He Took Off His Hearing Aid And My Love Died Chapter 04
[Gang Assault Survivor Breaks Silence — Full Account of What Happened Seven Years Ago]
Julian had taken every photo from that night — every one I couldn’t bear to look at — and stitched them into a single post.
Posted from my account.
I clutched my head with both hands, pain splitting through it.
So this was how Julian planned to fix things.
I called Julian with shaking hands.
He hung up.
I called again.
He hung up again.
I lost count of how many times I hit redial before someone finally picked up.
“Why?”
My voice was barely there.
The silence stretched so long I thought I’d been talking to nothing.
I was about to hang up when Julian finally spoke.
“You started this. So you’re the one who ends it.”
I kept asking why.
The word came out hollow.
We had a deal.
The day he saved me, we made a promise: this stays buried. Forever. Between us.
Julian sighed, and when he spoke again, his voice had gone soft.
“Clara, you’re my wife. People forget. A little internet drama isn’t going to ruin you. And even if things get ugly — you’ll still have me.”
“But Audrey’s different. She wasn’t born with this — she lost her hearing. It took her years to even accept it, and then she clawed her way back. Went back to school, built a name for herself from nothing.”
“One scandal could wipe out everything she’s built. You get that, right?”
“No.”
The word ripped out of me.
“I don’t get it.”
He had a whole speech about everything Audrey had suffered.
But he forgot that I’d spent seven years trying to claw my way out of the same darkness.
He’d been the only light I had when everything else went dark.
I never could’ve imagined, back then, that the person who saved me would end up being the one who destroyed me.
The streets emptied around me.
I was alone in a pitch-black alley, and panic hit before I even realized it was there.
The last time a night felt like this — this quiet, this dark — someone had dragged me into an alley just like this one.
I started walking toward the streetlight.
A hand closed around my arm from behind and yanked me back.
The man grinning down at me had a mouth full of rotting teeth.
“Seven years. Look at you — even prettier than I remember.”
My heart hammered so hard I could feel it in my throat.
I dropped to my knees on the pavement, begging.
The bald man looked down at me and laughed — the sound punched straight through me.
“You know what’s funny? I didn’t pick you. Seven years ago, that kid — the one who played hero? He’s the one who pointed me to you. Offered you up so I’d leave the deaf girl alone.”
“Took one look at you and figured he had a point. You were the easier target.”
He grabbed my chin and tilted my face up, grinning like we were sharing a joke.
“My boys and I just got out. Seven years, and the first thing that pops up on my phone? Your face, all over the news. Right when we were talking about the good old days.”
He leaned closer.
“Don’t you think that’s fate?”
Every nerve in my body shut down.
Warm blood ran down my forehead, tracing my cheek.
Julian.
Julian was the one who fed me to them.
The tears came faster than before.
I was so stupid.
I’d spent seven years serving the man who destroyed me — waiting on him, cooking for him, loving him as if I owed him everything.
The bald man tapped my cheek.
“Come on. The boys are waiting.”
He fisted a handful of my hair and dragged me deeper into the alley.
My body was going limp — I was about to stop fighting — when a voice tore across the street.
“Stop.”
