Chapter 10 - WHY THE OCEAN IS DIFFERENT
Margaret sat across from Evelyn as though facing a ghost.
“Start from the beginning.”
Evelyn looked toward the Atlantic beyond the windows.
“There isn't one beginning.”
Daniel crossed his arms.
“Try.”
Evelyn explained that families like hers had existed for centuries.
They lived mostly on land.
They married.
Raised children.
Worked ordinary jobs.
Some never transformed at all.
Others changed only after prolonged contact with saltwater.
“Aquatic humans?” Daniel asked.
Evelyn nodded reluctantly.
“If you need a term.”
“Not mermaids.”
“That word comes with fantasies. We aren't immortal. We don't sing sailors to death. We don't live in castles beneath the ocean.”
Margaret almost laughed from sheer absurdity.
“What happens biologically?”
“I don't know everything.”
“You've lived how long and don't know?”
“Living longer does not make someone a scientist.”
Emma watched her mother carefully.
“Why does seawater matter?”
“Salinity triggers a deeper change.”
“Permanent?”
“For some.”
Emma looked at Lila.
“You warned us not to take her into the ocean.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because her first transformation happened too early.”
Daniel frowned.
“Early?”
“Most carriers don't change until childhood or puberty.”
“I changed at six,” Emma said.
“You showed signs earlier.”
Emma stared.
“You remember?”
“I remember everything.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
Evelyn looked ashamed.
“Because I wanted the trait to disappear with you.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“And instead it became stronger in Lila.”
“Yes.”
“Because I'm a Holloway.”
Evelyn nodded.
Margaret felt offended by the idea that her own family held some secret biology she knew nothing about.
“What exactly is wrong with us?”
“Nothing is wrong.”
“Then explain the second wave symbol.”
Evelyn looked surprised.
“You found the ledger.”
“Yes.”
She sighed.
“The Holloways were never like my family.”
Daniel waited.
“But one of your ancestors carried a related adaptation.”
“How?”
“A rescue.”
Evelyn looked at Margaret.
“1912.”
Margaret remembered Thomas's journal.
“The shipwreck.”
“One of my people saved Edward Holloway.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Saving someone doesn't change their genetics.”
“No.”
Evelyn hesitated.
“But the woman who saved him later had a child with him.”
Silence.
Margaret's mouth fell open.
“Edward's wife was Helen.”
“Officially.”
Evelyn looked toward the old staircase.
“Helen could not have children. Edward's son was raised as hers.”
Margaret whispered, “Thomas.”
“Yes.”
Daniel took a step back.
“My grandfather was…”
“Part of us.”
Emma looked at her husband with astonishment.
Daniel laughed once.
“This keeps getting better.”
Evelyn continued.
“The trait weakened in the Holloway line because Thomas's descendants remained on land. Your father showed nothing. You showed nothing.”
Daniel looked at Lila.
“Until my DNA combined with Emma's.”
“Yes.”
Two weakened lines had reunited.
Not by arrangement.
Not by plan.
At least, Evelyn claimed not.
Margaret thought about the family tree.
“Then why were Daniel and Emma's names already linked?”
Evelyn went silent.
Emma noticed.
“Mom.”
“I didn't create that ledger.”
“Who did?”
Evelyn looked away.
“My mother.”
“Mara?”
“Yes.”
“The little girl in the 1958 picture?”
Evelyn nodded.
Margaret frowned.
“If she was a child in 1958, how could she predict Daniel and Emma's marriage?”
“She didn't.”
Evelyn's answer was too fast.
Daniel caught it.
“Who's lying now?”
Evelyn stood.
“We should move Lila inland.”
“You told us not to leave.”
“Because I needed to reach you first.”
Daniel blocked her path.
“We aren't moving anywhere until you tell us why somebody recorded our names before we met.”
Evelyn looked toward Lila.
“Because there are people who track bloodlines.”
Emma's face hardened.
“Who?”
“People who believe children like Lila belong to them.”
Margaret thought of the envelope.
“They already know she exists.”
Evelyn nodded.
“How?”
“I don't know.”
Daniel's phone buzzed.
Another message from an unknown number.
A photograph loaded.
Daniel's face went blank.
Emma took the phone.
It showed Margaret standing beside the aquarium.
Lila in her arms.
Silver scales clearly visible on the baby's merging legs.
The photograph had been taken from outside the living-room window.
At the exact moment of the transformation.
Below it was a message:
May you like
THANK YOU FOR CONFIRMING THE CHILD.
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