She Took My Hearing, He Took Her Side Chapter 09

She Took My Hearing, He Took Her Side Chapter 09

The day of the charity concert, the venue filled with deaf and hard-of-hearing children.

One of them was a little girl, barely six.

She’d just had her cochlear implant activated.

She gripped her mother’s sleeve like a lifeline.

The doctor said her name, soft and slow.

“Lily.”

The little girl froze.

Then her head snapped up.

She heard it.

Her mother dropped to her knees, sobbing, and pulled her close.

The whole room erupted into applause.

I stood backstage, blinking hard.

The hearing in my right ear was still incomplete.

The applause came through like scattered rain.

But I heard it.

That was enough.

Graham was standing a few feet away.

His eyes never left me.

I ignored him.

After the event, Sienna burst through the backstage doors.

She was skeletal. Her hat was pulled low over her face.

The second she saw me, her eyes filled with tears.

“Happy now, Tessa?”

I looked at her.

“About what?”

Her voice trembled.

“I’m blacklisted. No sponsor will touch me. The Music Association shut me out.”

“I have nothing now.”

She lunged at me, reaching for my hand.

“Please, just let this go.”

“I know what I did. I know it was wrong.”

I stepped back.

Security stepped between us.

Graham stepped out of the shadows, blocking her path.

Sienna looked at him like he could still save her.

“Graham, tell them. Stand up for me.”

“You always took my side.”

Graham looked at her.

His expression was completely dead.

“I took your side. And she paid for it for eight years.

Sienna froze.

The tears spilled over.

“I just loved you too much.”

Graham’s voice was hoarse.

“You loved me. So you destroyed her hearing.”

“I protected you. So I destroyed her life.”

“Sienna, we both have to answer for that.”

Every trace of color left Sienna’s face.

She still wanted to say something.

But uniformed officers had already followed her inside.

The reopened case had everything it needed. Old evidence, new testimony.

She couldn’t run from it.

Before they escorted her out, she turned to look at me one last time.

There was hatred in her eyes.

And fear.

I held her gaze.

There was no satisfaction.

No pity, either.

All I felt was that the room was too loud.

Graham stayed where he was.

After a while, he spoke. “I’ll cooperate with the investigation.”

I nodded.

“You should.”

A broken, self-deprecating smile touched his lips.

“When you look at me now… do you see me the same way you see her?”

I thought about it.

“No.”

Something flickered in his eyes.

I said, “When I look at her, I still think of my hearing.”

“When I look at you, I don’t feel much of anything.”

The flicker died.

He stood there, pale and shattered.

As if he finally understood.

Even hatred was a thread between two people.

And I wouldn’t even give him that.