He Gave Me Hearing, Then Taught Me What Silence Really Means novel Chapter 406

Lydia smiled at him. She never could have imagined Leo would go this far—that he would actually murder his own grandmother.

She had always known his mental state was fragile. He obeyed her every word like a naive child, trusting her implicitly without a shred of doubt.

Leo loved her, treating her commands as absolute gospel. Yet this ruthless, cold-blooded killer wore the face of a harmless, gentle boy. That was the most terrifying part of all.

Juniper was locked away in a suburban house for an entire week. Her phone had been confiscated, cutting off any chance of her signal being traced.

The moment she heard about the old lady's death, she felt a massive, suffocating web closing in around her. She remembered with horrifying clarity how Leo had drugged her that night. Yet, he hadn't laid a finger on her. He had intentionally left her alive.

Was it a twisted act of mercy, or did he simply believe that even if she lived, she could never crawl her way out of this hell?

Juniper saw no one for seven straight days. Every day, a piece of plain bread was tossed through the window slot. The constant chirping of birds outside told her she was definitely not in the city.

The old lady was dead, and she was imprisoned here by Nelson's men. Given the crisis, Nelson was undoubtedly up to his neck in chaos.

She mechanically picked the bread off the floor and forced it down. Eating nothing but dry bread for a week had triggered severe stomach cramps.

But that afternoon, they didn't toss in bread. Instead, they delivered a plate of overwhelmingly spicy food.

It was as if whoever was pulling the strings was deliberately torturing her—feeding her dry bread until her stomach tore itself into knots, only to follow it up with something so fiercely spicy it would burn her from the inside out. Her only alternative was starvation.

Juniper knew Nelson was consumed by rage. She, too, was burning with a fury so intense it made her bones ache.

She couldn't stop the flood of memories—the old lady's endless kindness, the realization that taking her to the countryside to relax had all been part of a monstrous conspiracy.

Not knowing if there were cameras watching her, Juniper forced herself to eat every last bite of the burning food. Then, she clutched her stomach, dragged herself to the bathroom, and threw up until she was covered in a cold sweat. If being lucid meant enduring this agony, she would rather slip into a delirious haze.

She was given no medication. It felt as though she had been entirely forgotten.

She curled into a tight ball on the rug, clutching her stomach, every muscle in her body trembling with tension.

Perhaps it was the agonizing pain, but disjointed fragments of memory violently tore through her mind. She *had* seen Leo before. At the hospital?

But the memory was too blurry. She braced herself against the wall, stumbling back to the toilet to vomit again. By the time she cleaned herself up and dragged herself to the window, she passed out completely.

She woke up in the dead of night to find a figure sitting by her bed.

Nelson wasn't looking at her. He was staring out at the starlight, swallowed by an impenetrable, suffocating darkness.

The reason was simple: Leo had actively distanced himself from the family's brutal power struggles since day one. He had zero motive.

Moreover, Leo visited the old lady every single year. If he wanted her dead, he would have done it years ago.

And why would he frame Juniper? He had never even met her. He likely didn't even know she existed. He paid zero attention to family politics and had always been entirely indifferent toward Nelson.

There was no motive. Not a single shred of it.

Juniper slowly lowered her hand, suddenly realizing her cheeks were wet.

This wasn't the first time she had been backed into a corner, but the scale of this disaster was insurmountable. She couldn't even walk freely in the city anymore. The rest of the Saint family would tear her to pieces.

Nelson's voice sliced through the silence, dripping with absolute ruthlessness. "I'm having my men put you on a plane out of the country. Do not ever come back."

With that, he stood up and turned toward the door.

The words sent an explosive shockwave through Juniper's brain. She ripped off the covers and threw herself out of bed.

But Nelson moved too fast. She couldn't catch him, managing only to drag herself to the doorframe. "Nelson!"