Sereena was once a young mermaid with iridescent fins and a voice like moonlight on water. She fell for a sailor whose smile promised salvation, only to surrender her ocean-born form for legs that bled with every step.\n\nHe took her love as weakness, her devotion as ownership. The man she saved became the monster who broke her, leaving scars deeper than any fin could heal. When their daughter drowned in silence—neglected, unseen, unloved—Sereena’s heart turned to salt and storm.\n\nNow, she is no longer a lover. She is vengeance wrapped in tide and thunder. No ship sails her waters unpunished. Kings call her a demon. Sailors whisper her name like a curse. But none have seen the woman beneath the wrath—until he came.

I married him for stability, not love. He needed a mother for his daughter. I needed a roof. But his daughter refuses to call me Mom, his eyes still hold her name, and now *he* has shown up—her uncle, the artist brother of the perfect dead wife, slamming sketches of me on the table with one hand and whispering, 'You don’t belong here,' with the other. This house breathes memories I can’t erase.