CHAPTER 59. Terrible Past
1745 Words
The siren almost jumped out of the pool when she finally saw her father again. But since she can't get out of the water, Christian moves from the wheelchair to stand on the ground. Jack quickly supported his body so he could walk and get into the water where his daughter was. He dipped half of his body and sat on the pool's steps under the water where his daughter could get closer to him.
"Dad!" hugging her father while crying excessively with so much gladness, not minding how many pearls she could shed.
No words could explain the feeling that the father and daughter had in their hearts for the moment, as they caged each other in between their arms, savoring every second. Gabriel and Jack can't help getting emotional and suddenly lose the toughness they have as men watching the scene.
"I thought I would never see you again." Crystal said between her hiccups.
"I'm sorry if I took so long." Christian apologizes, cupping her face.
"It doesn't matter anymore because you are here now." She responded and suddenly remembered someone. She looked around the spacious pool area but frowned when she failed to see her mother.
"Dad, where's mom?" She inquired, but Christian's expression changed after hearing her words. But instead of answering her question, Christian noticed the changes in her tail, especially the new stripes of color on her fin.
"Sweetheart, who did that to your fin's shade?" He seriously asked while staring at the ring she's wearing on her finger.
Gabriel scratches the back of his head as he is aware of what Christian means by his words. Crystal looked down at her tail and looked up to Gabriel while Christian followed her eyes, which landed on the handsome yet anxious man but didn't urge talking about it. Gabriel sighed. But he knows that the matter will continue later.
"Sir, take a rest. Let me lead you to your room." Jack offered a dry towel to the man, but Gabriel looked in the siren's direction instead of responding.
"I'm sure she'll be busy catching up with her father," Jack remarks with a smile.
Christian stayed with Crystal on the water as she told her father everything that happened to her after they got separated, including how Rachel and Austin pushed her away and didn't even let her attend her grandfather's funeral. Also, the abduction that Rachel did and how she got identified as a siren.
"I'm sorry. I'm such a failure. I failed to protect you and your mother. I'm sorry." He keeps on apologizing as he kisses Crystal's knuckles, while the latter suddenly felt troubled about what he meant.
"Dad? What do you mean? Where is my mother?"
"I'm sorry, Crystal." He apologized again, staring into her eyes.
Crystal's lips started trembling as she felt like she already had an idea about her mother's situation.
"What happened to my mother?" She asked as she tried hard to suppress her emotion coming out quickly.
Christian never let go of her hands until he got some courage to tell his daughter about what happened to Aya.
"Crystal, your mother is no more." He started.
Biting her lower lip, Crystal sniffs while her eyes keep on pouring tears.
"You remember our island guests?" Referring to those dreadful human beings that stayed in their cabin. Crystal nodded.
"That day, they keep on insisting that your mother is also like you and urge her to show her tail to them." Christian's chest tightens, remembering the horrible moment and how he struggled hard just to save his wife, but he failed.
"The-They throw her into the sea." He finally confessed with his shaky voice as he broke into tears in front of her daughter.
*****
Christian resisted hard as he could to get out from their hold to follow his wife, who was now burning under the seawater while sinking. However, before he could jump, a bullet pierced into his hip as one man shot him.
His blood mixed into the saltwater of the sea, but he did not mind the pain as he was eager to reach his wife. However, getting her out of the water is impossible as they are already kilometers away from the island.
Once again, after a long time, he saw his wife’s siren form again, but his heart aches as he witnessed how she endures the pain of getting burned underwater while a smoke-like reaction covered her body.
He stroked his body harder to reach her, and when he did, he embraced her. Aya's wails are loud underwater as she screams with pain. ChristiaBut her husband let go of her body even though he's already out of breath as he thought it was better to drown with his beloved wife than to survive alone.
Until, unexpectedly, a tremendous and powerful current suddenly came, and the water dragged them. When Christian woke up, they were already on the shore of an unfamiliar place, and beside him was his wife, with her burnt skin all over.
"Aya!" He tried waking her up, but she was not responding.
He also noticed that the seawater did not burn Aya's skin anymore, even though it splashes on her body. However, the damage that was caused earlier stayed on her appearance. Her skin got darker and wrinkled, and her beauty was gone.
Gabriel walked into the water until half of his leg and kneeled.
"Why? We've been good to you. My wife says nothing bad about you. Aya keeps no hatred towards you even though our daughter suffers every day with the curse you gave. She's a siren. She came from you, but how could you do this to her?" He can't keep the hidden emotion anymore as his tears mix into the saltwater of the sea.
"You should have punished me instead, and not my family. You shouldn't have saved me from drowning. You should have let me die." He added as he can't resist the sadness and grief about what happened to his wife, including the troubled feeling of being separated from their daughter.
Suddenly an unusual thing happened in front of his eyes under the clear water. He saw two koi fish with different colors, one with white skin and spots of black while the other had black skin and white spots, swimming in the seawater in circles in each opposite direction. "
"What is this?" He unbelievably mutters with his furrowed eyebrows.
"Chri-Chris-tian." Aya suddenly called him with quivering lips and a shaky voice, which made the man turn his attention to her. However, when I looked back at the water, the incredible fish was gone.
*****
Crystal stayed on the bottom of the pool, shedding pearls as she grieved for her mother's loss. While Christian is in the wheelchair, sitting, waiting for his daughter to come up from the water already.
Before the time of Crystal's transformation, Gabriel also came and took a glance at the siren in the water first before he continued and walked in Christian's direction and kneeled in front of him.
"Sir, I apologized for everything that I have done. But I truly love your daughter, and I am ready to conquer everything to prove that my intention is pure." He puts on every drop of courage he has just to face Crystal's father once again as he confesses his feelings.
"Then why are you apologizing, young man? Do you think that loving my daughter is a mistake?" Christian countered.
"No, sir." He answered with his head bent down.
"Get up and bring Crystal to the dining area after she cleaned up." Christian demands and is about to leave already when Gabriel stops him.
"Sir,"
Christian looks up at him, waiting for what he is about to say.
"I want to marry your daughter." He courageously let out.
"But you are already engaged to someone else, right?" Christian countered with his firm tone and expression.
"Ye-Yes, sir. But I have no feelings for Rachel," he stammered.
"And what makes you think you can decline the arrangement? Are you willing to sacrifice everything, especially the company that your family worked for, for generations?"
Gabriel swallowed.
"About that, sir. I am wondering if you could help me get out of that marriage," he timidly asked, looking down. But Christian only chuckles at him dramatically.
"I see, so you can't." He countered, nodding his head.
"It seems to me that you only want to use my daughter to escape your unfortunate marriage, Mr. Anderson." He added.
"No! I never intend to do that. I love Crystal. That’s why I want to marry her."
"If you love my daughter, then you should have resisted yourself until you solve your problem and wait for her until you guys get married."
Gabriel swallowed several times as he felt he disappointed the man.
'But how could I tell him that, it's Crystal that urged me to claim her that night, plus, how could I resist the seductive temptress on my bed?' He unbelievably thought, looking down as he can't look the man in the eyes.
"We'll talk later after dinner." Christian firmly said and left already.
A few minutes later, Crystal came out of the water and held on to the edge of the pool. Gabriel quickly moves and takes off his shirt, leaving his shorts on, before he jumps and grabs Crystal's arms to wrap around him.
"Gabe, I will never see my mother again." She told him as she nuzzled her face into his chest.
"I'm sorry, love." He responded as he embraced her body tightly, making her feel that he will always be beside her.
After Crystal's switch, Gabriel carried her bridal style and was about to take her inside his room when Jack suddenly appeared and stopped her.
"Sir, Lady Crystal's room is right here." He said and led them to the furthest door in the hall.
"Thank you," he said when Jack opened the door for them.
He carried Crystal straight to the bathroom and helped her clean up.
"Your eyes are badly swollen," Gabriel commented, but Crystal didn't respond, as she was only gawking straight to nowhere.
Gabriel sighed.
Suddenly, Crystal got up from the bathtub and was about to step out when suddenly she felt dizzy and lost her balance.
"Crystal!" Luckily, Gabriel catches her before she falls, and when she's in his arms, her eyes slowly close as she passes out.
- Writer
