Chapter 12 - ELENA’S SECRETThey returned to Newport before sunset.
Vivian was waiting.
She stood in the living room beside the pale sofa where everything had begun.
“You took her to Miriam.”
Caleb stopped.
“How do you know?”
Vivian did not answer.
“Are you tracking us?”
“I knew where you would go.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Elena stepped inside carrying Lila.
Vivian’s gaze dropped immediately toward the white blanket.
“She looks well.”
Elena gave a cold laugh.
“You sound disappointed.”
Vivian flinched.
“I deserved that.”
It was the closest thing to an apology she had offered.
Caleb placed Anne’s notebook on the table.
Vivian’s face changed.
“You found it.”
“Yes.”
“You should not have brought it here.”
“Why?”
Vivian looked toward the windows.
“Because your father spent years looking for it.”
Caleb’s pulse jumped.
“My dead father?”
Vivian closed her eyes.
There.
Not surprise.
Not confusion.
Confirmation.
Caleb stepped closer.
“He’s alive.”
Vivian said nothing.
“Mom.”
“Not here.”
“Why?”
“Because this house is not as private as you think.”
Caleb almost laughed.
“You own it.”
“That does not mean I control everything inside it.”
A new kind of fear entered the room.
Before Caleb could press further, Lila began crying.
Not gently.
A sharp, distressed cry they had never heard before.
Elena immediately rocked her.
“What’s wrong?”
The baby’s tail moved beneath the blanket.
Again.
Again.
Restless.
Vivian stared.
“It’s beginning.”
Caleb turned.
“What?”
“The first cycle.”
“You said full moon.”
“It’s tomorrow.”
Elena carried Lila toward the window.
The crying intensified.
She moved away.
The crying softened.
Everyone noticed.
Elena looked confused.
She walked toward the eastern side of the room.
Lila cried harder.
Toward the western hallway.
Softer.
“That direction leads to the water,” Vivian said.
Caleb looked at her.
Miriam had predicted this.
Restlessness.
Calming near the sea.
“We take her outside,” Elena said.
Vivian reacted instantly.
“No.”
“She needs water.”
“She needs controlled conditions.”
“She needs her parents.”
“Elena—”
“No.”
Elena’s voice broke.
“I already spent her first hour listening to people talk about her as if she were a mistake.”
Vivian went silent.
“I am done letting frightened people decide what my daughter needs.”
Caleb stood beside her.
“We take her to the shore.”
Vivian stared at them.
Then, unexpectedly, nodded.
“But not the chamber.”
Caleb was surprised.
“I thought that was what you wanted.”
Vivian looked exhausted.
“I don’t know what I want anymore.”
They walked through the rear gardens toward the private beach.
As the sound of waves grew louder, Lila stopped crying.
Completely.
Elena looked at Caleb.
Miriam had been right.
They reached the edge of the sand.
Lila’s eyes opened.
Her tiny body relaxed.
Elena sat on a blanket while Caleb knelt beside her.
Vivian remained several yards back.
Elena slowly uncovered Lila’s tail.
Silver-blue scales caught the evening light.
The baby kicked gently.
Toward the ocean.
Caleb laughed softly despite everything.
“She likes it.”
Elena did not smile.
He looked at her.
“What?”
“There’s something I haven’t told you.”
His stomach tightened.
“What?”
Elena stared at the water.
“When I was pregnant, things happened.”
“What things?”
“Dreams.”
Caleb remembered the humming.
“What else?”
“I kept waking up wanting to be near water.”
“You always liked the ocean.”
“Not like this.”
She swallowed.
“One night I filled the bathtub and fell asleep in it.”
Caleb’s eyes widened.
“Elena.”
“I know.”
“That could have been dangerous.”
“I know. But I woke up hours later.”
She looked at him.
“The water was cold. I should have been freezing.”
“But?”
“I wasn’t.”
Caleb said nothing.
“There was something else.”
Elena reached into her bag and removed a small glass vial.
Inside was a single silver-blue scale.
Caleb stared.
“Where did that come from?”
“The bathtub.”
“When?”
“Six months pregnant.”
He looked at her legs.
“From you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because what was I supposed to say?”
Her eyes filled.
“My husband was traveling constantly. I was pregnant and dreaming about voices under the ocean. I thought I was losing my mind.”
Caleb took her hand.
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
Vivian had moved closer.
She saw the vial.
Her face drained.
“Where did you get that?”
Elena told her.
Vivian stared at Caleb.
“That’s impossible.”
“Apparently our family needs a new definition of impossible.”
“No.”
Vivian shook her head.
“The trait passes through Marlowe blood.”
Elena looked at her.
“I’m not a Marlowe by blood.”
Vivian’s eyes moved to Lila.
Then to the silver scale.
Her expression became one of genuine confusion.
Caleb’s pulse quickened.
“What?”
Vivian whispered:
“Then this may not have come only from you.”
Before anyone could ask what she meant, Lila made the three-note sound again.
From somewhere beyond the breaking waves—
a second sound answered.
The same three notes.
All three adults froze.
Elena whispered:
May you like
“Caleb…”
The ocean had answered their daughter.
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