Chapter 1
Series 1 Chapter 1
My husband called me useless while I was cutting his steak.
The knife in my hand stopped.
Not because of his words.
Because my hearing processor suddenly disconnected.
The restaurant instantly fell into absolute silence.
The surrounding chatter, background music, and the clinking of dishes and plates—all disappeared.
A red warning flashed across the phone screen:
DISCONNECTED.
Nathan immediately noticed.
He leaned closer, moving his lips slowly and exaggerating each word as if I were a child.
“Can’t hear me now?”
I looked at him.
Then I nodded.
That was the mistake he had been waiting for.
Nathan laughed.
Not the worried smile he had worn when my hearing first began to deteriorate.
Not the gentle smile he showed the rest of the world.
This smile was different.
It was the smile of someone who believed he had finally won.
He raised his glass, turned slightly, and looked at the woman sitting beside him.
Genevieve.
The woman he introduced as “just an ordinary friend.”
She looked at him and smiled.
“So she really can't hear anything?”
Nathan glanced at me.
Then he lowered his voice.
“She can't hear anything.”
A few seconds later, the warning on my phone remained, but the backup channel connected.
I didn’t know why it happened.
I only knew one thing.
I could hear him.
The warning still glowed on my phone.
But I could hear.
The first words that came through the restored channel were my husband’s.
“She's no longer useful.”
My fingers gripped the fork tightly.
Genevieve looked at him.
“Don't you feel a bit guilty saying that?”
Nathan chuckled softly.
“Why should I feel guilty?”
The man sitting across from me had held my hand through every hospital appointment.
He had told me I was all he would ever need.
But now he spoke about me as if I weren’t sitting there.
“She relies on that device for everything,” he said. “Without it, she doesn’t even know what’s happening around her.”
Genevieve took a sip of wine.
“Then why do you keep playing the perfect husband?”
Nathan looked at me.
I lowered my head, pretending to adjust the position of my hearing processor.
“I need her to keep trusting me.”
My heartbeat stumbled.
Trust me.
Those three words hurt me more than any insult.
Because I had trusted him.
For ten years.
When my hearing began to fade, I trusted him.
When he told me he would always be by my side, I trusted him.
When he said Genevieve was just an ordinary friend, I trusted him.
Nathan picked up a piece of shrimp and placed it in my bowl.
“Eat a little more,” he said gently.
His voice softened again.
Almost loving.
“Tomorrow will make everything easier.”
I looked at the food he had placed in front of me.
Then I looked at the wedding ring on his hand.
That was the ring I had chosen with him ten years ago.
That same hand had just been touching another woman beneath the table.
I picked up my phone, pretending to check my hearing settings.
The screen still displayed:
DISCONNECTED.
Nathan thought I was living in a silent world.
He thought he could say anything in front of me.
He didn't know that, for months, this was the first time I could hear every word clearly.
And now I finally knew who my husband really was.