Chapter 5
534words
The same agony I remembered from my previous life engulfed me as Lily's face split into a victorious smile.
"Lily, I've got it! The scale—you're going to be saved!"
Julian excitedly clutched the scale and embraced Lily while Zachary rushed over with the grinding apparatus.
"Just hold on a little longer. It'll all be over soon."
I pressed my hand against my bleeding chest, watching them fuss over Lily, a bitter smile twisting my lips.
I watched as Lily drank the potion made from my scale.
They watched Lily with hopeful anticipation.
"How do you feel, Lily? Better already?"
Lily touched her chest, opening her mouth to respond.
The next second, her lips drained of color and her face contorted in pain.
"I… something's wrong…"
"What's happening? This isn't right!"
Julian clutched Lily protectively, then whipped his head around to glare at me with murderous intent.
"Tara Wilson, what the hell did you do? What's happening to Lily?"
I covered my throbbing wound, a cold smile playing on my lips.
"Tampered with it? How could I possibly have done that? Wasn't it your own hands that ripped the scale from my chest?"
"Tara Wilson!"
Zachary's eyes blazed with fury.
Lily's condition deteriorated rapidly, her face glistening with sweat as pain wracked her body.
She curled into a fetal position, trembling violently.
"Tara, tell us the truth. What the hell is happening to her?"
Julian seized my collar, nearly lifting me off the ground.
I calmly pushed his hands away, pressing my palm against my bleeding wound.
"What happened? Perhaps you should ask yourselves that question."
The heart scale of a mermaid can indeed save a human life—but only when harvested during peak emotional resonance.
But they harvested mine at the worst possible moment—when my heart overflowed with hatred rather than passion.
In that state, my scale becomes not medicine but poison—accelerating death rather than preventing it.
"You've killed your precious Lily with your own hands."
My words ignited their rage like gasoline on fire.
"What's the matter? Can't face what you've done?"
"Hold on, Lily! I swear I'll save you!"
"Tara Wilson, give us the antidote right now!"
Their continued obliviousness was so absurd I couldn't help but laugh.
"You can't seriously believe I'd take orders from you now?"
"I'm no longer the docile Tara Wilson you can manipulate at will."
I savored the sight of their faces draining of color as reality finally dawned on them.
"The woman you've devoted your lives to saving is now dying by your own hands—all because of your blind stupidity."
"How does that feel? Quite the bitter pill to swallow, isn't it?"
With each word I uttered, Julian and Zachary's faces grew more ashen, horror dawning in their eyes.
They would never understand that from the moment of my rebirth, I had orchestrated everything for this precise moment.
Every humiliation I endured was calculated—designed to make them believe I remained their puppet.
"If at any point either of you had shown me even a shred of genuine affection—if your hearts had softened toward me for even a moment—none of this would have happened."
"This tragedy is entirely of your own making."
