He Gave Me Hearing, Then Taught Me What Silence Really Means novel Chapter 29

The preschool principal, who had been waiting to continue the tour, watched the scene unfold and didn't dare make a sound.

A second later, Lydia's demeanor shifted entirely. She crouched down, her voice dripping with artificial warmth. "Mommy was wrong. Mommy is just upset because Daddy left, so Josie has to work hard to make Daddy stay with us, okay?"

"Okay," Josie sniffled, nodding.

Lydia patted the girl's head, but her eyes remained chillingly dark.

In the distance, Nelson had followed Juniper and forced his way into her cab.

Juniper hadn't expected him to follow her. Her face flushed with anger. "Get the hell out."

She was so out of sorts that when she accidentally met the cab driver's gaze in the rearview mirror, it felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over her head, leaving her entirely rigid.

She could read the driver's expression perfectly. To him, she probably looked like a hysterical, unreasonable lunatic.

In the past, everyone had praised her. They said she was sensible, that her parents were blessed to have such an obedient, driven daughter.

But then the narrative shifted. They said she went crazy over a man. They said a golden phoenix could never fly out of a mountain slum.

Juniper hated losing control like this.

Her fingers curled inward. She turned her head toward the window, refusing to speak another word.

Nelson's phone rang. It was Josie.

"Daddy, where did you go?"

The child's voice was thick with tears, sounding incredibly pitiful.

Juniper heard Nelson's voice soften instantly. "I'll be right back. Go look around inside with Mommy for a bit."

"But I want to be with you."

"I'll be back in two hours."

After hanging up, he looked at the driver. "Drive."

"Where to?"

Before he could answer, a familiar, grating voice cut through the air.

"Juniper? Nelson?"

It was the woman who had endlessly mocked her at the class reunion.

She was dressed sharply in heels and carrying a designer bag. She lived in the same complex, but The Hawthorn Residences was a sprawling maze of thirty-story towers. Running into each other without planning was a bizarre coincidence.

Audrey Vance stared at them, her eyes wide with shock. "What are you two doing together?"

Immediately, the shock shifted into blatant disgust. She clearly assumed Juniper was hopelessly stalking him.

Juniper turned and started walking toward the lobby, completely ignoring her, only to hear Audrey put on a syrupy sweet voice for Nelson. "Nelson, did she trick you into coming here? She's a master manipulator. Everyone knows what happened back then. Honestly, if it hadn't become such an embarrassing scandal, her mom wouldn't have locked her in the psych ward—"

Before she could finish her sentence, a plastic water bottle flew through the air and slammed into her shoulder. She shrieked.

Juniper stood there, her fists clenched white, vibrating with rage as if Audrey had just ripped open her deepest trauma. "Shut up!"

Audrey was genuinely terrified by the sheer ferocity in her eyes. After all, the old rumors claimed Juniper suffered from delusions and hysteria, hallucinating that Nelson was in love with her. Who knew if she was actually unhinged?