Chapter 1
The night I lost hearing in my left ear, Leon posted on his social media.
In the photo, Lily was holding a championship trophy, leaning against his shoulder.
The caption read: [I'll be with you through the hardest night.]
But that same night, I was struggling in the hospital too.
I called him twenty-three times.
He didn't answer a single one.
When the nurse asked where my family was, I was holding my phone, still stained with blood, and had to sign the surgery consent form on my own.
Later, I found out.The song Lily sang to win the championship was the opening track I'd spent three years writing for my concert tour.
The day I was discharged from the hospital, I went home to get the divorce papers.
Lily Evans was wearing my pajamas and sitting at my piano.
She leaned over to my deaf left ear, smiling as she asked,"Melody, can you still hear me?"
*****
When Melody was rescued, her left ear was still bleeding.
Her phone screen was cracked like a spider web, with Leon's name sitting at the very top of her call log.
Twenty-three calls.
Not a single one was answered.
The inside of the ambulance was chaotic, the stretcher wheels clattering against the door frame with a dull thud.
All Melody could hear was a piercing ringing in her right ear, like a thin needle relentlessly piercing her eardrum.
The nurse leaned in and asked her something.
"Where's your family?"
Melody watched her lips move, twice over, before she could finally make out the words.
She raised her still-moving right hand and dialed Leon's number on the screen.
The twenty-fourth call finally got through.
The first thing she heard was piano music drifting through the line.
She knew that intro by heart.
It was the opening song she'd spent years writing for her tour—no one else had ever heard the full thing.
Leon's voice came through after a few seconds.
"Melody, Lily's got tinnitus before the finals tonight. Don't make a scene."
The nurse held the phone closer to her ear.
Melody opened her mouth, but all she could taste was the metallic tang of blood in her throat.
"I got into a car accident."
There was a brief silence on the other end.
Lily jumped in right away.
"Leon, am I dragging you down again? You should go to Melody, I'll be fine on my own."
Leon lowered his voice.
"Send me your address."
Melody wanted to say she'd already sent her location.
Her blood-stained fingers swiped desperately across the screen.
The chat window was empty.
The location was gone.
As the ambulance turned, Melody's head slammed against the backboard, and the pain made her vision go white.
The nurse held her shoulder firmly.
"Don't move. We're almost at the hospital."
On the other end, she could hear Leon's footsteps, then they stopped.
Lily coughed softly.
Leon finally broke the silence.
"I'll send the driver to get you."
The call ended.
Melody stared at the black screen, her fingers slowly relaxing.
She used to think she was always just an afterthought to Leon.
But today, she realized it wasn't just about being less important.
She could be erased with a single swipe.
The lights in the ER hallway slid past overhead, one after another.
The doctor peeled back the gauze from her ear, his brow furrowed tight.
"Your left ear's badly hurt. Looks like the bones inside might be damaged. We need to get you into surgery right away."
Melody could barely catch what he was saying.
She just watched the doctor's mask move as he talked.
The nurse asked again.
"Is your family here to sign?"
Melody took the pen from the nurse.
The pen felt cold and reeked of disinfectant. Her hand trembled so much, the last letter of her name went off the line.
"I'll sign it myself."
When the surgical lights came on, she suddenly remembered the custom earpiece Leon had given her.
It was white, small, and engraved with her initials.
Before the accident, it had been in her ear.
Now, the nurse placed it in a clear bag, a small spot of blood staining the corner.
It was the tour she'd spent three years preparing for.
The deposit, the custom earpiece, the venue rental, the band rehearsal fees.
One by one, everything she'd poured her heart into had to be sacrificed for this surgery.
As the anesthesia was injected into her vein, Melody could still hear the beeping of the machines in her right ear.
The left side was fading into silence.
It felt like someone had just shut the door on half her world.
In that quiet, she realized the real noise wasn't the accident.
It was all those years she'd spent waiting for him to look back at her.