Chapter 2

At that, everyone's gaze toward Dexter changed.

Mom set down her knife and fork and lowered her voice, speaking with obvious displeasure. "Keep your voice down, Dexter. What are you shouting for? Dante can't hear you. What's the point of you losing your temper with him?"

Dexter flew into a rage and slammed his utensils on the table. "Mom! He's bluffing! He's faking it! He can hear us just fine! He's just doing this on purpose to disgust me!"

Dad's face turned dark. "Watch your table manners, Dexter Hoffman. Who taught you to slam down your utensils like that?"

Desiree added coldly, "That's enough, Dexter. Dante just came home for the first day. He's already pitiful enough. Can't you just not bully him any further?"

I went with the flow and lowered my eyes. I wrote, "Actually, I've learned to lip-read a little. I can guess what people are saying at times. Dexter's mad that I ate his food, isn't he? I'm sorry. I'll just eat less next time."

That triggered everyone's protectiveness over me almost immediately.

Mom hurriedly served me another helping of the mashed potatoes. "Have some more, Dante. Don't listen to what Dexter said."

Dexter lost his temper once again. He yelled, "You damn peasant! You're lying! I know you're just pretending to be deaf!"

I cocked my head and stared at his lips with a confused frown. Then, I wrote, "What? Your dad has a pet giraffe?"

Dexter was utterly confuddled. And the rest of the family, who were initially still stern and angry, finally lost it after seeing what I'd written in my notebook. Their faces turned red from holding back their laughter.

Desiree even turned her head to the side, her shoulders quivering.

Dad coughed slightly and forced back a smile. "Dexter, that's enough. Go to your room."

Dexter was flustered. He roared, "Dad! He did that on purpose! He was making fun of me!"

Mom sighed and said, "Dante can't hear you and can only guess from lip-reading. It's normal for him to get things wrong. How is he supposed to make fun of you if he can't even hear you?"

Dexter still turned around to glare at me, his eyes blazing. I smiled innocently at him and even drew a huge smiley face on my notebook before showing it to him.

He screamed in frustration and ran up the stairs, slamming his room door with a loud bang.

Desiree looked at me and suddenly chuckled quietly. "You're good at pretending to be deaf, you little brat."

I pretended not to hear her and lowered my head to toy with my fingers.

However, Dexter obviously wasn't going to let things blow over just like that.

Sometime around 2:00 am, while I was fast asleep, I was suddenly aware of a noise coming from my bedside.

The past 99 times I'd died had trained me to be hypervigilant at every moment.

I opened my eyes very slightly and saw Dexter slinking into my room with a small firecracker in his hands. He put it on my bedside table and quickly ran back to the door. Then, he raised his phone and began recording me.

His plan was too obvious. He bet that I would wake up in shock to the sound of the loud firecracker explosion once he set it off. And if I stirred or reacted to it like a normal person, he could then prove that I wasn't deaf at all.

He lit the fuse, and a spark flashed in the dark of the night with a loud sizzle.

I shut my eyes tightly as my mind raced. Then, I carefully grabbed my own lighter and set the wool rug beside the bed on fire.

The firecracker soon went off right next to my ears.

I endured the piercing pain in my eardrums, managing not to exclaim out loud. At the same time, flames leaped up from the rug and billowed thick smoke everywhere.

The firecracker and the smoke detector system both went off almost simultaneously, throwing the villa into chaos.

Mom, Dad, and Desiree all ran into the room and pulled me out from the thick smoke.

After going into the living room, Dexter excitedly took out his phone and yelled, "Mom! Dad! Watch this! I set off a firecracker in Dante's room! I bet he heard it and woke up in shock!"