The Little Mermaid Won't Be Lonely

It was after she finished reading The Little Mermaid as a child that the fairy tale began to unfold: her mother died, her stepmother moved in, and she stayed mute and withdrawn until the day she was forced to leave home and met that boy beneath the moonlight. He softly said, "Hi." With a beginning so much like the story, could the ending be different? After all, the Little Mermaid would eventually find happiness...