He Gave Me Hearing, Then Taught Me What Silence Really Means novel Chapter 294

The exhaustion of the day seemed to melt away under that gentle light. He reached out and rang the doorbell.

After returning from the auction house, Juniper had showered and was downstairs playing with Moonlight.

Hearing the chime, she checked the video monitor and saw who was standing outside. She ignored him, switched off the downstairs lights, and picked up Moonlight to head upstairs.

She had already set up a cozy bed for the puppy in her room.

Seeing the lights go out, Nelson gritted his teeth and mashed the doorbell a few more times. Finally losing his patience, he punched in the entry code and let himself in.

The ground floor was empty. She was already upstairs.

He softened his footsteps and made his way up.

Juniper was sitting on the edge of her bed in a silk slip. Hearing footsteps, she turned to see Nelson standing in the doorway of the master bedroom.

She shot to her feet, genuinely startled by the sudden intrusion.

"Get out."

Nelson's gaze dropped to her wrist. The bangle wasn't there.

His brows drew together. "Where did you put the bangle?"

It suddenly clicked. This was what Lydia had been plotting all along.

Lydia hands it over, and her faithful watchdog immediately comes to fetch it.

Frowning, she couldn't even muster the energy to argue. She pulled the bangle out of her purse. "Do me a favor and tell Lydia that if she can't afford to lose, she shouldn't pretend to be so generous."

Seeing the bangle and hearing her flippant tone ignited a furious fire in his chest.

She probably hadn't even realized he had offered this exact piece to her once before. She had rejected it, claiming it was too expensive, which had left him simmering with anger for days.

But looking at her now, it was obvious she had zero memory of the gesture.

The more he thought about it, the more his temper flared. "Can't afford to lose? Do you even know how much this is worth? It's enough to buy the lives of your entire family."

The moment the words left his mouth, a suffocating silence slammed into the room.

Buy her family's lives...

Her mother had just passed away. For Nelson to say something so callous was like driving a rusty blade straight through her heart.

She whipped around, snatched the bangle, and hurled it directly at his face.

Nelson instantly realized his mistake. He had forgotten Beatrice Lane was gone.

The jade struck him and shattered into several jagged pieces on the hardwood floor.

Juniper's voice was deathly quiet, though it trembled with barely contained agony. "You're right. My mother's life wasn't even worth two million. I could never afford something so precious."

He kissed her with bruising desperation, panic clawing at his insides, amplifying until his own lips began to tremble against hers.

Juniper lay perfectly still on the sheets, slowly closing her eyes.

Nelson buried his face in the crook of her neck. He was trembling imperceptibly. He didn't understand what was happening to him.

He was the one who had said the cruel thing, so why was his own chest tearing apart in agony?

He hovered over her for a long moment before claiming her with forceful possession. "Juniper... Juniper..."

Without her hearing aids, the world was silent.

No tears fell. She merely gripped the sheets, staring blankly at the ceiling. She couldn't even bear to look at him.

The mere sight of him made her physically nauseous.

From the innocent infatuation of their youth to the toxic chase of their present, she had never imagined they would end up like this.

Never in a million years.

"Juniper..."

Knowing he wouldn't get a response, Nelson continued to push forward in blind desperation, as if this physical connection was the only way to anchor his sanity.

He held her impossibly tight, while the shattered pieces of the bangle lay abandoned and lonely on the cold floor.