their own business, shake them up, completely break them, and then try to leave alone? What kind of behavior is this?”

He remains despicable till the end. Suddenly, something snapped inside her, and her resentment erupted.

“I find you… so disgusting and horrible! So let… let me go! Let go!”

Vivianne struggled with all her might, lashing out wildly. She frantically pounded his chest and collarbone with her fists and kicked at whatever she could reach.

She attacked him so forcefully that her body staggered, but his solid, large frame didn’t budge an inch.

After watching her with a challenging look that said “go ahead, do your worst,” he grabbed both her wrists, immobilizing her. She couldn’t move, trapped like an animal in a snare.

“Such bold dreams. Wake up. You can’t go anywhere. How do you plan to survive outside?”

“…I don’t care!”

“You can’t live without me anyway.”

Looking back, he had always repeated this like a mantra, brainwashing her.

You can’t live without me.

Those words had never sounded as insulting as they did now. Until this moment, she had truly believed she couldn’t survive without Kian. She could only laugh bitterly at herself for having lived with the excuse that she had no other choice.

“I’d rather… hic… sob… die than stay by your side.”

“Who decides that? You belong to me.”

A bitter laugh scattered before her contorted face.

“Your job is to be fed, clothed, and bathed, then wait obediently to lick and suck. Do you think your life belongs to you? Don’t be mistaken.”

As Vivianne looked up at him, the tears that had pooled in her eyes streamed down.

“If you want to die so badly, fine. I’ll dry you alive beside me, just like a proper mermaid.”