Chapter 2
He loves teasing me.
He knows all too well that the second he says something sweet, my whole face lights up red. And instead of stopping, he just laughs, saying I’m the cutest when I’m blushing.
Even his friends seem interested in me.
“Dude, you for real with all this romance stuff? Are you actually planning to marry her?”
Jared leaned back in his seat when he heard that. From where I sat, I could only see his profile–I couldn’t even read his lips.
For someone who can’t hear or speak, reading lips is the only way to keep up with a conversation if no one’s using sign language. But if you can’t see their lips at all, then the whole world just goes silent.
Jared’s posture made it pretty obvious–he didn’t want me to catch what he was saying. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was about to whisper something flirty, just to see me blush again.
My mind started spiraling.
After a pause, Jared finally answered his friend, serious for once. “Elise is amazing. These last five years, I’ve fallen apart more times than I can count, and every single time, she’s been there for me. I’m grateful for her. I do love her.
“But she’s deaf and mute–born that way. There’s nothing anyone can do about it.
“She’s seen me at my absolute worst. And every time I look at her, every time I talk to her with my hands instead of my voice, I remember who I used to be. Honestly, it’s tough.
“And that’s not even the biggest problem. Now that I’m back to normal, and my family have found their place in the city, if people find out I’m marrying a deaf woman… who knows how those business sharks will laugh at me?}
“If I could, I kind of wish she’d just disappear now that I’m better. Maybe then, I’d spend the rest of my life missing her, never able to let go.”
His friend stared at him, clearly shocked–like he couldn’t believe what Jared just said.
“So… you don’t want to marry her?”
Jared shook his head. “I’ll marry her. She stood by me for five whole years. How could I not?”
He squeezed my hand as he spoke, his eyes soft and full of that familiar affection–the kind of look that made it impossible to tell if it was real or just a lie.
My face stayed calm, but my heart was racing. And underneath it all, there was this sharp, quiet pain I couldn’t explain.
Because, I heard every single word he said.”
02%
I have a secret–a secret I’ve kept from Jared for five years.”
I was never born deaf and mute.
The first time I met him was right after my parents died in a hiking accident. I spent a full day and night outside the operating room, then two endless weeks sitting vigil outside the ICU.
In the end, they never woke up.
Just like that, overnight, I lost the only two people in the world who were family to me.
The grief was overwhelming. I cried until I literally passed out, again and again.
And after one of those fainting spells, I woke up and found that I couldn’t speak at all, just like someone who’d been deaf and mute from birth.
The doctor told me the trauma had triggered a kind of self–protection in my body, making me lose my voice temporarily. He said it would probably go away in two or
three months.
Grief on top of grief–I was drowning in it. Every day felt heavy and gray, so sometimes I’d sneak up to the hospital rooftop, just to breathe and maybe feel a little lighter.
