Chapter 1

That year of purest love, Wesley told me with red-rimmed eyes that her world was silent.

To scrape together the two hundred thousand dollars for her cochlear implant, I worked three jobs a day.

The calluses on my hands wore through layer after layer, and I couldn't even bear to buy a one-dollar bottle of water.

My friends all laughed at me for being foolish: "You're literally selling yourself to buy her an ear!"

I just smiled. As long as she could hear, anything I did would be worth it.

The day Wesley got her cochlear implant, she held me and cried for a long time:

"Ronald, you're so good to me. I'll never leave you for the rest of my life."

I held her tightly, planning out our future together.

The night I had saved up enough money to propose to her, I saw Wesley leaning against the window smoking and talking on the phone. The cochlear implant I had bought her was carelessly thrown on the floor.

Her friend's sharp voice came through:

"Have you actually fallen for that idiot? William will be back in three days!"

She laughed, her tone casual:

"What's the rush? I'm not done playing yet. When William comes back, I'll dump Ronald immediately."

I closed my eyes, my palms clenched tight.

So her deafness had all been an act.

My two years of wholehearted devotion had been nothing but a scam.