Dangerous Waters Unexpected Love

He wants me to be his Daughter

Chapter 5

Calissa’s POV

Since I started working at sixteen, I have started taking care of my own needs. Mom didn’t care why I didn’t need her help anymore. She was glad that I was finally not as much of a burden to her anymore. I am honestly wondering how long it is going to take her to realize that I am no longer living in their house. I am sure that it will come as a surprise to them both that their live-in servant is now gone.

They only care about how they look in front of their neighbors. They both drive really nice cars, and they both refuse to take me to school or get me to or from work. I don’t know how they can afford to each have a Mercedes, as neither of them has a high-paying job. Mom is hit or miss with work, but she refuses to help with the housework. My grandmother has been a front desk secretary for over the last 30 years. The cars that they drive do not fit the jobs they have.

I am now the owner of a two-bedroom condo that is right on the beach. It is not even two blocks away from my job, at the pier. I was handed the keys the night of my eighteenth birthday after I finally got my tail. My new home was a gift from my father. My uncle mentioned to me that it was best to stay close to the water. That it will call to me now that I have been unbound. My father made up for all the missed birthdays and then some, in one single purchase. I know how much it cost him to buy it. I looked on the site that he bought it from, and it went for over two million dollars. How much money does my father have that he can throw that type of money around?

My uncle had bought me a vehicle, a Range Rover Velar. I didn’t want to accept it. I hadn’t done anything to have earned that kind of gift. He was my uncle, not my father, and was not responsible for me in any way. He finally talked me into accepting it by telling me that we could share it. We each have a key to it, but I knew that he was just saying that, so I would accept it. The vehicle was fully mine. He has a nice car that he drives when he is in town. It was being stored in a long-term parking area. He was just giving me time to get accustomed to it. I knew that it was how I was going to get to school and back safely, and for me to be able to get groceries.

Uncle Ronan had mentioned that he hadn’t been able to take care of me properly before. He knew that my mother and grandmother were not good to me. He knew that they were abusive. I felt ashamed to know that they had heard how my mother and grandmother spoke to me. It was completely humiliating to me to know that they had overheard it. He had mentioned that he and some of the warriors from the kingdom had taken turns to come to watch over me, for the last year, as I walked home in the dark. They wanted to make sure that I made it home safely. He wanted to take me away a lot sooner, he just couldn’t do it.

My powers had been bound by my father until I was eighteen. Both my uncle and father knew that I would have to live under my mother’s thumb until that time. That is why my uncle showed up when he did. They have saved me from having to live with them anymore. No matter what happened, I was thankful for what he had given me. I moved out while they were both at work on Monday. I didn’t have much to do when I moved out. We left all my secondhand furniture. We waited for my new furniture to arrive before I moved in. I felt so much safer living in my little condo than I ever felt living in my grandparents' home. Especially after my grandfather passed away. Both my mother and grandmother had explosive tempers. You never know what was going to set them off. My uncle and Asherah had gone with me to get towels, linens, and blankets to be able to set up the bedrooms. They also get me set up and stocked in both my bathroom and in my kitchen.

My uncle told me not to worry about the cost of it. He paid for insurance on the condo and my Range Rover for a year. He also bought the condo next door to mine. They set it up at the same time we got the items for mine. That way he and his children have a place to stay. I told him that Asherah always had a place with me in my second bedroom. He just smiled and said that he had a big family and that we would need a lot of room. His condo has three bedrooms in it. Asherah has already told me that she would indeed be staying with me at my condo when they do come to visit. We have become fast friends, and she is like the sister I never had.

One of the companies that my father and uncle own has several boats in their fleet. They own a scavenging business. They have the bulk of their boats working off the East coast, down into the Gulf of Mexico. I never knew the number of ships that had sunk off the coast of America during their journeys. They ended up losing a great deal of the gold and jewels that they were carrying on these expeditions when they sank. They have some boats here on the West Coast area as well. From Washington State down to the bottom of California, they worked in this area too. They worked down to South America and over to the Hawaiian islands.

That business has brought in a lot of money to help in the different kingdoms. Some of the money is used for donating to the Atlantis kingdom as theirs is the very largest. The items found by the South American crew stay with their kingdom, as they are in it together as the North and South American kingdom, including both Canada and Russia in it now as well. There were not enough mermaids in the colder climates to warrant having a kingdom there anymore. I was told that they both used to be part of the Antarctic kingdom. Their numbers dwindled a lot as some moved to Atlantis and other kingdoms, due to global warming. Leaving less than 400 members for the former kingdom.

The items that are found around the Hawaiian islands go to help their kingdom, which includes all the South Seas, as well as Australia. The European kingdom, which includes the British Isles, Ireland, and then extends past Greece. There is an African and Indian kingdom, and a Far East kingdom as well. The inventions that each kingdom comes up with are shared between the kingdoms to help improve the Merpeople as a whole. Anything that makes things easier for us is greatly appreciated, I am told. If it needs to be patented, it goes through the North and South American kingdom. The money from it is funneled back into the kingdom that it came from to help them progress.

Each kingdom has a highly lucrative scavenging business, with several side businesses that help to make sure its people are cared for properly. The one my father started is the most profitable and safest for all the Merpeople. He paved the way for each kingdom to have its own operations. They drop the nets down to rest on the ocean floor. Then the Merpeople swim around and find the items that they are going to take on that particular run. The number of artifacts alone that are being sold to museums is astronomical enough. The artifacts are never placed inside the net. They are swum up to the surface and handed directly off to someone on the boat to be able to preserve them from being broken or damaged.

Add in the other items, and you have a billion-dollar business. It isn’t their only business. They have created numerous things throughout the years to make their life easier. They hold patents on all of them. They have companies that have worked with them for over a hundred years and have excellent relationships with them. My uncle assured me that they have enough money for several lifetimes. He reminded me that I was entitled to some of that money too, and to accept the gifts for what they were worth. It was an apology from them both, because of what I had suffered. The fact that my father wanted me, and wanted to give me a safe home, was the most incredible gift that I have ever received.

My uncle told me that my dad had never wanted to leave me. He did want me, but he had already bound my powers before my mother started clowning. When my mother decided to give him that ultimatum, his hands were completely tied at that point. He just didn’t want to argue with my mother about it anymore. He assumed that she was going to threaten him when he returned, due to him not giving her his last name. She told him that he couldn’t leave her again after I was born, but he had a pressing matter to deal with that day. She never knew he was a Merman. No one knew.

He couldn’t bring me home to his kingdom until I was able to get my powers and change for the journey to go visit him. I also needed to have some training under my belt before I could be introduced as his daughter. He was trying his very best to protect me. I didn’t hate him for leaving me anymore. I finally understood why he couldn’t be with my mom how she wanted him to be. He already had a family. His path had been decided for him when he was born. He had no way out of it. Doris insisted that the contract between their families be carried out. Her family was highly ranked and very powerful. The choice was taken out of his hands, and he had been forced to take Doris as his wife.