He Thought I Couldn’t Hear His Lies, I Heard Every Word Chapter 02

He Thought I Couldn’t Hear His Lies, I Heard Every Word Chapter 02

When I got home, all the strength drained out of me, and I collapsed onto the bed. My mind was completely blank as I stared at the ceiling.

I had first met Gavin at a job fair. The moment I saw him, I fell for him so hard there was no turning back.

After that, I chased him so openly that practically everyone knew about it. He was like an iceberg that would never melt, rejecting every confession that came his way.

Until I came along.

I found excuses to see him every day, started conversations whenever I could, bought him meals, and chased him relentlessly for three straight years. No matter how many times he turned me down, my feelings never changed.

Then one night, a fired employee came back drunk, blocked Gavin at the company entrance, and started causing trouble. Everyone else scattered, but I threw myself in front of Gavin.

We were both beaten until we lost consciousness, covered in blood, before the man was finally dragged away. Because of that, I lost my hearing for good.

That was the moment Gavin truly fell in love with me. Holding my blood-soaked body in his arms, he trembled with fear as he said, “Autumn Young, marry me.”

After we got together, my love for him never lessened. If anything, his seemed even deeper than mine.

But after our daughter was born, she had always resented the fact that I was deaf, so Gavin spent day and night teaching her sign language just so I could communicate with her better.

The sound of the front door unlocking pulled me out of my memories. I turned onto my side and pretended to be asleep.

Not long after, I heard movement behind me. Then I felt Gavin’s hands begin roaming over my body, his warm breath brushing against my neck.

I knew exactly what that meant. A few weeks ago, I would have melted and responded to him without hesitation.

But now, all I felt was disgust.

A week ago, I had just come home after getting my hearing back, ready to share the news with him and our daughter, when I heard Gavin’s ragged, frenzied sounds coming from the room next to our bedroom.

My whole body went cold. For a second, I even wondered if I was imagining it.

Before I could go inside, my daughter, who had always looked down on me, stopped me with the excuse that she needed help with her homework. As she shoved me away, she muttered, “Don’t go ruin Mommy Sophie’s good time.”

That was when I realized just how badly she wanted to replace me as her mother. They thought I was still deaf. They thought they had hidden everything perfectly.

What they didn’t know was that I had heard every last bit of it.

That same day, I applied for the volunteer teaching post on the remote Montana reservation and booked my ticket there. Just like we had once promised each other, I was going to disappear from his world completely.

I didn’t want him anymore, and I didn’t want our daughter, either.

…

In an instant, the sounds of Gavin and Sophie going at it in the next room started echoing in my ears again. I shot upright and shoved him away, only to hear him cry out as he hit the floor.

For a moment, I froze. Instinctively, I almost reached out to help him, but in the end, I didn’t move.

Gavin wasn’t angry. If anything, his eyes were full of concern as he looked at me. “Autumn, what’s wrong?”

I was just about to answer when I suddenly remembered that, to him, I was still deaf. A second later, he seemed to remember it too and started signing instead.

I signed back, “Nothing. I’m just not feeling well.”

Then it was as if something clicked in his head, and panic flooded his face. He rushed over to me, signing frantically as he tried to explain.

“Autumn, Sophie really is just a younger woman from my old school. Please don’t misunderstand.”

He was normally composed, but today, because of Sophie, he had lost his composure again and again. I didn’t want to deal with him, so I said flatly, “I’m tired. Let’s just sleep.”

Then I turned over and lay back down. He froze at that, and only after a long silence did I hear him murmur under his breath, “Autumn, I love you. I really, really love you.”

“Please don’t leave me. If you do, I’ll die.”

Tears kept slipping from the corners of my eyes.

If you loved me, then why did you betray me?

We had promised each other that we would never part in this lifetime. But if either of us betrayed the other in any way, we would disappear completely from the other’s world.

All the beauty of our past had been shattered by the cruelty of the present and dissolved into nothing.