Read Of Poseidon 02: Of Triton for Free Online Page A

points?”
    I swirl a fry in the mound of ketchup on my plate. “You want cool points for pulling a gun on my father?” I say it with all the appropriate disdain and condescension it deserves, but deep down, we both know she gets mega cool points for it.
    “Psh.” She waves her hand. “I didn’t even know whether or not it would fire. And anyway, he didn’t hand me his wallet. He propositioned me instead.”
    “Okay. Ew.”
    “Not like that, you brat. He said he’d seen my kind once before. In Alaska, swimming under the ice. He never told anyone, because he was sure they wouldn’t believe him. He asked if I’d let him study me. He said he was going to school to be a human doctor. He said he’d give me a place to stay, and he’d pay me.”
    “An exchange. Kind of like Dr. Milligan and Galen.”
    “Who?”
    “Oh,” I say. “Dr. Milligan is a marine biologist who works at the Gulfarium in Florida.”
    Mom raises her brow. “That trip you took to visit Galen’s dying grandmother? That was to see Dr. Milligan?”
    I nod, not bothering to hide my cringe.
    Mom sets her fork down. “Exactly how much does that man know about us?”
    “Everything. But you don’t need to worry about it. He’s known Galen for years.”
    “Oh?”
    I roll my eyes, unwilling to let go of this juicy story in favor of fighting over Galen’s trustworthiness. Besides, she’s being a hypocrite. She trusted a human—my dad—so why can’t Galen trust Dr. Milligan? “So … it wasn’t love at first sight then? With Dad? You fell in love later?” I don’t know why I feel disappointed. I don’t even believe in love at first sight. Except where it applies to my parents being perfect for each other. And anyways, isn’t that a kind of child-myth that all kids want to believe?
    “Sweetie … It was never love.”
    Screw disappointment. Now I feel gut-kicked. “What do you mean? But you had to … Then how did I…?”
    Mom sighs. “You were … the result of a moment of … weakness on my part.” But she takes too long to choose her words. I wonder what she thought of first, instead of “weakness.” Pity? Stupidity? She dabs her napkin at some imaginary syrup at the corner of her mouth. “The only weak moment we ever had, which is kind of extraordinary. Not that I regret it at all,” she says quickly. “I wouldn’t trade you for anything. You know that, right?”
    I wonder if “I wouldn’t trade you for anything” is also a child-myth. “So I was an accident. Not even the normal kind of accident. Like, a one-night stand, or a oops-I-didn’t-take-my-pill accident. I was an oops-I-accidentally-mated-with-my-fish-experiment accident.” I put my head in my hands. “Lovely.”
    “That man loved you, Emma, from the moment you were born. He’d be very upset to hear you talking like that right now. Frankly, I am, too. I was not some experiment.”
    I bite my lip. “I know. It’s just … a lot, don’t you think?”
    “That’s why we’re going to have two pieces of strawberry pie, Agnes,” Mom says, her voice strained.
    I pull my stricken face from my hands and force it to smile. “Yes, please,” I say. I’m beginning to think Agnes isn’t a waitress for financial gain. I think she needs gossip to thrive. There’s no way a normal waitress would be or should be this attentive.
    “Stop feeling sorry for yourself,” Mom chides when Agnes leaves. “Your father and I were very good friends.”
    “This is so weird.” It hurts my feelings on behalf of my dad, which is stupid, because according to Mom, Dad was aware of all this friendship crap. And apparently, he was okay with it. “Did you ever tell Dad about Grom?”
    “I told him everything. He always thought I should go back. Try to straighten things out. But after you were born, he changed his mind. He didn’t want to risk them keeping me, or finding out about you and coming to get you.”
    We stop talking then. Maybe because I’ve met my threshold for