"What?" she managed to gasp, incredulity gripping her as she struggled to process the implications of Helga's statement.
"It's true," Helga insisted, her eyes wide with intensity.
"Our investigation revealed that the eldest daughter of the second aunt and her husband, that young mer, have a child. It's a mer child." Each word felt like a heavy stone, dropping into the silence between them.
Esme instinctively covered her mouth with her hands, her heart pounding in her chest. This couldn't be real.
The tangled web of scandals only grew thicker, suffocating her with its implications. How could it possibly get worse? She shook her head in disbelief, feeling as if she were in the midst of a surreal nightmare.
First, her second aunt had married a man who was her daughter's lover, an act that shattered every norm of decency.
