Somewhere in the crowd of onlookers, a soft laugh slipped out.
My face burned. Without thinking, I turned to my parents, helpless, looking for something to hold on to.
But what came instead was my father's scolding.
"Are you done yet? It's Leonard's birthday, and you're standing here making that embarrassing noise. What is it you're trying to pull?"
My mother's eyes, too, landed on me full of disappointment.
"I raised you and Cora to carry yourselves with grace. Your sister is sick, and she manages it. You're perfectly healthy, and still you have to play the victim, fishing for pity."
"Florence, you really are a disappointment to me."
Their words pressed down on me, one after another, until my head bowed again.
Yes. When we were little, my sister smashed things around the house in a fit because she couldn't hear.
The grownups came running at the noise, and all they heard was my sister pushing the blame onto me.
"My sister did it. She was mocking me for not being able to hear."
"Mom, Dad, is Cora really never going to hear again for the rest of her life?"
My sister's voice was delicate, sweet to listen to.
And when everyone turned to look at me, all they could hear was the ugly, grating rasp scraping out of my throat.
In their eyes, that turned everything into guilt I could never argue my way out of.
So what exactly had I been hoping for? Hadn't they always trusted only what they themselves could hear?
I shoved the gift in my hand straight at Leonard, then turned and walked out.
Leonard's brows knit together.
He wanted to come after me, but my parents blocked him on either side.
"That's just how she is. The second she runs out of excuses, she loves to run away."
"It's your birthday. Let's just enjoy ourselves. Don't keep indulging her."
"I remember when she was little, we took her sister to the hospital and didn't bring her along, and she actually threw a fit and ran off from home."
"Not one of us went looking for her back then. In the end she came scampering home all on her own, didn't she?"
I waited at the door of the private room for ten minutes. Leonard never came out after me.
All at once I felt how absurd I was.
I stood in silence for a moment.
Then I took out my phone and started filling in the overseas transfer request.
I remembered Director Preston once mentioning that he had a doctor friend in Country A who specialized in treating deafness and muteness.
It happened to fit—send me over there, and I could get treatment while I worked.
But back then Leonard thought going abroad was dangerous and refused to let me go.
So it had been put off.
Now, without a shred of hesitation, I pressed send.
Goodbye. I'm going to find my own voice.
In the cab on the way home.
Director Preston approved my transfer request almost immediately.
【Figured you'd come find me one of these days, so I got your paperwork ready ahead of time.】
【Soonest you could leave is tomorrow night. The project over there is pretty urgent, so remember to get your bags packed as fast as you can.】
I was baffled. I'd only made up my mind about the transfer an hour ago.
Director Preston sounded surprised.
【Leonard didn't tell you?】
【Last month he suddenly came to me asking about my doctor friend, and about the cost of the treatment too.】
【He seemed pretty serious about it, so I passed him my friend's contact info.】
Reading the message on my phone, my heart lurched.
Last month was exactly when I'd brought Leonard home to meet my family for the first time.
A strange suspicion took shape in my mind.
I opened my chat history with Leonard to check it, and just then, in the company department group chat, I saw a video Leonard had posted.
In the video, Leonard, the birthday boy, stood surrounded by everyone as he made his wish.
The music behind it was my sister, standing beside Leonard, singing sweetly.
My coworkers piled on their well-wishes.
【Happy birthday, Team Lead Gilbert!】
Someone recognized the sister who wore the same face as mine, and asked:
