Chapter 2

My first morning at the Knight family's house, I woke up starving.

I hadn't eaten dinner last night. It was not because the Knight family was stingy or anything.

They actually brought it to my room, but I didn't hear them knocking. That was right, because I was deaf. A deaf person, remember?

I was so hungry I was about to pass out, feeling my way out of the room with my hand on the wall.

The Knight family's house was insanely huge. The hallway stretched on like a runway, with weird paintings I couldn't even understand lined the walls, and the carpet was so thick my footsteps didn't make a sound.

After fumbling around for ten minutes, I finally found the dining room.

I pushed the door open. Vincent was sitting at the head of the long table, a newspaper and a cup of coffee in front of him.

Hayes was standing nearby, reporting something. Three or four bodyguards in black suits were spread out across the table, having breakfast.

All eyes snapped to me.

I told myself to be relaxed. I was deaf. Deaf folks didn't get social anxiety. I couldn't hear anyone gossiping about me anyway.

I walked in stone-faced, sat down without a word, grabbed my fork, and started eating like nobody else was there.

Hayes glanced at me, then at Vincent, and lowered his voice, "Mr. Knight, about Mrs. Knight..."

Vincent turned the page of his newspaper. "Let her eat."

He added with a hint of amusement, "Let's see if she's really deaf."

He didn't bother lowering his voice. Any normal person would've reacted.

My hand didn't even flinch as I picked up another bread, chewing away like I was having breakfast at home.

Vincent, you could shout all you want. I was not scared.

Hayes caught on and suddenly shouted right next to me, "Luna, watch out! Someone's behind you."

I kept chewing my bread. I didn't even turn my head or bat an eye.

Hayes, your acting was even worse than mine.

Hayes nodded at Vincent. "Guess she really is deaf."

Vincent set down his newspaper and gave me a look. "Hey, little deaf one."

His tone was oddly playful, like he was messing with a cat that couldn't talk back.

I pretended I didn't hear a thing and polished off four pieces of bread and a plate of oatmeal like it was nothing.

Once I was done, I wiped my mouth, got up, and walked out. I didn't say a single word to anyone the whole time.

As I stepped out of the dining room, I heard Hayes say, "Mr. Knight, the Shepherd family told us their second daughter wasn't born deaf. She lost her hearing after getting sick as a kid.

"They've kept it a secret all this time, afraid it would damage their reputation."

Vincent grunted, "Fine."

Hayes hesitated. "So, is the marriage still on? Should we call it off?"

There was a brief silence. Then Vincent's voice drifted out, lazy and a little amused. "Let her stay. Quiet ones don't give me a headache."

I stopped at the hallway corner and let out a long sigh of relief.

Did that old man Grant actually go ahead and make up a whole backstory for me? Guess he finally did something useful for once.

For the next few days, I was pretty much invisible in the Knight family's house.

No one talked to me, and nobody bothered to ask where I was going.

My daily routine was basically: eat, sit in the yard and sunbathe, eat again, and just keep sunbathing.

Sometimes, if Vincent came home early, he'd be in the living room, working on business stuff from the couch.

I'd sit on the other side, holding a book and pretending to read. But honestly, my ears were on high alert, sharper than a rabbit's.

These people never, ever bothered to watch what they said around me. Not once.

*****

On the third night, Vincent was in the living room, taking a call. "Did you check the shipment at the Eastside Docks?

"Who's behind this?

"Bring them here. I'll deal with them personally."

I turned the page. So, their smuggling operation's moved over to Eastside Docks, huh? Guess I picked up a new piece of intel.

*****

On the fourth afternoon, Hayes was chatting with another guy in the garden.

"Did you hear? Rose's connection just got severed."

"Seriously? Wasn't she Mr. Knight's most trusted?"

"Yeah, that's exactly why. He trusted her too much, and she ended up embezzling a chunk of cash. Now Mr. Knight is digging into it."

I crouched by the flower bed, pretending to watch the ants.

Damn, an internal corruption scandal? I was more in the loop than their whole audit department.

*****

On the fifth morning, a thug named Kenzo was in the yard, talking on the phone so loud he might as well have been using a megaphone.

He said, "The Shepherd family's eldest daughter? Don't even mention her. She's vanished without a trace. She took off with ten million dollars of our deposit, you know?

"Mr. Knight hasn't blown up yet, but you should see the look on his face."

I was watering the flowers when my hand suddenly trembled, almost spilling water everywhere.

Ten million dollars? I thought my sister ran off because she was scared of marrying into the mob.

It turned out she took ten million dollars from the Knight family and bolted? Rachel, she was seriously badass.

I ended up soaking my own shoes. I looked down at them and shrugged. I was deaf, and no one would notice anyway. Inside, I was losing my mind.

Ten million dollars, Rachel? You ran off, but who was stuck with the bill? Me, the little deaf one, of course. Great.