Part 1Silent Echoes: Leaving the Playboy for the Billionaire

I am deaf. Whenever people gossiped about Declan Cross’s endless affairs, I would just turn off my hearing aids.

As long as he told me nothing happened, I believed him.

Until I brought him lunch at the office and saw his newly hired assistant straddling his lap.

Her body was soft, her eyes seductive:

"Declan, isn't it bad if I eat all the food your wife made for you?"

His familiar voice was low and hoarse: "It doesn't matter. It's just a meal."

Later, he spent twenty million dollars at a charity auction just for the chance to have dinner with me. But I didn't want it anymore.

* * *

"I'm telling you guys, absolutely no one is allowed into Mr. Cross's office this afternoon."

The executive secretary finished speaking and winked at the other assistants in the bullpen.

"I don't know what kind of background this new girl, Blair Kensington, has. She just got hired as his personal assistant, and now she’s getting really personal."

"You don't know her? She's the heiress to the Kensington Group! Their only daughter. She gets whatever she wants. If you ask me, the current Mrs. Cross is probably going to be..."

She made a slashing motion across her neck.

"The current Mrs. Cross has no money, no background, and she’s deaf. If it weren't for their shared history, he would have divorced her ages ago, right?"

The mocking voices drifted into my ears.

This time, I hadn't turned off my hearing aids.

Declan and I had our honeymoon phase too.

Back then, no one thought we would make it. Accurately speaking, no one thought I would make it.

I had no prestigious family background, and I was deaf.

Standing next to the golden boy, Declan Cross, I looked completely out of place.

But whenever we walked together, Declan would hold me tight, refusing to let go.

He wanted to bring me to work with him every single day.

His rich friends teased him, his employees catered to me, and everyone respectfully called me Mrs. Cross.

Unfortunately, good things never last.

I don't know exactly when he changed.

Maybe it was the first time he worked late and didn't come home.

Maybe it was the first time he went clubbing with his boys and didn't tell me.

Or maybe it was the first time he forgot our anniversary.

People often maliciously reminded me, dropping hints that Declan’s new mistresses looked a lot like me.

Whenever that happened, I would just turn off my hearing aids.

When we got married, Declan told me that everyone in his elite circle was driven by hidden agendas. He said I shouldn't believe a word they say.

I took that to heart. I smiled and asked him, "Then who can I believe?"

He said, "Harper. You can always trust me."

So, I would ask him if the rumors were true.

He would say, "No."

And I believed him.

I would ask him, "Do you still love me?"

He would say, "Yes."

He didn't know there was one sentence I never said out loud:

If you ever stop loving me, I will leave. I will never beg you to stay.

Declan was a notorious playboy, famous for his wandering eye.

I was the only one stupid enough to believe he would never do anything to betray me.

But Declan remained exactly who he was.

The people around him started treating me worse and worse. His friends joked that I was a desperate cling-on, and his employees stopped giving me any respect.

Listening to the secretaries gossip, a dull ache throbbed in my chest.

I thought I didn't care anymore.

"Ahem! Stop talking!" A sharp-eyed secretary spotted me.

She plastered on a fake, corporate smile:

"Mrs. Cross, you can just leave the lunchbox here. Mr. Cross is in a meeting right now. It's not a good time."

I dodged her outstretched hand.

"Is that so? Then I really need to see what kind of crisis is keeping him from eating his lunch."