“All you have to do is act cool and aloof. Everything else, I'll say for you.”
Back then I didn't overthink it. I only took it as his way of caring for me.
Now I understand.
The man he'd become was no longer that bright, spirited boy from college.
He'd started finding me an embarrassment long ago.
When I said nothing, my father, standing beside Leonard, snapped at me:
“Have you no manners? Leonard is speaking to you.”
“Is this how I raised you? To brush people off like they're beneath you?”
“From now on, don't tell people you're my daughter. I have no daughter like you.”
He clutched his chest like I'd worked him into a fit, and my sister rushed over to hold him up.
“Flora, it's all my fault. You're the one who's Leonard's girlfriend, and here I am stealing the spotlight.”
“If you're angry, take it out on me. Just please, don't upset Dad.”
“You're away all year, so you don't know. Dad's sick now. He can't handle these big emotional swings.”
She was always like this, playing the dutiful daughter in front of our parents.
But she'd never once known hardship. Never lived through it.
After graduation, our parents handed her thousands a month to sit at home and live off them.
Meanwhile, by my junior year of college, the money from home had already stopped coming.
All these years I'd worked wherever I could. Take a single day off, and I might be the one cut.
I watched the harmonious little family on the screen in silence.
My sister and mother propped up my father while Leonard hovered nearby, pouring tea, fetching water.
What a warm, loving family. If only Leonard weren't my boyfriend.
My mother scolded me too:
“Look at your sister, then look at yourself. How did I ever give birth to a daughter like you?”
“Since you're so heartless, don't bother coming back. From now on we only have one daughter, Cora.”
With that, she hung up.
I packed my things until the small hours, and only then did Leonard come stumbling home, drunk.
My sister was the one holding him up.
The moment he saw me, Leonard whined:
“Flora, why do you never think about how I feel?”
“Do you have any idea? Back in college, people around me were always mocking me for landing a mute girlfriend.”
“But I loved you, so I swallowed all of it alone. And now your own family tells me you were faking it. Do you know how much that hurts me?”
He threw his arms around me and buried his head against my shoulder, nuzzling the way he used to.
But all I felt was disgust.
My sister coaxed me from the side:
“Mom and Dad were just saying that in anger today. Don't take it to heart.”
“You and Leonard, work things out. He's a really good guy.”
I ignored her. I pushed Leonard off me, then signed the question to him:
【Did you open the birthday present I gave you?】
He wasn't happy that I'd pushed him away. He brushed me off:
“What present? Oh, that junky little gift box you mean. I don't even know where I put it.”
“It's always the same. You'd rather save a buck and give me some worthless handmade thing.”
My eyes dimmed. I reached out and took his phone.
He didn't try to grab it back. He was always so at ease letting me go through his phone.
I tapped it open.
It didn't take long to find his chat history with the doctor overseas.
Just as I thought, every question was about ears. Not a single word about my voice.
In that moment, the draft from the doorway snapped me fully awake.
But Leonard always could sense the subtle shifts in my mood.
He instantly slipped into a fawning tone and asked:
“Don't tell me our Flora got me something special this year?”
I shook my head and signed back:
【It's nothing. The usual.】
【If you don't like it, just toss it.】
It was a lie. Inside was a ventriloquist recording I'd spent half a year secretly teaching myself off the internet.
I just wanted him to hear my voice.
But now.
I looked at the expensive watch on his wrist.
The one my sister had posted on her feed yesterday.
And my heart died completely.
Sure enough, he lost all interest at once and shuffled back to his room, collapsing straight into bed.
My sister still hadn't left.
But I could see the smugness in her eyes, the kind she only ever showed to me.
This time, I didn't argue with her about why she was doing this to me.
I asked her:
【If you like him, just say so. Aren't you tired, keeping up the act all these years?】
