He Took Off His Hearing Aid To Ignore My Screams Chapter 01

He Took Off His Hearing Aid To Ignore My Screams Chapter 01

I was assaulted.

My husband Vaughn Reed stood just a wall away, ignoring my screams.

He’d taken his hearing aid off again.

We’d been married three years.

To everyone else, he was the perfect husband—handsome, wealthy, level-headed.

Only I knew the truth.

Every time we fought, he stripped off his hearing aid. It wasn’t that he didn’t have a temper.

He just grew tired of me and refused to waste energy arguing back.

That day, Vaughn never came looking for me.

I dragged my broken body back to our home.

He sat hunched over his desk, editing surgical plans for Sorrel Page, his first love.

“I was attacked. We need to file a police report.”

I stepped beside him and spoke.

“M’sorry, won’t happen again.”

He didn’t glance up once, reciting the apology on autopilot.

I spotted his bare ear, no hearing aid in sight.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips.

I couldn’t stand this silent world he trapped me in any longer.

“Vaughn, I want a divorce.”

His voice stayed cold as ever. “Yeah, let’s not fight anymore.”

…

I stared at him, no tears left to shed.

This was the man I’d loved for three years.

While I’d been brutalized, he’d been rewriting paperwork for another woman. When I laid my worst agony out before him, all I got was a hollow, rehearsed apology.

When I didn’t spiral into a screaming match like I always did, Vaughn slipped his hearing aid back on.

He lifted his head, gaze landing on my disheveled clothes, and frowned.

“What happened to you?”

Only a dim lamp lit the living room, so he couldn’t make out the details clearly.

“I tripped outside, scraped myself up bad.” My tone stayed flat.

His frown deepened.

“You still can’t control your temper after all these years. It was just a routine checkup. You could’ve gone alone if I couldn’t tag along—no need to get yourself this messed up.”

“Go change into clean clothes, I’ll get ointment for your cuts.”

I didn’t answer him, grabbed fresh clothes from the closet, and headed straight for the bathroom.

I twisted the shower on, frigid water pouring down over my head.

I glanced up at the mirror. Dark discolorations and abrasions marked my neck and back.

A harsh cramp seized my lower abdomen, a wrenching pain spreading deep within me.

I looked down, slow realization crashing over me.

A dark crimson patch bloomed across the white tile beneath my feet.

That splash of red nailed me to the spot.

I pressed both hands to my abdomen, clinging to the last shred of hope I had left. Hot tears mixed with shower water and streamed down my cheeks.

“My baby…”

The fluid kept dripping down my legs without pause.

Vaughn didn’t know I’d gotten a positive result on an at-home early pregnancy test that morning.

I’d been scared it was a false positive, so I’d only told him I needed to stop by the hospital for a basic exam.

We’d barely reached the underground parking garage when Sorrel’s call came through.

“Vaughn, there’s a mistake in my patient chart. The attending physician is chewing me out over it—can you pull up your laptop and fix it for me?”

Vaughn hung up without hesitation and turned to leave.

I stared at him, swallowing my rage over and over until it boiled over.

“Vaughn, am I your wife, or is Sorrel?”

His face turned icy cold.

“I told you, Sorrel and I are only coworkers now. Stop overreacting.”

“Overreacting?”

“On our wedding anniversary, she spiked a fever and you left me alone to drop medicine off for her. When my mom was hospitalized, she said she was scared to pull an overnight shift, and you rushed to stay by her side. Now I need to get a medical checkup, and you’re ready to bolt for her again. Who’s really the one overreacting here?”

The second those words left my mouth, every trace of patience vanished from Vaughn’s eyes.

“Elara Macy, you’re too upset to talk this through right now.”

My heart sank.

Sure enough, he lifted a hand and pulled his hearing aid off, smooth and practiced.

He always did this.

The second I brought up my hurt, my disappointment, everything unfair about our marriage, he sealed himself away.

Vaughn turned and walked off.

He didn’t see the two drunk men yank me into a hidden corner behind him.

He hadn’t gone far. I caught sight of him waiting around the bend for a minute.

But he never turned back, never slipped the hearing aid back in.

His world went quiet.

And he locked my cries for help out behind that invisible wall.

…

I shut off the shower and dragged myself out of the bathroom.

Vaughn, who’d promised to get ointment for my wounds, was on the phone with Sorrel in the living room.

He’d forgotten all about me entirely, his voice soft and patient in a way I’d never heard directed at me.

“I’ve finished editing the chart for you, just reprint it.”

The normally reserved surgeon even smiled down at his phone screen.

“Thank you, Vaughn. I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about anything with you around.”

Watching that scene didn’t hurt me anymore.

I retreated to our bedroom, messaged my attorney, and drafted a set of divorce papers.

Then I put on a turtleneck and left the house.