Chapter 2

I never told Garrett about my hearing loss.

Between guarding my fragile pride in front of the guy I loved and sweating under thick layers of hair in the dead of summer, I chose the hair.

Who would genuinely fall in love with someone broken?

Besides, Garrett and I didn't belong in the same world.

He rarely talked about his family background.

But even without him saying it, the wealth gap was impossible to ignore.

For instance, I accidentally saw on Instagram that the tiny silver stud in his left ear was a limited-edition luxury designer piece.

Or when he casually mentioned going skiing for the weekend, I had to spend half an hour Googling the luxury resort he casually dropped.

Another time on the phone, I heard someone in the background urging him to hurry down to a gala dinner.

He just replied flatly: "Got it. Tell them to start without me."

His tone was so casual, as if a black-tie charity gala was no different from grabbing a hot dog off a street cart.

Through that screen, I slowly caught glimpses of his lavish world.

Meanwhile, back then, I had to count pennies just to see if I had enough money left to pay for my routine audiology therapy at the end of the month.

One afternoon, right as I walked out of the clinic, a nurse chased after me.

"Miss Johnson, you dropped your appointment slip!"

The doctor next to her caught it and handed it to me.

I took it with an embarrassed smile. "Thank you so much."

Unfortunately, Garrett heard that over the phone.

The line went silent for two beats.

"That guy again?"

My chest tightened. "Yeah."

His tone turned flat. "You two seem pretty close."

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "He literally just picked up a piece of paper for me."

Silence lingered on the line.

"We've been dating for so long, yet I've never heard you compliment me like that."

"You talk to him about the weather and hobbies."

"You never tell me anything about your life."

Whenever conversations steered toward that territory, I played dead.

What was I supposed to say?

Confess that I was practically deaf, struggling to afford basic groceries while counting pennies for medical bills?

Those words stayed lodged in my throat. I couldn't utter a single syllable.

At that moment, soft piano music played in Garrett's background.

He was attending a friend's wedding. The officiant had just told the bride and groom to share their vows.

The bride wept through a heartfelt poem she had written.

When it was the groom's turn, he stood silent for a long time.

In the end, all he managed to choke out was: "I promise I'll take care of you."

The crowd erupted into applause.

A soft chuckle escaped my lips.

Their wedding was lavish, straight out of a fairy tale movie, yet the words they exchanged were simpler than anything else.

"Chloe."

Garrett suddenly called my name.

Through the phone, his voice was thick with emotion.

"Have you ever thought about marrying me?"