Mothers of the Missing Mermaid

Bea's mother, Kate, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

But that's not the biggest news Bea heard that day.

When they return home, Kate makes a shocking confession.

She is not Bea's birth mother.

For the past 18 years, Bea had no idea that the life they'd built in Destin, Florida was actually a refuge from those who could be looking for them.

The story jets back to the early 1970s when Kate first walked the white sugar sand beaches with a 2-year-old Bea and hardly a penny to her name. Kate was forced to make difficult choices in order to ensure their survival.

At that time, Destin was a sleepy little fishing village and as Bea grew, the community around them developed into the hottest vacation spot in the South.

Kate's breast cancer along with the realization that her life was a lie motivates Bea to search for the truth about her birth parents. Torn between her responsibilities to her ill mother and a desperate need to understand why Kate stole her as a baby, she packs her car and drives north to Kate's last-known address in Southern Illinois. Far away from everything she knows, she introduces herself to the group of strangers who are her birth family. While there, she tries to understand why Kate would flee with her while also trying to protect the only mother she has ever known.