She Took My Hearing, He Took Her Side Chapter 03

She Took My Hearing, He Took Her Side Chapter 03

The day of Sienna’s press conference, Graham’s assistant sent me an address.

He claimed I needed to come sign the physical copy of my performance contract. In person.

The entrance was swarming with press when I got there.

My name was on the check-in list, filed under “Special Settlement Guest.”

I turned to leave.

A staff member stopped me.

“Ms. Caldwell, Mr. Whitaker approved the arrangements.”

They showed me the schedule.

[Tessa Caldwell goes onstage to sign the settlement statement regarding the accident eight years ago.]

So he’d already scripted my forgiveness without asking.

Backstage, Sienna stood in a white dress, crying for the cameras.

She told them she’d carried the blame for eight years. That she’d finally made it back.

Graham stood behind her.

He leaned in close. “Don’t be afraid.”

Sienna was wearing that custom in-ear monitor he’d calibrated just for her.

My old hearing aid was screaming against the noise, and my right ear throbbed.

Graham spotted me. A flash of panic crossed his face, and he started toward me.

But Sienna spoke first.

“Is Tessa still refusing to forgive me?”

Every lens in the room turned toward me.

The host shoved a statement into my hands.

[The accident eight years ago was caused by an equipment malfunction and had nothing to do with Sienna.]

I looked at Graham.

He avoided my eyes.

“It’s just a formality.”

“She finally made it back. You can’t let the past destroy that.”

I asked him, “And what about my hearing? What did that count for?”

He fell silent.

The noise from the cameras was drilling into my right ear.

And then I thought about the surveillance footage I’d found the night before.

The day before the festival, eight years ago, my custom in-ear monitor went missing.

Graham had it made for me himself.

He knew my right ear was fragile. Said a standard monitor could damage my hearing.

I had torn through every corner of backstage looking for it.

Sienna had walked over with a spare in-ear monitor.

She smiled. “Use this one for now. You don’t want to miss Graham’s song.”

I had hesitated.

But Graham showed up, barely glancing at it.

He said, “She’s just trying to help. Go on, get up there.”

I put on that spare in-ear monitor.

I didn’t make it past the first note.

A wall of high-frequency feedback shrieked through the earpiece, tearing through my eardrum at once.

I collapsed off the riser.

Blood poured from my ear.

I grabbed Graham’s hand. “Something’s wrong with the monitor… something’s wrong…”

Absolute terror struck his face.

Because he saw Sienna cowering in the corner.

She was clutching my original monitor.

“I just wanted to try it on,” she sobbed. “I didn’t know this would happen. I swear I didn’t.”

Graham had clearly seen it.

He knew who gave me the spare.

But instead of calling for help, he put himself between her and the room, shielding her from view.

He ordered the crew, “Keep this quiet. For now.”

When the staff wanted to involve the police, he stopped them.

“She didn’t mean it. You put this on her record and you ruin her life.”

Later, he sat faithfully by my hospital bed.

He cleaned my wound, brought me water, sat with me while I practiced lip-reading.

I thought that meant he’d chosen me.

Until I saw that surveillance footage.

On the tape, Sienna slipped my monitor into her bag.

Right after the accident, Graham took her bag.

He claimed he didn’t want reporters going through it.

So he saw everything.

He just decided to bury the evidence before anyone else could dig it up.

And now he was pushing that settlement statement at me again.

I didn’t take the pen.

In front of all the cameras, I tore the statement in half.

The room went dead silent.

Sienna went white.

Tears immediately spilled down her cheeks.

“If we don’t settle this today, they’ll cancel the recital tomorrow.”

“I’ve waited eight years. I can’t lose this stage again.”

Graham panicked.

He grabbed my wrist. His voice dropped to something only I could hear.

“Tessa, don’t make a scene here.”

“When we get home, you can say whatever you want to me. Anything.”

“Just do this one thing for her today, and I swear I’ll make it right.”

I asked him, “Was that what you thought eight years ago too?”

“Save her first. Deal with me later.”

His eyes grew desperate.

But his grip didn’t loosen.

Then a shout came from the stage. It was the sound engineer.

The sound system glitched.

A spike of high-frequency feedback tore through the speakers.

Pain split through my right ear like a blade.

Eight years ripped open in a single second.

My vision went black. I grabbed the mic stand to keep from going down.

My fingers came away from my ear warm and wet with blood.

Graham saw it.

Horror washed over his features.

He took one step toward me.

At the same moment, Sienna screamed. The music stand by the piano crashed to the floor.

Blood ran from a gash on her right hand.

She cried out, “Graham, my hand!”

Graham’s footsteps stopped.