The Silent Lie Chapter 1

In elite circles, we were the infamous deaf-mute couple: Seraphina Beaumont, deaf, and I, mute.

I married into her family five years ago. She gave me dignity and even got an IUD for my "ultimate worry-free experience."

Then one night, drunk, she asked for medicine. I arrived to hear her laughing with friends:

"Aren’t you tired of pretending to be deaf? That mute husband is convenient, but boring in bed—like fucking on mute!"

Seraphina sipped her cocktail, smiling coldly.

"He’s just a toy. A mute can’t talk, so I play wild and he never knows. When we fight, his sign language twists up—quiet and peaceful."

She added softly, "Him being mute means Hyde—our child raised abroad—will be the undisputed Beaumont heir."

My heart froze. The medicine dropped from my hand into the trash.

If she wasn’t deaf, I didn’t need to be mute anymore.

I turned and dialed a long-untouched number, my voice rough:

"Bring down the Beaumont empire, and I’ll divorce her instantly."

* * *

The woman on the other end of the line sounded intrigued. “Well, well. Look who finally came to his senses. While your wife was turning you into a city-wide joke, I was the only one who ever truly cared for you.”

“Wait for me. It won’t take more than three days.”

As I hung up, the sound of their laughter washed over me, a tidal wave of mockery.

“Damn, Seraphina, you’re a genius,” one of her friends slurred. “You faked being deaf for five years just to get your grandfather to accept Hyde. Who knew a mute would just fall into your lap!”

“Exactly! We all thought after you declared yourself 'damaged goods,' no one in our circle would touch you. Then this mute comes along and practically glues himself to you. Even paid a three-hundred-million-dollar dowry to marry in. I’ve never seen a bigger fool!”

“And now that your and Hyde’s kid is old enough to walk and talk, it’s the perfect time to bring them back and claim the inheritance.”

Through the crack in the door, I saw Seraphina lounging on the sofa. She traced the rim of her glass, her voice as cold as ice.

“My child with Hyde will not be illegitimate.”

“Grandfather’s birthday is in three days. It’s the perfect time for the Beaumont family to announce its new heir.”

My heart felt like it had been ripped open, a gaping wound exposed to a howling wind.

When I first learned of Seraphina’s “deafness,” my father had refused to approve our marriage. I knelt in the pouring rain for three days, but he wouldn’t budge.

It was only after I collapsed with a raging fever, my voice gone, that I conspired with a doctor to convince my father I had become permanently mute.

Only then did he consent to me marrying into the Beaumonts. To ensure I wouldn’t be mistreated, he gave me a dowry of three hundred million dollars.

For five years, I never spoke a single word in her presence.

I believed that two broken souls could find a unique resonance.

Even in our most intimate moments, at the peak of passion, I would stifle every sound.

But the truth was, her grand gesture of getting an IUD for my “ultimate experience” was nothing more than a calculated move to pave the way for her secret child.

How absurd.

The Seraphina I first met wasn't like this.

The girl who had given me her only tent during a blizzard was gone forever.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

I opened it to a flood of images—dozens of photos of Seraphina with another man.

There she was on our first anniversary, surfing in Phuket with him while I was at home, alone.

There she was in our second year of marriage, claiming she was “too busy” with work in the US, when in reality she was giving birth to her and Hyde’s son.

I kept scrolling. A photo with a date stamp caught my eye.

It was the day I was rushed to the hospital with acute appendicitis. I had called her countless times, but she never answered.

While I was lying in a cold hospital bed, writhing in pain, she was in America, celebrating her son’s first birthday.

Photo after photo, a gallery of her betrayal.

Then, a voice message played, shattering the last remnants of my pride.

“You must be Seraphina’s mute husband. You poor thing. I bet you want to curse me out right now, but you just can’t, can you?”

I trembled as I saved every piece of evidence. I sent one last message to the number I had called.

“Three days. On her grandfather’s birthday, I want the bankruptcy of the Beaumont empire to be his birthday gift.”