He Took Off His Hearing Aid And My Love Died Chapter 07
The broth slipped from Julian’s hands and crashed to the floor, splashing hot liquid across his shins He
didn’t feel it.
He’d lost her again.
I went back to the apartment. My flight wasn’t until four – I still had time.
I didn’t pack a bag. I grabbed my ID and nothing else.
The girl from last night was waiting outside the door. Her name was Chloe Bennett.
She looked confused when I walked out with nothing. “You’re not bringing anything?”
I shook my head. “Nothing in there worth keeping.”
Chloe shrugged. “Okay then.”
Before I walked out, I unclasped the bracelet on my wrist – tarnished, the metal almost green in places. I set
it on top of the signed divorce papers.
“Let’s go.”
I didn’t look back. Sitting on the plane, something in my chest finally loosened, something I hadn’t even
realized I’d been holding tight.
For the first time in seven years, I felt like I could breathe without permission.
The flight flew by. I got to my parents’ house right around dinnertime.
Mom and Dad froze when I walked through the door. Then they were both on their feet, pulling me inside,
arms around me before I could say a word.
It almost felt like being a kid again – if I hadn’t seen the tears they were trying to hold back.
I sat down at the table and froze. In seven years of marriage, I could count the times I’d come home on one
hand.
But every dish on the table was something I loved. My eyes started to burn.
I started shoveling food into my mouth, and the first real bite made me cough the heat hit so hard my eyes
watered.
Mom jumped up from across the table. “Oh, baby. You’ve been eating bland food all these years for him, haven’t you?” She was already reaching for her apron. “Give me ten minutes – I’ll make you something milder.”
She was in the kitchen before I could stop her. When she came back out, the dish she set down looked just like everything else on the table.
The same flavors, just dialed down still spicy, but gentle enough not to hurt. The tears I’d been holding in all week finally broke loose.
That’s the thing about people who actually love you. They don’t ask you to shrink.
Those few days at home were the first time I’d felt like myself in seven years.
I ran into Chloe on a walk one afternoon. A guy was standing next to her. She dragged him over, bearing.
“No way – you’re from Maplewood too? Small world!”
The longer we talked, the less real the coincidence felt. Chloe had been bored on school break, scrolling through travel posts online, and picked Rosemont on a whim.
She’d barely arrived before the hotel she’d booked fell through, and she ended up wandering the streets with
nowhere to go. That’s when she stumbled into the alley and saw what was happening to me. She called 911.
Her whole trip got derailed after that night. She’d planned to reschedule, but her school suddenly cut the
break short-seven days down to three. She had to come straight home.
It was like the entire trip existed just to put her in that alley at the right moment. I didn’t know what to say.
She bumped my shoulder. “Maybe the universe just really needed me to save your ass.”
I laughed – a real one, the kind I couldn’t stop. The guy next to her cracked up too.
Our eyes met, and Chloe jumped in. “This is Miles Bennett.”
I smiled – a real one, not the kind I’d been faking for years. “Hey. I’m Clara.”
A voice cut through the air behind me. “Clara Hayes! You disappeared on me for this? For some guy?”
I turned around. Julian was storming toward me, anger radiating from every step. My expression went flat.
He stopped in front of me, jaw tight, eyes locked on mine.
“You owe me an explanation.”
