He Crushed My Hearing Aid to Keep Me, Not Knowing I Just Heard His Confession Chapter 06

He Crushed My Hearing Aid to Keep Me, Not Knowing I Just Heard His Confession Chapter 06

I flinched back. He’d found me already.

I shook my head, barely managing even that. His thoughts crept in again – dark, circling, pressing

down.

“Why is she scared of me? She shouldn’t be scared of me.”

“She’s the one who called me her best friend. Her only one.”

“So why is she looking at me like that?”

I forced my breathing to even out.

“Silas, do you have any idea how much hearing aids cost?”

He waved me off – like the number couldn’t possibly matter.

Right. To him, it was nothing.

My dad poured three months of construction work into my first pair. My mom scraped together every spare penny just to keep us fed while he did it.

I felt so guilty I barely ate at school – plain bread and water, every day, eating the bare minimum so they wouldn’t have to stretch anything thinner.

Silas knew all of it.

“Do you understand what you destroyed?” My voice didn’t shake. “Those hearing aids were the last thing my parents ever gave me. And you crushed them under your heel.”

“My dad’s one dream was to see me get into college. You killed that too

for Blair.”

“Tell me how any of that is fair.”

I never talked to him like this. For as long as I could remember, Silas had been my anchor person I thought I could build a life beside.

Now the sight of him made my skin crawl.

the one

His face went blank. He reached for me – then stopped, hand hovering in the air, like he already

knew I’d flinch away.

“Clara, I didn’t I didn’t know they meant that much to you. I was just -”

“Stop.”

–

“Even if you had known – what then?” I looked at him. “I used to think I couldn’t figure you out. Now I see you perfectly.”

“You keep saying it’s all for me — and then you turn around and do something worse. You ruined my exam like it meant nothing. If that’s your version of caring, I don’t want it.”

His expression went empty. He searched my face for some sign I didn’t mean it, and when he found none, he turned and walked away like a man who’d forgotten where he was going.

I exhaled. Pulled myself together and finished my shift.

By evening, I’d clocked out, traded notes with the next shift, and dragged myself home.

I hit the light switch – and froze. My apartment was full of people.

The principal was there — a man I’d barely spoken to in four years. Next to him, the vice principal looked me over like I was something stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

“You’re Clara?”

I nodded. Didn’t trust my voice.

I already knew why they were here. But there were too many of them, and this was my living room,

and I was alone. So I made myself small.

“Sit down.”

I sat across from them. Every pair of eyes in the room pressed against me like a physical weight. I

sat still and took it.

Before anyone could get to the point, someone pounded on the door so hard the floorboards vibrated. I stood quickly. “Let me get that.”

The door barely opened before the person on the other side broke down. Sobbing and grabbing my shirt, right there on my doorstep.

“Please – Clara –

Clara – I’m begging you, drop the charges!”

Blair’s voice cracked on every syllable. Her eyes were raw and red – nothing left of the girl who’d laughed in my face days ago. She looked broken.

Behind me, the principal’s voice landed like a gavel.

“This school is still building its reputation. We can’t afford a scandal – and we need strong results

to prove we belong.”

“We’ve drawn up a settlement offer, Clara. Whatever it takes to make this go away.’

“Silas is the face of this school. He had the highest score in the state this year – and that’s about to

go public.”

“You don’t want to be the reason this school loses everything over a personal grudge. Do you?”