Chapter 2

No one cared. They just laughed louder.

"Please, Glen won't find out. He's just the deaf guy."

The laughter kept rolling.

I stood there, frozen. Couldn't move. Could barely breathe.

It wasn't until a server gently tapped my shoulder that I snapped out of it.

"Sir, do you need any assistance?"

The second the server spoke, the room went dead quiet.

Every head turned. Vanessa's face went full panic mode.

She yanked her hand off Eugene's waist, eyes darting everywhere but mine.

She started signing—why was I back, Eugene's just like a little brother.

Too bad she didn't notice her lipstick smeared on his mouth. Or that his hand was still chilling on her waist.

Eugene shot me a look—just enough mockery to make it sting.

I'd already planned to leave. But standing there, seeing it with my own eyes?

It hit harder than I expected. Took the air right out of me.

I forced a smile. "Came back to drop off your keys. Have fun."

I dropped the keys on the table and walked out, tuning out the voices behind me.

Out on the street, cars blurred past, lights flashing everywhere—and all I felt was cold.

I couldn't see straight. Couldn't hear anything.

Just like three years ago, when Vanessa and I first got together and ended up lost in the Goben Desert.

We wandered for a full day and night, wrapped in silence. The only thing I could do was hold her hand.

Back then, she signed, "If we die out here, at least it's a good ending for our love."

She used to say love should last until death.

Well, love's already dead.

And this? This was the ending.

***

When I got home, my body gave up. I dropped onto the bed and just stared at the ceiling, empty.

I met Vanessa at a job fair.

One look and I was done. No recovery.

After that, I chased her hard enough that everyone noticed.

She had a rep—ice-cold, untouchable. Turned down every confession like it was nothing.

Then there was me.

I looked for her every day. Spoke first. Asked her out. Meals, walks, excuses—whatever it took. I chased her like it was my full-time job. Three straight years.

She turned me down again and again. Didn't matter. My feelings didn't budge.

Then came that night.

A fired employee got wasted and snapped, cornered her outside the building. People scattered fast. Suddenly brave in every direction but hers.

I stayed.

I took the hits until everything went black, blood everywhere.

But the guy backed off.

After that, my ears went dead. Total silence.

That's when Vanessa finally fell for me.

She clutched my blood-soaked body like she was afraid I'd disappear, voice shaking. "Glen, let's get married."

Once we were together, my love never wavered. Hers went full blaze.

She never looked down on me for being deaf. Instead, she learned sign language nonstop, like proving something—to me, or maybe to herself.

Then the door unlocked.

The sound yanked me out of my head. I shifted slightly and played asleep.

Not long after, I felt the mattress shift behind me.

Then her hands slid over my body, familiar, practiced. Her breath—warm, damp—brushed my neck.