He Crushed My Hearing Aid to Keep Me, Not Knowing I Just Heard His Confession Chapter 07

He Crushed My Hearing Aid to Keep Me, Not Knowing I Just Heard His Confession Chapter 07

Sentence after sentence. Layer after layer. Each one pressing the air out of my lungs.

A personal grudge? Which part, exactly?

The exam he destroyed? The hearing aids ground into the pavement? Or my parents purpose?

I slumped back onto the couch. I let them.

The principal on one side, the vice principal on the other. Boxed in.

Then Silas walked in.

His eyes swept over me

–

behind them.

–

killed on

my pale face, my hands twisting in my lap – and something flinched

“Silas.” The principal beckoned. “Sit down.”

A stupid, desperate thought surfaced: maybe he’d save me. Stand up. Tell them all to leave. Be the version of himself I used to believe in.

I watched him. His mouth moved around words he never said, and then he sat down. Right next to

No prince. Just a boy who’d already picked a side.

I folded my hands in my lap and read their lips.

“There’s an interview tomorrow. I trust you understand what to say – and what not to say.”

The principal held my gaze for a beat too long. I gave him a small nod.

They filed out one by one. Purpose served.

I picked the crumpled settlement papers off my floor

their parting gift – and stood in the middle

of the apartment I’d lived in my whole life. My parents’ photo still sat on the desk. Two faces that would never age.

None of this was supposed to happen. Not any of it.

Silas stood.

“Clara, I know what I did was wrong. I shouldn’t have hurt you. I never should’ve never –

after your parents.”

I said nothing. One person alone couldn’t win a fight like this.

He spiraled – muttering, pacing, swinging from grief to guilt to rage.

—

gone

Then he hit the wall. A vicious punch that rattled the frames — once, twice

once, twice the sound cracking

through the quiet apartment.

When I still didn’t respond, he slid down the wall. He caught himself just before he collapsed

entirely.

I lifted my head. My cheeks were wet. I hadn’t even noticed when the tears started.

He recoiled. His thoughts slammed into me – loud, anguished, turning my stomach.

“It’s all my fault – all of it, Clara Hayes!”

“If I’d known it would hurt you this much, I never would’ve – I swear, I never would’ve—”

I opened my mouth. What came out surprised even me.

“I don’t blame you.”

“What good would that do?” “Even if the world handed me the right to hate you – right now, in this room, I can’t afford to.”

I stood and walked to my bedroom without looking back. Behind me, Silas opened his mouth – and

closed it.

I shut the door. And allowed myself one thought: I had him.

Reporters would flood in tomorrow – most of them handpicked by the principal. If I confessed to cheating, Blair’s version of events would become the official story.

If I dropped the charges, the internet would rip me apart. They’d say I weaponized my parents’

deaths to frame an innocent girl.

I couldn’t let that happen.

But I couldn’t do this alone. So I’d use the only weapon I had even if that weapon was the person

who’d ruined my life.