Stolen Hearing Chapter 1

My boyfriend of eight years and his first love were getting their kicks in our walk-in closet.

"Keep it down," Jane Lincoln whispered, her voice tight. "What if she hears us?"

Jake Sandberg dismissed her concern. "Jane, don't get distracted."

Jane started to cry, and Jake quickly kissed her.

"Don't worry, Jane, I took her hearing aids."

"She can't hear us, it's okay, don't cry."

But Jake didn't know I had just returned from the hospital. I had used all my savings to get a cochlear implant surgery.

…

I had just returned from the hospital after my cochlear implant’s external processor was activated and adjusted. Opening the front door, I heard strange noises.

Stumbling footsteps mixed with gasps, followed by the sound of a closet door closing. My boyfriend of eight years and another woman's voices intertwined.

"Keep it down, what if she hears us?"

Jake was unconcerned: "Jane, don't get distracted."

Jane started to cry, and Jake quickly kissed her.

"Don't worry, Jane, I took her hearing aids."

"She can't hear us, it's okay, don't cry."

So, the missing hearing aids had been taken by Jake, all to make me a part of their twisted game.

I accidentally knocked over a glass vase near the entrance.

When the sharp sound of shattering echoed, the commotion from the closet finally stopped.

I stiffly knelt to pick up the pieces.

"Ouch." A shard sliced my finger.

Tears welled in my eyes from the pain.

After a long moment, a tall figure stopped in front of me. "Why didn't you say you were back?" Jake's voice was hoarse, his eyes still clouded with lingering desire.

"Such a grown woman, crying over a tiny cut from a shard."

He looked at me with disdain.

My lips trembled, so many words wanting to spill out, but in the end, I just said:

"Jake, I can't find my hearing aids."

Hearing this, the man opposite me pretended to search for a moment. When he emerged from the bedroom, he held up two hearing aids.

"Dummy, you need to keep track of your own hearing aids. What if I hadn't found them for you?"

I snatched the hearing aids from his hand, pretending to put them on. When he wasn't looking, I slipped both into my pocket.

My heart hammered furiously, my breathing erratic. I walked past him, seemingly casually, heading towards the bedroom’s walk-in closet, feigning confusion.

"In the bedroom? Why didn't I see them earlier?"

Jake had left in a hurry, leaving the closet door slightly ajar. Through that crack, I could even see Jane's panicked, tear-filled eyes.

Pain, like a cornered beast, savagely tore at my heart. I was practically suffocating.

I instinctively reached out, my fingers trembling as they brushed the closet door. Through the narrow gap, Jane held clothes to cover her body, one hand clamped over her mouth as if terrified she might scream.

My mind was a blur. I completely disregarded our upcoming wedding, focused only on tearing down the humiliating charade before me.

Just as I reached to open the closet door, an uncontrollable wave of nausea surged through my throat.

I pushed away Jake, who had rushed over anxiously, and hurried to the bathroom, retching dryly into the sink in front of the mirror.

"What's wrong? Did you eat something bad? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

Jake leaned in, feigning concern.

It had been a while since my last period. When I had my cochlear implant surgery today, I coincidentally had an ultrasound scan. The results showed I was seven weeks pregnant.

I had been excited the whole way home, wanting to tell Jake the good news in person. The child we had hoped for for five years was finally coming.

I looked at the man in front of me, whose concern seemed genuine, and couldn’t help but deceive myself.

Perhaps, if I just pretended not to know.

As soon as he knew I was pregnant.

We could start over, couldn't we?

I was about to speak.

The sound of something falling echoed, from the direction of the bedroom.

Jake's hand, resting on my arm, stiffened.

"You go wait for me in the underground garage."

"I'll tidy up and come down, then I'll take you to the hospital to get checked."

I nodded. Before leaving, I used another less-used phone to call my main one. I set the spare phone to silent and placed it face down before turning to leave.

In the empty underground garage, I sat quietly in the passenger seat, my phone beside me, still on the call.

"Jay, I know you still resent me for leaving you to go abroad back then, but I truly had no choice."

"I know you're about to marry Ruth."

"But what about me? Jay, I'm having your baby. Can you really bear to let our child be born without a father?"

The woman's crying and the man's incredulous voice came through the phone.

"Jane, is what you're saying true?"

What a coincidence.

"Jay, I know your responsibility to Ruth, but are you really going to abandon all these years of love between us?"

Only responsibility?

"How could I abandon you!" Jake blurted out.

My heart sank completely.

The day Jake and I first met was also the first time I saw Jane Lincoln.

I was six years old. My grandparents took me to buy my first pair of hearing aids. The staff stubbornly refused to sell them to us.

Because we didn’t have enough money.

Countless crumpled fifty-cent, one-dollar, five-dollar, ten-dollar, twenty-dollar bills piled up like a small mountain – it was their life savings. But it still wasn’t enough.

My grandparents were so desperate they knelt, begging them to sell to us first, promising they could write an IOU. I knew it was because I was about to start elementary school, and they didn't want my education to suffer because I couldn't hear. They didn't want other children to look down on me.

Amidst the stalemate, a childish voice broke the silent air.

"Daddy, sell them to them."