Theater: NovelMaster | Language: English | NEW
Synopsis
During my piano finals, my husband's first love deliberately broke my cochlear implant.
I confronted her, but my husband shoved me away without hesitation.
"Sienna didn't mean it. Can you stop being so petty?"
He called me narrow-minded and said I needed to be taught a lesson.
He hid my broken sound processor, leaving me unable to hear or purchase a plane ticket.
He told me that if I wanted to return to the States, my only option was to hide inside a cargo crate.
Trapped in that crate, I suffocated as sharp, agonizing cramps tore through my abdomen.
I was only saved when airport security spotted blood dripping from the box.
I suffered a miscarriage.
I knew right then that this marriage had rotted to the core, so I served Carter the divorce papers immediately.
A cold-blooded man like him wasn't worth keeping.
When I woke up, I was lying in a hospital bed.
Seeing me open my eyes, my mother didn't offer a word of comfort. Instead, she signed at me with utter disgust: "Why is your body so weak? You were almost at your destination, and you couldn't even keep the baby!"
My ears buzzed with silence, but I caught every cruel word from her hands.
I... miscarried?
I reached down to touch my abdomen. Just yesterday, it had a small bump, but now it was completely flat.
I dialed Carter's number, and he picked up after two rings.
I held the phone to my ear, but hearing nothing, I suddenly remembered that Sienna had smashed my cochlear processor.
I opened SnapChat to text him, only to find our chat history had been completely blank for three days.
Still, I sent him a message: "Can you please return my processor? My next competition is coming up, and I need to get it repaired."
He didn't reply, but a few minutes later, Sienna posted an Instagram story.
Even through the cold screen, her smug excitement was sickeningly obvious.
"A custom necklace made especially for me by someone special. Best gift in the entire world!"
The photo showed a necklace adorned with fragments torn straight from my broken cochlear device.
My sound processor was custom-built, fine-tuned through dozens of doctor visits.
Yet the day before my competition, Sienna bumped into me by the restroom sinks, kicked my device to the floor, and crushed it beneath her heels.
With the competition starting in mere hours, I was plunged into total silence.
Furious, I grabbed her collar: "Why did you destroy my device?!"
Before I even used any force, she burst into dramatic tears. Her lips moved frantically, but I couldn't hear a thing.
Before I could demand answers, a violent shove slammed me against the wall. My head cracked against the plaster, sending dizzying waves of pain through my skull.
My husband, Carter, shielded Sienna behind his back, his face twisted in anger as he signed at me: "Why are you bullying Sienna? Don't think having a disability gives you the right to act superior!"
Frustrated and heartbroken, I tried to defend myself: "She broke my processor! I just want her to pay for it. My competition is about to start!"
I thought my husband would stand by me, but a mocking smirk spread across his face.
"Do you honestly think a deaf girl can become a concert pianist? Stop dreaming. Sienna crushed your device to save you from humiliating yourself on stage. You should be thanking her."
"Besides, she didn't mean to do it. Do you really have to be so vindictive over an accident?"
Because of that sabotage, I couldn't hear the orchestra and was disqualified, watching my dream trophy slip through my fingers.
To punish me for questioning Sienna, Carter confiscated my broken device, claiming he needed to teach me a lesson.
He told me the only way he'd transport me back home was if I hid inside a wooden shipping crate for a washing machine.
Desperate to make it back in time for another prestigious national competition scheduled months ago, I swallowed my pride and agreed.
During the journey, excruciating cramps tore through my lower abdomen, and I felt warm fluid running down my legs.
Suffocating in the dark, airtight box, I slipped in and out of consciousness, too weak to even scream for help.
If the security inspectors hadn't noticed the blood pooling beneath the crate, both my baby and I would have died right there.
Clutching my phone, tears streamed uncontrollably down my face.
While I was fighting for my life in a coma, Carter had spent every waking moment catering to Sienna.
My trembling hands typed out a message: "Carter, let's get a divorce."
Seeing the text, my mother snatched the phone from my hand and slapped me across the face.
Poking my forehead with contempt, she signed aggressively: "You're nothing without Carter! Leo's getting married soon, and his entire future depends on Carter's support. You are not divorcing him!"
She scrambled to delete the text, but the time limit had already passed.Carter took five whole hours after reading my text to finally stroll into my hospital room.
He jammed a cheap, defective processor onto my ear. The violent static and electrical leakage sent painful shocks through my scalp, making me flinch.
I tried to rip it off, but he pinned my wrists down with an iron grip.
"Are you seriously threatening to divorce me? I just wanted to teach you some humility. Do you always have to make such a pathetic scene?"
"Sienna struggles with severe depression, and your aggression pushed her over the edge! Her therapist spent months keeping her from being suicidal. Now, because of your tantrum, she won't even touch the piano—the one thing that kept her mind off dark thoughts."
The faulty device kept shocking my ear, the stinging pain clouding my mind.
"Every time she throws a fit, she threatens suicide, but the moment you run to her side, she suddenly wants to live again."
"Only an idiot like you would fall for her pathetic little act..."
*Slap!*
Carter's hand cracked across my cheek so hard I lost my balance and tumbled onto the floor.
The impact flared up the pain in my abdomen, twisting my face in agony. I could barely breathe.
Carter didn't even flinch. His tone was chillingly indifferent. "Cut the drama. Don't think playing the victim will make me pity you. You brought this entirely on yourself."
I tried to crawl toward the nurse call button, but Carter kicked my hand away.
"Sienna is out of your league. Know your place, and don't you dare cross the line again."
"If she attempts suicide because of your hostility, you'll be the one paying for it."
"Get up and apologize to her. She's locked herself in her room, refusing to eat or drink. If something happens to her health, it's on you."
A bitter, mocking smile touched my lips. In all our years of marriage, he had never bothered to learn proper sign language for me. He had never even said a genuine "I love you."
Once, when I was burning up with a high fever and couldn't keep food down, our housekeeper paced anxiously by my bed. Carter just said dismissively, "Leave her alone. She won't starve to death."
And now, just to demand an apology for his precious first love, he forced a defective, painful device onto my ear.
The metallic taste of blood welled up in my throat. My voice was nothing more than a faint, raspy whisper.
"She destroyed my processor and ruined the most important competition of my life. And now you expect *me* to apologize? Carter, do you even have a heart?"
"You knew how many years of sweat and tears I poured into preparing for this stage. And because of her fake 'accident,' I lost everything."
The blood in my mouth grew thicker, tears blurring my vision.
Seeing the state I was in, his expression flickered with unease. He reached out to pull me up from the floor.
"I'm sorry... Elena."
Five years. In five years of marriage, this was the very first time he had ever apologized to me.
But it was too late. Way too late.
Ever since Sienna returned from abroad four years ago, crying over a 2:00 AM phone call that she was stranded alone at the airport, Carter had abandoned me during my birthday dinner without a second thought.
I sat on the couch all alone that night until dawn.
The dinner grew cold, and the birthday cake melted into a soggy mess.
Carter never returned, nor did he offer a single word of explanation.
After waiting all night, the only update I received was a notification that he had checked into a luxury hotel with Sienna.
I scooped up pieces of that melted cake and forced them into my mouth.
It was the worst thing I had ever tasted—salty with my own tears.
My twenty-fifth birthday ended in utter humiliation.
From that night on, whenever Sienna snapped her fingers, Carter dropped everything in his life to run to her.
I closed my eyes, drained of any desire to speak.
"Sign the papers. It's better for both of us..."
"No divorce! Absolutely not!" My mother burst into the room, out of breath.
She dropped to her knees in front of Carter, bowing and pleading: "Mr. Vance, it's just a little lovers' quarrel! How could you talk about divorce? Elena is just talking nonsense out of anger!"
She hauled me up by my arm, trying to force me onto my knees.
When I refused, she kicked the back of my knees with all her might.
"Mr. Vance, I'll talk some sense into her. She won't leave you. If she dares, I will disown her immediately!"
Carter looked down at my mother with disgust, then cast a condescending glare at me.
"Elena, you can't survive without me."
My chest heaved. Terrified I would say another word, my mother ripped the faulty processor off my ear.
Carter's phone rang. A tender, affectionate look immediately softened his harsh features.
He turned and walked away without looking back at me once.
The second Carter was gone, my mother shoved me to the floor and signed furiously: "If you don't beg Mr. Vance for forgiveness, you can stay deaf for the rest of your miserable life!"
Looking at her icy stare, I felt completely hollow inside.
Years ago, desperate to secure my place with Carter, she had spiked our drinks, leading to an unplanned pregnancy.
Because of that pregnancy, Sienna jumped into the ocean, nearly drowning.
Carter spent an entire month taking Sienna on a world tour just to nurse her back to health.
After that, his resentment toward me only deepened.
My mother's phone lit up with my brother Leo's name.
She picked up and hurried out the door without looking back.
In an instant, the sterile, empty hospital room was silent once more, leaving me entirely alone.I stayed in the hospital for two days, and neither my mother nor Carter ever showed up.
Whenever my wounds flared with inflammation, I had to clean and disinfect them myself.
I sent messages to both Carter and my mother, asking for my processor back because the national piano competition was approaching.
The moment I hit send, I saw that Carter had blocked and deleted me.
When I tried calling him, the line was perpetually busy.
Hospital beds were in high demand, with patients lining the hallways.
As soon as my stitches were stable enough, I discharged myself. My legs trembled with every step, and I slipped on the stairwell, bruising my tailbone hard against the concrete.
I gasped in pain, clutching the railing just to drag myself upright.
Suddenly, a commotion erupted near the entrance. I saw Carter rushing through the doors, carrying Sienna in his arms. Panic was written all over his face as he screamed into the lobby, "Where's a doctor?! Someone get a doctor, now!"
Seeing his desperate panic, a bitter, hollow laugh escaped my chest.
I had never seen that expression on his face before. Toward me, he only ever showed cold indifference and disgust.
I stared at him through the crowd. For a brief second, our eyes locked.
I quickly looked away and limped out into the cold air.
The moment I stepped outside, a food courier on a bicycle crashed straight into me.
He was gesticulating wildly, his mouth moving aggressively as he yelled.
I couldn't hear a single word.
A suffocating wave of helplessness crashed over me, leaving me utterly defeated.
I handed him all the cash I had to compensate for the spilled food, then headed to an ATM to withdraw money for a new processor.
I slid my card into the slot, but the screen displayed a balance of barely eighty cents.
Stunned, I thought the machine was malfunctioning, so I tried another one. But the pathetic eighty cents mocked me once again.
I checked my banking app's transaction history and saw that my mother had drained every penny of my savings.
She had spent it all on Leo's down payment and wedding photoshoot.
My energy vanished, my vision swimming with exhaustion.
I tried to hail a cab, but the driver refused to start the meter.
His mouth was moving, but I was so frantic that I just urged him to drive.
Then I realized: I didn't have a single cent left to pay him.
He opened the back door, grabbed me by the coat, and shoved me onto the sidewalk.
After that, no rideshare or cab would pick up my ride requests.
I had no choice but to walk. Pedestrians bumped into me on the crowded sidewalks. Surrounded by absolute silence, dread gnawed at my chest.
After walking for nearly five hours, I finally reached home.
Not the penthouse I shared with Carter, but the house I had grown up in for twenty years.
The entrance was decorated with ribbons and flowers, buzzing with laughter.
Looking at the banner by the door, I realized today was Leo's wedding day.
Before I could walk inside, Leo yanked me into a secluded alleyway.
He shouted a few words, then remembered I wasn't wearing my device.
He switched to rapid, irritated sign language.
"Today is my wedding! What the hell are you doing here? Don't you know you're bad luck?"
"Megan hates you. Get lost before you ruin everything!"
Looking at the young man standing before me, I felt like I was staring at a total stranger.
When we were children, my mother favored him, but Leo and I had always been close.
I always gave him the best of everything, and he even learned sign language just for me.
Everything changed the moment he started dating.
He demanded endless money from me. Even spiking Carter's drink back then was his idea.
And now, he treated me like a disease, locking me out of my own family home.
He shoved me into a cramped, windowless storage room in the back and locked the door from the outside.
I had suffered from severe claustrophobia my entire life. Terrified, my instinct drove me to call Carter.
He answered. But knowing I couldn't hear him, he hung up and sent a cold text:
"Stop calling. It upsets Sienna."
A silent shatter echoed in my chest.
Every last shred of hope I had held onto crumbled into dust.
I realized then that in this world, there was no one left who truly loved me.
Chapters (3)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Watch & Promotions
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