Sophie wrung her fingers and tapped her foot against the smooth white tiles along the floor. She listened to the steady beeping of the heart monitor, followed by the whirring puffs of the oxygen and life support. The more she listened, the tighter her jaw clenched until her teeth creaked. She bowed her head and chewed her lip in an effort to keep the tears at bay. Her disheveled curls hung in her face, pulling out of the hasty ponytail she’d dragged them up into. Was it a day ago? Two? She no longer remembered.

She glanced up again at Katie’s pale face. Her cheeks looked sunken in, and she seemed so tiny and frail with the large face mask and wires stuck to her. After that first day that Carlos had begun treating her, Katie declined rapidly. They couldn’t keep her cough at bay and her throat swelled up enough that she couldn’t breathe.

Dr. Seaton had put her in an induced coma to keep her stress levels down and she was now fully dependent on the machines surrounding the medical gurney she was stretched out on.

Tears stung in Sophie’s gaze as she reached out a shaky hand and gently brushed some stray hairs off her daughter’s face. She cupped Katie’s limp digits in her own and squeezed them softly. “How did we get here, Katie?” she whispered brokenly.

Sophie had spent several nights sitting in a chair beside a hospital bed just like this one. Katie had more than her fair share of scrapes, broken bones and severe cases of the bends had landed her a few different overnight stays at the hospital. Despite often times assuring her that she was fine, Sophie would never have left Katie’s side then either. But it all felt different this time. Katie wasn’t just staying for observation or in recovery. This was a final desperate gamble.

She had thought she had already shed all the tears she could, and yet another pair leaked from her eyes to trail down her cheeks. When Carlos had first put her into the coma, he had expressed the risks to her. Katie could not survive like this for long. Her body might recover, if they found a cure to her unknown condition in time, but too long in the induced coma – with how frail she already was – and she may never recover mentally. It destroyed Sophie to know her daughter may never wake from the forced slumber, but it broke her heart even more to imagine her hazel eyes opening, but never actually seeing or registering things again.

It had been a hard choice to make, but the alternative would have been to let her die that night, and despite how Katie had previously begged her to let go, Sophie couldn’t bring herself to do that. She couldn’t give up on her daughter, not when Katie was still so young, still had so much to live for. Not when she had promised Michael she would take care of his little girl.

She had made the promise physically to him, one night when Katie was still just a baby. They had gone out to celebrate his birthday and when Roxanne had stepped away to use the washroom, Michael had pulled her aside and insisted that if anything ever happened to him, she needed to be there for Katie. He hadn’t been certain back then that Roxanne would step up to the plate.

At the time, Sophie had brushed it off as him having one too many to drink, but she had promised him and she had meant it when she said it, even though she never imagined she would have to keep the promise.

Later, when Katie came to live with her, she made the promise again. That time, it had been to him in spirit more than anything. She had vowed to herself that Katie would always come first, that she would do everything in her power to ensure Katie’s health, happiness, and general well-being.

That was part of what made it so hard now. Sophie felt backed into a corner about keeping that promise no matter which choice she made. On one hand, if she didn’t act, Katie was going to die. But the other option not only risked Katie’s freedom and happiness, but directly defied a wish Sophie knew was not simply made in delirium.

She was forced to wrestle with the decision, and the dilemma of whether she was making the choice for Katie, or for herself because she wasn’t prepared to lose her daughter a second time.

She glanced around the room once more. She was back at the marine park. Dr. Seaton had come and helped her get Katie set up on life support, but after that she had sent him away. She didn’t want to get him any more tangled up than he already was.

It felt fitting that it would go down here. Katie had grown up here, had felt safe and loved and cared for. Sophie preferred their new beach house home to the tiny apartment because she knew it was what Katie had needed most now, but there was too much nostalgia and too many memories associated with this place to deny that it was still home.

But being here didn’t make the choice any easier for Sophie. She sighed and bowed her head once more as she fingered the burner phone Lukshia had acquired for her. She was alone now; it was just her and Katie, just like how things had started out all those years ago. She had left Luna behind with Lewis and she knew he would keep the little girl safe; she wouldn’t have to suffer if things went wrong. She would have felt better if Lukshia had stayed with them, but the woman expressed needing to deal with something else and Sophie had been in too much of a state to press for details.

As she played with it, the phone’s screen lit up, displaying the date and time against a blank screen. As she stared at it, Sophie’s vision blurred with tears that began to make steady tracks down her cheeks. She sniffled helplessly and dragged her shirtsleeve under her nose. Then her fingers clenched into a fist and she gritted her teeth. It wasn’t allowed to happen like this. Not now, of all times. She couldn’t just sit back and quit on her daughter, no matter what the other risks were. They would deal with the hurdles as they came, like they always had.

She swiped on the screen to unlock it and practically mashed the contacts icon. There were only a few numbers programmed into the phone, and the one she wanted was one she had needed to look up.

Sophie hesitated as she stared at it, but she had already made her choice. Closing her eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath, she pressed call and raised the mobile device to her ear as it began to ring.

There was a click as the call connected, and then a cheery receptionist voice was greeting her on the other end. “Good morning. Lemuria Aquariums, Rachel speaking. How may I help you today?”

Sophie’s voice lodged in her throat and as she tried to speak, only a soft croak escaped. She cleared her throat quickly and apologized. “I need to speak with a Dr. Auldon, please,” she requested.

There was a brief moment of silence before the receptionist replied. “Oh, I’m sorry. Dr. Auldon is currently unavailable. Can I take a message for you?”

Sophie’s breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t just leave a message. “It’s actually rather urgent,” she pressed. “Do you know when he will be back?”

“Not for a few days, I’m afraid,” the woman responded.

Sophie gritted her teeth again and tried to swallow back a curse. It wouldn’t come across as overly professional. “Do you have another number I could reach him at? Like I said, it’s really rather urgent and can’t wait that long. He’ll want to talk to me.”

“Who is this?” the receptionist queried. She thankfully didn’t sound suspicious. If anything, her sigh was reserved, like she dealt with this a lot.

“Sophie Brooks,” Sophie introduced.

“One moment please.” There was another click and then hold music began to play through the line. Sophie’s fingers tensed around the device as her heart rate increased. Despite having made her choice – it was certainly too late to back out now – she could not help second guessing herself. She could be condemning Katie to a fate easily worse than death, and she was also not certain she was ready to speak to the man who had caused so much pain in the first place.

Her worrying was cut short as the hold music stopped and the line began to ring again. It was an agonizing few seconds before someone picked up the phone once more. For a split second, Sophie was greeting with nothing but a heavy breath of air before the man began to speak. “Miss Brooks,” he greeted. He sounded older – his voice a little on the gruff side – and immediately Sophie began to loathe him. “I must say, this really is a bit of a surprise. I never would have expected you of all people to reach out to me. Are you quite ready to end this little game of hide and seek of ours? It’s been fun, but I really do need be getting our assets back home.”

Sophie’s hands were shaking as she listened to his care-free tone while she was drowning in the sounds of the medical equipment and Katie’s haggard breathing. It wasn’t even her breathing, it was a machine doing it for her. “You bastard,” she choked while more tears stung in her eyes.

“That feels a little uncalled for, Miss Brooks. I understand you’re very passionate about the situation, but you are harboring stolen property. I could be sending all sorts of legal interventions and lawsuits your way, but I feel that we can sort this out like adults without having to take extreme measures,” he chastised. The more he spoke, the more hatred bubbled up in Sophie, festering like an infected wound. She despised his very existence. Everything he had done to Katie was inexcusable, and now he was taking a seat on a high horse like he was the victimized party.

“That stolen property happens to be my daughter,” she hissed through clenched teeth.

“Perhaps once,” Dr. Auldon conceded. “It does beg the question as to the purpose of your call. I would not have expected you to get in contact. All things considered, you’re ahead in our little race, huddled up in some hidey hole for the moment. Why poke your nose out now?”

“She’s sick,” Sophie whispered.

“Who, Katherine? Ah yes, I do believe I remember hearing something about her catching a cold before you wrecked that lovely present of yours. What a shame, really. It was very beautiful and very expensive. Your daughter clearly put a lot of thought and effort into it. That little engraving was really quite sweet too. Very touching and very appropriate. It’s a shame you felt the need to destroy it. But surely that is not the reason you’re calling? I trust you can handle a case of the sniffles.”

As he spoke, Sophie felt her outrage bubble over and she stood abruptly from her chair. It slid back, scraping noisily against the floor. “She’s dying, you heartless bastard,” she snarled.

“Come now, Miss Brooks, that seems a little dramatic all things considered.”

“She’s dying,” Sophie repeated, her voice a terse hiss. She thrust the phone out close to the heart monitor and then pulled it back to her ear. “Do you hear that? She’s on life support. Put in an induced coma, with a machine breathing for her. She’s on IV because she hasn’t kept anything down in over two weeks, she can’t breathe on her own, and she’s lost nearly all of her scales. She deteriorates if we leave her out of the water, but nearly drowns when we put her in it because her gills aren’t working any longer. And no matter how much bloodwork we do, no matter what we try, we can’t even isolate a source!” she was screaming now, tears streaking down her cheeks as she broke off in a sob. “Is that what you want? For her to die? What happens to your precious experiment then? To your little side-show attraction? You know she’s still human, right? Still a girl with a life, with hopes and dreams that you tore to shreds without a second care?”

There was silence on the other end for a moment. “That level of deterioration…there should be no reason for it,” Dr. Auldon mused. “I won’t be able to say for certain without seeing for myself.”

“Hence my call,” Sophie growled. “I can’t move her. If I unplug any of these machines, she dies. You’ll have to come to me, and you’ll have to do it fast. I don’t know how much…how much longer she’s going to last. Her-” Sophie broke off and covered her mouth to smother the pained whine that was building in her throat. “Her heart has stalled once already.”

That had been terrible. The droning siren of the heart monitor as it flatlined would haunt Sophie’s nightmares for years to come, she knew. It was a horrible feeling; standing helplessly off to the side while someone else tried desperately to restart the heartbeat of someone she loved.

“And where are you, Miss Brooks?” Dr. Auldon inquired after another minute of silence.

“At the marine park,” Sophie revealed, though her heart squeezed as she spoke. She ran a hand through her hair to shove it out of her face again. “I’d recommend you come alone; a large entourage would not go unnoticed around here.”

“Well planned,” Dr. Auldon responded dryly.

“She’s my daughter,” Sophie repeated firmly. “No matter what you did to her in that place, you were never going to be able to change that. Did you think I was just going to give in and let you drag her back there?”

“No,” Dr. Auldon agreed. “But that’s a dangerous game to play, Miss Brooks. I represent some very powerful people who are incredibly invested in the safe return of our mermaids. Are you certain you want to get more tangled up in this mess than you already are?”

Sophie grimaced. She had a feeling that was coming, but she would brave the consequences willingly. She would do anything for Katie. “You know where I am, Dr. Auldon, and you know how dire the situation is. I’m prepared to play the game, but I’m done doing it by your rules. It’s your move,” she countered.

Again, there was an infuriating delay before the man spoke again. “I can be there in just over an hour,” he decided finally. After he finished speaking, the line went dead and Sophie was left with nothing more than the dead dial tone before her phone cut the call as well.

She whimpered and then buried her face in her hands. He was already in Australia. He’d come down to personally recollect them and they had clearly only just made it out of the house in time. Genuine terror flooded Sophie’s veins at the knowledge that she might lose Katie to these people all over again.

She glanced at the phone one last time, and at the shining date and time. She had made her choice, nothing could change that now. She’d had to make it. They had taken Katie just after her sixteenth birthday. It was meant to be a special year and instead her daughter had to go through hell, and had to do it virtually alone for a long time. Sophie couldn’t let her die now, not like this. Seventeen had to be a better year, it just had to be.

She glanced at the date again. February twelfth. Her heart cracked. Several years ago, this was the day the brightest light in Sophie’s life came into the world. It had been into another’s arms, but by this point, Sophie could almost convince herself it was her own. She could picture holding Katie as a tiny infant and promising to love and protect her always. She needed to do that now, no matter what.

She rose from her seat and bent over her daughter to press her lips to her warm, fevered forehead. “This is some rotten birthday, sweetheart,” she whispered, feeling her voice crack. “Please be okay. You can’t not celebrate seventeen. You’re only one year off from being an adult. Where did all that time go? I wish you’d stayed little forever, but I’d trade all the wishes in the world for you to open your eyes and get better.” And Sophie knew she would. She would trade anything, everything, in a heartbeat if it meant Katie could live a happy and healthy life, free from the terrors that haunted the past year of her life. “Happy Birthday, Katie.”

Even as she said it, Sophie burst back into tears and heavy sobs.