Staring at the mermaids with wide eyes and a slack jaw, I awaited my fate. Any second now, I would be washed over with an inescapable need to walk into the ocean and drown. I remained perfectly motionless, terrified that a single movement might be the trigger that would send me to my death.

The three mermaids lounging in the sand, just out of the lapping waves, were flawlessly beautiful, each with perfect, symmetrical faces. Their long, wet hair—brown, red, and black—covered their torsos. The artistic depictions of mermaids weren't too far off, apparently.

"It's alright, love," the one with brown hair spoke. I had seen her before. She had been the second mermaid I had encountered after Bella, late at night, on the beach after our first double date with Alice and Jasper. Alana—if I recalled correctly. "We're not going to harm you. We're Bella's sisters."

Surprise eclipsed the fear for a second, as I took in that fact. The redhead bore the closest resemblance to Bella. The one that spoke had dark, brown skin. The third had slick black hair and almond-shaped eyes. The only way all three could be related to Bella was if they all had different fathers. Which, fell in line with what I knew about mermaids

"I'm Alana," she said, confirming my memory. "This is Bonnie and Mei."

I said nothing.

Mei walked up to me first. "Aw, he's so cute." I flinched back as she took my face in her hand, but her grip was too strong. "Stupid as she is, Isabella has excellent taste," she said, running her thumb over my lips. She pressed down hard at the bow of my lips, keeping them shut as she turned back to her sisters, "Are we sure he has to stay off-limits?" Her sentence concluded as a pathetic whine.

Bonnie took the few steps up to meet me as well. "You need to calm down. You just had a baby."

The second the connotation of the words clicked in my mind, I tried to scramble back, but Mei maintained her tight grip.

"Well, Bella's not going to use him."

Alana sauntered across the sand. I was fully surrounded. "That's not what we're here for." She took her sister's wrist and pulled her hand off my face. I bit back a yelp as her nails scraped my skin.

"You're wondering why you aren't dead right now, aren't you?"

Finally, I found my voice. "Leave."

She laughed, and her sisters joined. "We're not here to harm you, honey. We're here to help."

I didn't believe them. Not for a single second.

"You think you're in love with Bella."

I was in love with Bella, I wanted to correct her. However, I was utterly and completely out of my element and unsure of what would be more harmful to Bella. I figured it would be best to keep my mouth shut.

"Where is she?" I said, instead. Somewhere out in the ocean, my mermaid was traumatized and alone. The appearance of her sisters on our beach could not have been a coincidence.

"She's fine," Alana waved her hand absentmindedly towards the ocean. Her words and her action provoked more fear than any sort of comfort. My stomach clenched at the idea of Bella floating unconscious in the waves.

"Come on." She walked over to the fallen tree Bella and I used as a bench and sat below it, using the tree itself as a backrest. Her sisters joined. She patted the spot between the three of them. "Promise, we won't do anything to you."

I stayed where I was.

"You can either sit here on your own accord, or I can make you," she said, losing her patience with me.

I didn't think these mermaids had the power to influence me in such a way, but I certainly wasn't going to test that theory.

"Now, isn't that nice?" Alana asked as I awkwardly arranged myself between them. "You've barely spoken to Bella's sisters. Is this any way to treat family?"

I felt like a mouse trapped in a cage of cats. Perhaps a mouse toy, from the way they played with me. "Hi."

Mei burst into giggles, apparently finding my discomfort extremely funny.

"What did Bella tell you of us, Edward?" Alana asked, running her fingers up and down my forearm. On my other side, Mei's hand weaved into the hair on the back of my head. I flinched away from both of their touches, but they were determined.

"That if I were to hear her voice," I swallowed, "I would drown and…and die."

"Is that all?" Bonnie asked.

"Yes." I squeaked, like the little mouse toy I was.

Alana hummed sympathetically. She addressed her sisters instead of me. "Bella was far too young when she left us. That's the problem. The poor, little thing doesn't understand."

I looked at each of their amused faces, one by one. "So, is that not true?" Perhaps Bella didn't kill James, after all.

"No. It is very true. However, our gifts do not end there."

Mei's hand moved from my hair to my heart, "Our powers call to the heart. You would drown upon hearing our voice because you would be consumed with an inexplicable desire to offer yourself and your heart to us and the sea." She removed her hand briefly to broadly gesture to the infinite ocean before us.

I wasn't filled with the inexplicable desire Mei alluded to. In fact, I was tensed up and ready to flee as far as possible from their voices, as quickly as possible.

"You don't feel that way, do you?" Bonnie correctly guessed.

I neither confirmed nor denied, but all three mermaids already knew the answer to their sister's question, anyway.

"Don't worry, love. We already knew that to be true." I opened my mouth to ask a question, but Alana stopped me by moving her hand to my lips. "You see, more potent than hearing a word from our tongue, is receiving a kiss from our lips."

I balked, terrified that she would kiss me and inflict whatever was worse than hearing her voice. But then, it dawned on me.

I had already kissed a mermaid.

I kissed a mermaid a lot of times.

"No." The soft gasp was muffled by Alana's fingers still pressed against my mouth.

Bonnie cackled.

My entire body tensed up—unsure of how to react to the unknown threat. My throat itched; my heart pounded. I took deep, long breaths in order to keep myself from hyperventilating. The last thing I needed was to pass out in front of three mermaids who wanted more babies.

"Hearing our voice merely clouds your mind. But our kisses…" Mei grabbed a fistful of my shirt over my heart, "…capture your heart."

Alana moved her hand from my mouth down to my chin so she could force me to look at her. "The moment you kissed our sister, her wants and desires became yours."

It was impossible. I loved Bella with all that I was—surely something so strong couldn't have been planted in my heart. I didn't believe them; I shook my head.

Bonnie, sitting in front of me instead of against the log so I was fully surrounded, gripped my legs. "She could place any desire in your heart. Including feelings of passion, loyalty, and love."

"If you want me to doubt Bella like you somehow made her doubt yourself, you're going to have to come up with a better lie."

"Unfortunately, for you, it's very true."

"What purpose would capturing a mortal's heart even serve?" I criticized. "The whole thing sounds straight out of a storybook."

"So, are we, aren't we?" Bonnie quirked her head. The motion reminded me of Bella.

"Our ability is mainly used for…" Mei shared a knowing look with her sisters, "reproductive purposes. But some of us like to use it how Bella does."

"Use it… how?"

"For a loyal lover. One who would do anything to protect us, so we can take care of business on land without too much trouble."

That… was beginning to sound uncomfortably familiar. I was pushed into a pool while saving Bella. I got suspended from school for standing up for her. I damaged my reputation in my own household for her benefit. I shook my head. I did all these things because I wanted to. Because I loved Bella. Truly and completely, all on my own.

They must have known how much I did for Bella and were using that against me. "No… I…"

Bonnie had grown impatient with me. "Without our gift, you would be terrified of what we are. The only reason you can stand to be around Bella is because she has manipulated your heart. So, you look at her and see the fairytale from your storybook. But Bella has never been your princess—she will always only be the monster."

"That's not true!" I roared, finally shaking the fear so the proper fury could break through.

Alana did not appreciate that I raised my voice at her sister. Her grip on my face tightened. "The most damming evidence is right in front of you. The fact that you are sitting here talking to us, and not dead in the water where you should be. You can hear us speak and not want to drown because Isabella holds your heart, Edward. We can no longer influence what another of our kind already owns."

It was the first point they made that had any sort of credibility. The one thing Bella told me would happen, the reason she had been bullied and tormented throughout her time sent in human high school, had not happened. Surely, Bella wouldn't have suffered so greatly for a lie.

Just because I believed them didn't necessarily mean Bella did anything wrong. Bella told me she could kill me, for crying out loud. If my mermaid had any idea she had the ability to steal my heart, she would have mentioned it along with the rest of her warnings. If she had known she could hold such a strong power over me, she would have never let me kiss her. They said it themselves. Bella was so young when she ran away from her sisters, it was entirely plausible that she didn't know about her abilities.

"Then, Bella didn't know," I concluded. "She would have told me."

Alana shook her head sympathetically, "I told everything. We all did."

I recalled the night Bella and I encountered Alana on the beach. She had been so smug; it infuriated Bella. With only their emotions to go from, I always assumed Alana upset Bella by mocking her relationship with a human.

"Bella refused to believe me, so we tried to demonstrate."

The night of our picnic when Bella's sisters attacked us, I recalled. "You hurt her. You tried to drown me!"

"Oh, we never would have drowned you. On purpose." The tacked-on phrase wasn't exactly reassuring. "We merely needed one, little kiss to show Bella how easy it was to take your heart from her."

Bonnie took over. "But Bella wasn't interested in the truth. She was more content to live a lie than to give up her devoted lover."

I swallowed. Loudly.

"We weren't surprised when Bella went crying to our mother," Alana continued the story. I tried to hide my surprise at the mention of Bella's mother, but all three mermaids noticed. "She begged and begged Mom to tell us to leave her precious human alone."

"Mom has always had a soft spot for Bella," Mei noted, her tone nasally and resentful. "You know, because she's so weak and stupid."

Whether Mei's opinion was formed out of ignorance or pettiness, it was incorrect. Not only was Bella neither of those things, but she was the exact opposite.

Alana nodded along with Mei's addition and continued, "Mom agreed that no one would touch you in the ocean. And Bella was satisfied."

"Until Bonnie pissed her off." Mei interrupted, again.

I recoiled from my memories of that day, when Bella had returned to me broken and defeated. "You left her for dead."

Bonnie snorted—the sound was light and dainty. "Bella brought it upon herself. I merely pointed out how easy it was to get to you on land."

"Bella said she attacked you because you said I couldn't love her."

"She lied."

"Bella would never lie to me." As I said it, I realized I was telling a lie. Bella did lie to me. All the time. When I asked Bella what her sisters did to goad her into attacking them, she chose her words very carefully to skirt around the truth. They say it's impossible for you to care for me in the way I think you do. That everything you feel for me is only because of what I am.

In fact, I had shown up at this beach with the intent to confront her about a different lie. She had such a strong hold on my heart, that I had been ready to love her, despite the fact that she killed someone.

Tears welled up in my eyes. I blinked them away.

Alice was right. Lauren was right. Every other person who tried to warn me was right.

I had fallen in love with a monster.

No, no. That wasn't it.

I had my heart stolen by a monster.

I already knew the rest of the tale, courtesy of Lauren. Bella killed James. She was going to keep that from me, as well. Maintain her hold on my heart. Always keep me in her sight. Allow me to embarrass myself and bend over backward for a lying, murderous sea monster.

"I get it. Enough." I wanted the words to come out as a growl, but they were closer to a choked sob.

Bella's sisters turned to movement in the water I didn't hear. Bella clambered over the rock, gracelessly falling and flailing. My treacherous heart flipped and warmed at the sight of her. Purely on instinct, I leaped up from my seat and pulled her out of the water.

As I carried her out of the water, my ears warmed with embarrassment. Bella's control over my heart must have been powerful—why else would I have the immediate instinct to help and to hold a monster? I set her in the sand, far too gently for what she deserved. As much as I wanted to hate her, I could never cause her pain.

One of Bella's sisters laughed behind me. "Oh, Bella. You got him good."

As her sister spoke, Bella gripped my chin—far too tight—and yanked my face in her direction. Whatever signs in my face she was looking for she spotted immediately, and her eyes widened in horror. Bella released my face and covered her own with both hands. My stolen heart ached as she shook with a silent sob.

"We told you, Bella." Alana's voice was somber. "You didn't want to believe us."

Bella's sobs paused briefly as she looked up at her sisters and viciously growl. It was the first sound I had ever heard her make—and easily the most terrifying thing I had ever heard. I felt it from the crown of my head down to the base of my spine.

But her sisters found it hilarious. "We didn't do this to him, you did."

As Bella looked back at me, her beautiful face softened from a deadly fury into absolute devastation.

"What did you do to me?" My strong demand came out as a soft, pathetic plea.

"I don't know!" she signed, then broke down into another shaking, soundless sob.

I wasn't sure if she stuck to sign language because of habit, or because she didn't want her voice to do more damage than she'd already done. Either way, I was grateful. Though I had always secretly yearned to hear her voice, the sound of it now would feel like a betrayal.

Resisting the urge to reach out and take her in my arms, I took a calming breath. My voice still shook as I asked, "Did you steal my heart, Bella?"

Still covering her face, she nodded.

I shattered. Any final shreds of hope that her sisters were playing a cruel joke were gone now.

My stolen heart couldn't take much more, but I had to know. "Do you control me?"

Bella lifted her face from her hands. Her chocolate eyes melted into mine as she shook her head absolutely.

The pain in my chest ebbed slightly.

She didn't know what she was doing. I couldn't fault her for not understanding what she was capable of, especially when that ignorance only formed because she refused to kill humans. I could give her another chance. I've been happy with her.

Perhaps under her spell was exactly where I wanted to be.

As if she could see my hope slowly blossoming, she straightened her spine and rose to her knees. On barely-dried legs still covered with scales, she walked on her knees up to me. Her hands hovered over mine, like she wanted to take them into hers, but thought better of it. Still continued to use sign language as she desperately explained herself. "I didn't mean to keep it from you. I swear. I was going to tell you everything once I understood what was happening."

That was… understandable. And completely in character of my Bella: to tell me when she had her facts in order, and a solution in place. My heart warmed.

I could forgive her. I trusted her.

Well, I trusted Jasper, Alice's voice played unbidden in my head, and look where that got me.

Alice's warning held my tongue, preventing me from forgiving Bella straight away.

It was entirely possible that Bella planned to keep the problem to herself and would tell me once she had her ducks in a row. It was a forgivable habit we could work together to get her out of.

Or, she had no intention of telling me, and the only reason she spoke of it at all was because her sisters got to me first.

Luckily, I had a way to test which was true. I knew something Bella currently hid from me.

"Now, you know that I love you. There's no chance that I could stop loving you. Is there anything else you would like to tell me, Bella?"

Her expression was dreamy, almost hopeful. She shook her head, confidently.

My heart sank.

That told me everything I needed to know.

If she wasn't going to tell me about James now, knowing that I would still love and forgive her, there was no way she planned to tell me the rest.

"Okay, then." The next words burned my throat on their way out, "It's over."

Though Bella's beautiful face paled with dread, she made no argument. She knew what she'd done. She knew all that she hid from me. My legs shook as I stood, like my entire body was begging me not to walk away from her.

I purposely avoided her sisters as I trudged through the sand back to my car. I was only able to drive out of the sight of the water. Still on the hidden, dirt path, I shifted my car back into park.

And I cried.

Cried over my lost love. Cried that it was never mine. Cried that I had never been more wrong. I cried until the sun fully set and my tears ran dry.

Back at home, I missed dinner. It wasn't like I had an appetite to eat anything, anyway.

Alice ran into me at the top of the stairs. I figured she would walk right past me, especially since all we did nowadays was fight.

"I take it I was right?" Her question was so quiet, I thought I had imagined it.

I barely managed a nod.

"For the record, I wanted you to be right, too."

I will leave you there for the night... see you tomorrow for the rest!