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Reborn to Steal My Mafia Husband's Mermaid
Novelix
Completed
I died alone in my mafia husband’s basement, then woke up on the day he captured a beautiful merfolk. Matteo planned to make the creature choose a female form and become his perfect woman. Disguised as a maid, I earned the captive’s trust and promised him freedom. But when the full moon triggered the Choosing, my husband didn’t get the mermaid he expected—he got a powerful man determined to protect me. Now Matteo wants revenge, my mother is being poisoned, and I’m ready to destroy everyone who betrayed us.
Chapters (2)
第1章
I was reborn.
I had come back to the day my mafia husband brought a merfolk home—the day my life was ruined.
Memories of my past life flashed rapidly before my eyes.
My mother’s death. The merfolk taking a woman’s form. My family business destroyed. My final days alone in the basement…
My eyes filled with rage. I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms until they drew blood.
“Everyone, keep a close eye on my beautiful mermaid. No one is allowed near her. Do you hear me?” Matteo’s voice rang out.
The servants lowered their heads.
"Yes, Mr. Bellucci."
My consciousness returned to the present.
Now was not yet the right time for revenge.
From the balcony, I watched the silver-blue mermaid from afar.
In my previous life, my husband had made the captive merfolk trust him before the full moon. During the Choosing, it had taken a female human form and bound itself to him for life. This time, I would not let Matteo control that choice.
I would become the person he trusted, and when the full moon came, Matteo would not get the woman he had already decided to own.
I took off my glasses, hid my pale hair beneath a plain black wig, darkened my brows, and changed into a maid’s uniform. Then I went to the kitchen for the freshest salmon before making my way to the open-air saltwater pool where the merfolk was being guarded.
My husband had taken one look at the merfolk’s beauty and could not bear to hide him in a laboratory. Instead, he had chained him inside this open-air pool.
Which suited me perfectly.
“Hey, time to eat.”
I set the food down by the edge of the pond.
“Where are you? Where did you go? Come eat some fresh salmon.”
Suddenly, a hand shot out of the water and clamped around my throat. A voice that sounded neither male nor female came from the water.
“Let me go.”
“I… I can’t let you go. You don’t even have legs yet. You can’t leave.”
“Then once I become human, will you let me go?”
“I… I don’t know. I’m only a servant. The entire estate is under the Don’s control. I don’t have the keys…”
He released his grip on my throat, flicked his fishtail across my face, and said, “Get lost!”
I crawled out of the pond and pushed the salmon toward him. “You should eat something. The salmon is fresh. You’ll probably like it.”
I returned to my room in my soaked clothes. Maria helped me remove the black wig and hurried to find something dry for me to wear.
“Ma’am, if the Don finds out what you’re doing, he’ll kill us.”
“Don’t worry. He won’t find out. Do you think there’s a big difference between me with glasses and me without them?”
I dried my hair and gave Maria a radiant smile.
“Wow, Ma’am, you really are beautiful without your glasses. I almost didn’t recognize you.”
“See? Even you couldn’t tell. Let alone anyone else. Besides, I have other arrangements.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
That night, I brought the merfolk fresh salmon again. This time, the kitchen had prepared it as salmon sushi.
The moment he saw me, he swam into the water and hid.
“Do you want to try how human chefs prepare it? This is a dish from a country near the Bering Sea. It’s called salmon sushi. It’s very good. Try some.”
He remained unmoved.
“If you don’t want to eat this, then what would you like? Shrimp? Crab? Octopus? Or kelp? Whatever you want to eat, you can tell me. I’ll find a way to bring it to you. Otherwise, the Don will blame me.”
His head suddenly broke the surface. A pair of dark blue eyes stared at me, his skin shimmering with tiny flecks of light beneath the moon.
“Stop talking and disturbing me. Eat all of this yourself, then say I ate it.”
“I can’t do that. I’m only a maid. I’m not worthy of eating something this good. If anyone finds out, I’ll be beaten to death.”
“Then starve.”
He was about to swim away when I called out to him.
“Wait. This is for you. It’s a conch shell I picked up by the sea. If you hold it close to your ear, you can hear your homeland.”
He froze for a moment, then swam away.
I placed the conch shell beside the pond.
Then I left.
Back in my room, I went through every book I could find about mermaids.
North Sea merfolk lived in the cleanest waters and fed on unpolluted deep-sea fish. They disliked harsh sunlight. Their tears hardened into pearls. At adulthood, under a full moon, they completed the Choosing: they chose a sex and, sometimes, a mate. The sex they chose could never be changed, but they remained merfolk—able to breathe beneath the sea and walk on land. A chosen mate, however, was for life. Adult merfolk were also said to carry power in their voices.
Only then did I understand. In my previous life, after the merfolk chose a female form, she had stayed by Matteo’s side and done anything he asked.
She had chosen him as her mate, and Matteo had used that bond like another chain.
In this life, I would not let the same thing happen again.
“Charlotte, are you asleep?” Matteo appeared outside my bedroom door.
I immediately shut my computer and put on my gold-rimmed glasses.
“What brings you here today, Matteo?”
“There’s something I need to discuss with you.”
“What is it?”
第2章
“The R&D team is running short on funds.”
“Oh? How much do they need?”
“Three million dollars.”
“Three million? That’s quite an appetite, darling. I just transferred two million dollars into the R&D team’s account last month. They’ve spent it already?”
“The last round of funding was used to search for the mermaid. Look—the mermaid in the pond is meant to treat your mother’s illness. As long as that fish is alive, your mother still has hope.”
He said it with complete sincerity.
If I hadn’t been reborn, I probably would have believed his performance all over again.
“The Whitmore family is wealthy enough to rival a nation. A mere three million dollars is nothing to your family.”
Now that I had been reborn, there was no way I would give him cash again. Because I knew that every dollar transferred to the R&D team had ended up in the pockets of his Bellucci family.
“Ordinarily, it wouldn’t be much. But half a month ago, a shipment my family was sending to India ran into an extreme storm and capsized in the Pacific. The entire cargo and all personnel sank to the bottom of the sea. We paid out an enormous amount in compensation.”
“How did I not know about this?” he roared furiously.
“I suppressed the news. Imagine what would happen if the whole world found out. Whitmore Group’s stock would plunge to rock bottom. By then, forget three million dollars—we wouldn’t even be able to take out one million.”
I spoke with righteous conviction.
When it came to business acumen, Matteo truly couldn’t compare to me.
As for his position as a mafia Don—without his marriage alliance with me, he would be nothing.
“Besides, I’m Mrs. Bellucci now, not Miss Whitmore. Do you really think my father would give me that much money?”
He flew into a rage at once and grabbed me by the throat.
“Charlotte, I’m beginning to find you more and more disobedient. The Whitmore and Bellucci families are in the same boat. Besides, this money is meant for your mother’s medical R&D team. If your mother ends up critically ill, don’t regret it then. You should understand that much.”
I glared at him.
Back then, he was the one who said he could find a medical team to treat my mother specifically, and that he would protect my family’s business from the persecution of other mafia families. He had also promised that within a year of our marriage, my mother’s condition would improve.
But now, three years had passed since we got married, and he was still using insufficient research funding as an excuse to ask me for money.
In my previous life, I had believed his lies again and again, emptying out all my savings, yet my mother had never gotten any better.
“I understand. I’ll find a way to ask my father for it.”
With that, he left my bedroom.
The next morning, the Bellucci estate came alive with activity.
Everyone treated the captive in the pool as a priceless asset.
I watched it all from the balcony on the second floor.
In my previous life, I had watched from this balcony as Matteo claimed the woman Neris became.
Matteo did not love anything he could not control.
That was his greatest weakness.
So this time, I would give him something he could never control.
At midnight, during the gap between the servants’ shifts, there was a blind spot in the surveillance cameras near the garden pool.
I had learned every corner of this house as Matteo’s prisoner.
I changed into a simple black maid’s uniform, covered my hair with the same black wig, darkened my brows, and removed my glasses and jewelry.
Charlotte Whitmore disappeared.
Lily appeared.
The Bellucci guards saw only another young maid carrying food toward the fountain.
That was exactly what I wanted.
When I reached the edge of the pool, the merfolk immediately opened his eyes.
His gaze was sharp.
“You again.”
His voice was hoarse.
I stopped.
“You remember me?”
“I remember everyone who brings me food and keeps me trapped.”
His words were colder than I had imagined.
I set the tray down by the pool.
“Eat.”
He looked at the food.
Then he looked back at me.
“Why?”
“Because you need strength.”
“Strength to stay here?”
I looked away.
“No.”
“Strength to leave.”
For the first time, his expression changed.
“You can help me leave?”
Good.
I had heard the question I wanted.
“Not today.”
His face hardened.
“Then you’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
I took a step closer.
“I’m telling the truth.”
I looked at the chains around the pool.
“Right now, you don’t have legs.”
His gaze lowered.
“You can’t walk.”
“If you escape now, Matteo’s men will hunt you down.”
I paused.
“But after the full moon…”
I met his eyes.
“When you complete your choice and become who you are meant to become…”
“Then I will take you away.”
He stared at me for a long time.
“Why?”
The answer was simple.
But I couldn’t tell him the truth.
“Because you belong to the sea, not to the mafia. The sea is your home. I want to send you home.”
“And you? Do you want to go home?”
“Yes. But I don’t have a home anymore.”
As I spoke, tears fell from my eyes.
A flicker of light passed through his eyes.
Perhaps surprise.
Perhaps hope.
He looked away.
“I don’t trust humans.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you still here?”
I picked up the empty tray.
“Because you don’t have to trust me today.”
I turned to leave.
“Just remember my promise.”
Before I could go, his voice stopped me.
“What’s your name?”
I froze.
The answer had already been prepared.
“Lily.”
I took one step, then looked back.
“And yours?”
He hesitated, as if giving me his name was more dangerous than taking food from me.
“Neris.”
