He Crushed My Hearing Aid to Keep Me, Not Knowing I Just Heard His Confession Chapter 03

He Crushed My Hearing Aid to Keep Me, Not Knowing I Just Heard His Confession Chapter 03

The ground fell out from under me.

A cold gust hit my face. I hunched into it and blinked hard, refusing to let the sting behind my eyes win. I couldn’t even afford to fall apart right now.

A hand closed over my shoulder.

Silas. I turned around. “Who are you texting?” he asked, his lips moving.

I pointed to my ear. He switched to sign language — same question, slower this time.

“My teacher,” I signed back. He nodded.

But his eyes stayed on my phone.

I didn’t say another word to him that night. Just being in the same room hurt too much.

The class group chat blew up that night — everyone buzzing about summer plans, college prep, what came next. Only Blair brought up my name.

[So apparently Clara skipped the English exam?? That’s so sad. I guess I’ll just have to go to Alden without her this year]

[No parents, no exam score… what’s the plan now, Clara?]

What was the plan? I had no idea.

I didn’t sleep that night. The next morning, I stepped outside my house — and walked straight into Silas and Blair.

I tried to go around them. Blair caught me in a hug before I could.

“So, Silas and I were talking, and we found this really good test-prep program — you could retake the exam next year.” She squeezed my arm. “What do you think?”

I looked past her, straight at Silas — the one who’d set all of this in motion. He signed Blair’s offer back to me, word for word.

I shook my head. Retaking the exam was the last thing on my mind.

I had more important things to deal with first.

Silas moved — fast and sharp, shoving me sideways to pull Blair behind him. I stumbled off the curb and hit the pavement.

His face drained of color. He sprinted toward me.

The edges of my vision went dark. The last thing I saw was his face fall apart — something raw and guilty tearing through it.

His thoughts poured in before everything went black.

“Oh God, she’s bleeding. My baby’s bleeding. That has to hurt so much.”

“She’s looking at me like that — is she jealous I didn’t shield her? Don’t worry, baby. From now on, it’s only you. Only ever you.”

I bit down on the inside of my cheek and dragged myself upright.

Both knees were scraped raw. My elbows too — raw and bright red against the gritty asphalt.

I stared at the mess of my knees, not really seeing them. Something flickered across Silas’s face — then he tossed two Band-Aids at my feet like loose change.

“Clean yourself up. And don’t try to pin this on Blair.”

I left the Band-Aids on the ground and walked away.

I patched myself up at home. That’s when my teacher’s message came through.

[Clara.]

Nothing else. Just the typing indicator, blinking on and off. I stared at her name on the screen and waited.

[It’s okay. Just tell me.]

A long pause. Then three voice messages came through, auto-transcribing on my screen one after another.

[Silas filed a cheating report against you with the administration. He’s saying you cheated on the English exam.]

[I know you didn’t cheat. But here’s the thing — someone also filed an anonymous report against Blair.]

[The school buried Blair’s report because of her grades, so…]

I cut her off before she could finish.

[So they’ll investigate me but not her.]

[They’re not even going to look into it, are they?]

I could tell she wanted to say more. When the next message came, even the transcript felt soaked with tears.

[Clara, I know this isn’t fair. I fought for you — I pushed as hard as I could.]

[There was nothing more I could do.]

I closed the chat.

I lay on my back and stared at the ceiling. My mind was white noise.

Silas’s name lit up my screen.

[Did you report Blair to the administration?]