He Took Off His Hearing Aid And My Love Died Chapter 09
The hope drained from Julian’s face. When he spoke, his voice shook. “You knew?”
I looked him dead in the eyes. “What do you think?”
“How long were you planning to keep using that against me? You must’ve loved it – watching me twist
myself in knots, grateful to the man who ruined my life.”
He kept shaking his head. “That’s not it’s not what you think.”
“-”
He stood there, choking on the same half-formed word and getting nowhere. I cut him off.
“Save it. I don’t want to hear whatever excuse you’ve rehearsed.” I steadied my voice. “If you actually feel
guilty, show up at the courthouse in a month and sign the papers.”
I pushed past him and didn’t look back.
Back inside my parents’ house, I collapsed onto the couch. My hands were still trembling.
Every ounce of strength I had was gone. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt.
Seven years. I’d loved him for seven years.
I must have drifted off, because when I opened my eyes, the room was dark. Someone had draped a blanket
over me while I slept.
My throat tightened. At least I wasn’t alone. I had people who loved me.
Three days later, a new story blew up online.
[Audrey Mercer Caught Red-Handed: Hotel Scandal Photos Leaked]
The link opened into a flood of photos – Audrey and Julian in a hotel room, leaving little to the imagination.
The old scandal resurfaced along with it, dragged back into the spotlight by internet sleuths connecting the
dots.
The comments piled up by the thousands – vicious and relentless.
I looked at the photos and waited to feel something. Nothing came.
My phone lit up. A message from Julian. He said he’d been drinking because of everything that happened between us, and things with Audrey just happened a mistake, he called it.
I didn’t reply. What did it have to do with me anymore?
But then Chloe sent me a video. [Clara you HAVE to see this – the scumbag and his side piece are at each other’s throats]
In the video, Julian was shirtless, in the middle of a fight with Audrey. Audrey’s voice came through sharp
and raw.
“I’ve been here since we were kids. We were supposed to end up together. What does Clara have that I don’t
have? What did she do to make you this obsessed?”
Julian’s face hardened. “So all of it was you?”
“You’re the one who leaked the photos from seven years ago?”
“Yes.”
Audrey lifted her chin, defiant. “We belong together. Clara was never supposed to be in the picture.”
“We already slept together. You’re getting divorced. So now you man up and choose me.”
Watching his face on the screen, I could see the exact moment it hit him – how badly he’d gotten it wrong. He’d probably thought Audrey was someone like him someone who understood what it was like to live that way. He’d only ever wanted to look out for her. He never saw what she actually wanted.
And it had cost him the one person who’d never asked him for anything but love.
I closed the video before it ended.
The story stayed in the headlines for weeks. Audrey lost everything – her job, her reputation – and clung to Julian like he was the only thing she had left.
When I saw Julian a month later at the courthouse, he looked hollowed out – dark circles carved under his
eyes, Audrey’s chaos written all over his face.
Even while we were signing the papers, Audrey wouldn’t stop talking – a nonstop stream of noise in his ear. He pulled his hearing aid out – the same move, the same shutdown – and let her scream into the silence.
Just like he used to do to me.
I watched it happen and felt nothing.
But the moment that final decree landed in my hands, something heavy I’d been carrying for years finally let
Julian called my name as we walked out of the courthouse.
“I’m sorry.”
I turned to face him. My expression gave him nothing.
“I don’t want your apology. I just want you out of my life.”
I watched him fumble to shove his hearing aid back in, and all I felt was a tired kind of amusement.
He got it in and looked at me, desperate. “What did you just say?”
I didn’t repeat it. I turned around and walked away.
Whether he heard me didn’t matter anymore.
All I knew was this – from here on out, my world no longer had room for the name Julian.
