In a glamorous era of new money when fortunes were made overnight, hers was a success story that outshone the others. She'd inherited some money from her businessman father, which she invested in farfetched ventures that all her friends and family were sure were never going to take off. Instead, with the rapid advancement of technology, they each became wildly successful, catapulting her into the upper echelons of moneyed society.
With so much wealth at her personal disposal, it was no surprise she developed some eccentric hobbies. Her pride and joy was the menagerie she built at her palatial estate. She quested far and wide in search of the rarest and most colorful creatures she could find. She had jewel-feathered birds and large cats with dappled coats, reptiles that slithered and crawled across the pebbled paths of their enclosures. But her favorite creature of all was the merman she bought off a trader in the South Seas.
He was, quite simply, the most breathtaking, exquisite being she had ever laid eyes on. With shimmering turquoise eyes and shell pink lips, it seemed impossible that he should exist in this mortal plane...but exist he did, and he was all hers. She had the paperwork to prove it.
She kept him in a large saltwater pool at the foot of her grand staircase. He had an ornamented dais where she had him sit and sing during her parties, and all her guests marveled at the crystalline beauty of his voice. They couldn't understand his language or the stories behind his music, but that didn't matter: he was simply there to look at and enjoy. Her girlfriends were fiercely envious, but no matter how hard they searched, it seemed like there was none other quite like him.