When He Liked Others, I’ll Tame Him

Chapter 4

The day after Kaila showed up at the house, Ronan actually bothered to say more than two words to me. It was such a rare occurrence I almost did a double-take.

"Where's my clothes?" He surfaced, water dripping off his shoulders, and called out to me.

I didn't even glance his way. "You've always refused to come out of the tank, anyway. What do you need clothes for?"

His brows furrowed deep, his annoyance plain as day. "I need to get out and take human form now. I've got things to do."

"Oh, too bad. I don't feel like buying you one right now," I said.

He'd never seen me talk to him like this before, so he froze solid for a second. Then, as if I'd just mortally offended his pride, he dove right back under the water and hid.

I hadn't even gotten another word out when Kaila, who'd been sneaking a peek this whole time, came darting into the room. "Sis, why do you have to be so mean to him? It's just a stupid shirt, what's the big deal?"

I turned to look at her, and I couldn't even help a small amused huff. "You're absolutely right. It's just a piece of clothing. Why don't you buy it for him, then?"

He popped right back up out of the water, his eyes lighting up like Christmas lights.

She glanced at him, puffed out her chest, and snapped stubbornly, "Fine! I will buy it. Not everyone is as stingy as you are."

Yep, that's me... I'm the stingy one.

What she didn't bother to remember was that mermen can only wear clothes made of custom shark silk. The cheapest piece starts at two hundred thousand dollars, and you have to replace it after less than a month of wear.

Kaila only gets eighty thousand dollars a month in allowance, total. I couldn't wait to see how she pulled this off.

After all, now that their real daughter was back home, my parents only covered her basic living expenses. Almost all of the family's fortune had already been transferred to my name.

She cared about nothing but snatching everything I had away from me.

Me? For ten years straight, I'd grind day and night, mastering every skill I needed to prove I belonged in this family. On top of what my parents gave me, I'd already built two profitable companies from the ground up with my own hands.

"Kaila, thank you." Ronan circled happily around the tank, then shot me a dismissive, disgusted glance. "You're horrible to me. I'm not going to talk to you for the next two days. When you figure out what you did wrong and apologize to me, I'll think about whether I'll forgive you."

With that, he ducked back behind the seaweed, his big shiny eyes fixed eagerly on Kaila.

She was over the moon with how things went, and she flashed me a smug, triumphant grin, like she'd just won some big prize.

Lord have mercy, one’s a dying fish on his way out, the other is a broke fake heiress. I really couldn't be bothered to waste my energy arguing with either of them.

True to her word, Kaila actually followed through. She sold three of her designer bags just to buy Ronan his new clothes. That’s why when I came back from picking up new merfolk supplies from outside, I couldn’t find him anywhere.

The cleaning lady told me he had left the house with Kaila.

I didn’t care one bit.

With him out of the way, it would be so much easier for me to redo and replace everything in the basement.

Two whole days passed before he finally came back with my stepsister.

Kaila tucked her arm snugly through his and hung off him, her eyes practically glowing with arrogant triumph.

Watching her gloat, all pink-cheeked and triumphant, something finally shifted inside me. My new mermaid would arrive in just one more day, and that experience Jade told me about… I was actually itching to try it.

Ronan flicked a glance at my flushing face, and the corner of his mouth tugged upward before he could stop it.

When his peripheral vision caught the pile of brand-new merfolk supplies stacked in the living room, a satisfied smirk flickered across his face.

"If you’d told me you were replacing these things earlier, I never would’ve left. I’ll forgive you, though, seeing how sincere you are about making up for being rude to me."

I froze. I stared at the pile of luxury supplies scattered across the floor, then at his ankle, dry and flaky from being out of water too long.

It took me a whole second to realize what was going on.

Was this self-absorbed fish actually convinced I’d bought all this new stuff for him?