Isaac Vaughn blurted out, "Really?" Then froze.
The heart he’d just managed to steady suddenly shattered, cracks forming everywhere in an instant.
He stood up. Walking toward Natalie, he asked, "Was it really loud?"
Natalie saw him coming over, his expression dark, and answered calmly, "Pretty loud."
Isaac stopped in front of her, reached out and brushed aside the hair draped near her cheek, and saw the hearing aid on her white ear.
He clenched his hand, the hearing aid digging into his palm.
"Sorry if we were too noisy. We’ll keep it down."
Natalie turned and went back to her room.
Not long after—
Isaac ca in.
She was lying in bed again, as if she’d never left. Like everything that happened was his hallucination.
From the angle Natalie couldn’t see, a montary look of horror flashed in his eyes.
But in the next second—
He sat down by the bedside, touched her back through the quilt, called her, "Little Ear, can we talk?"
After a mont, her impatient voice ca: "But I’m really tired."
"Sleep later."
Without waiting for her answer, Isaac grabbed her, blanket and all, and sat her on his lap.
He opened his palm, revealing the hearing aid he’d taken off her ear earlier.
"Why are there two?"
Natalie replied flatly, "One’s a spare."
"Mm." He closed his hand, looked into her eyes. "Did you hear everything?"
When he asked, his tongue felt wooden in his mouth.
Natalie tilted her head slightly and looked at him.
Isaac opened his mouth, his voice hoarse: "The things I said..."
"You weren’t wrong." Natalie gave a vague smile. "No one loves , really."
Her biological mother didn’t love her.
Cynthia Kendall didn’t love her.
Matthew Beckett didn’t love her either.
She knew it.
But knowing is one thing—hearing soone say it to your face is like being stripped naked and thrown into the street.
Utterly humiliating.
She slid out of his arms, sat on the bed, and looked at him.
"Except for that ten percent Beckett Group stock—oh, right, you said you never cared about that anyway."
"So I really don’t know, what value do you see in ?"
Natalie’s expression was genuinely confused. "I have nothing at all."
In this mont, Isaac felt his heart split into a thousand pieces.
First reaction: That doll!
She heard the voice recording inside the doll!
How—?
She didn’t even have her hearing aid in that day.
And afterwards, she acted totally normal.
Suddenly, a guess flashed across his mind.
"So that day at the hospital, you heard everything, didn’t you? All this ti, you’ve just been acting? Pretending you didn’t know a thing, is that right?"
Isaac reached out to hold Natalie’s hand.
She dodged.
He saw very clearly the flicker of contempt in her eyes.
Ha!
So she’s done pretending, huh?
Isaac gritted his teeth, forced her hand into his, holding it tight. "All that was just to shut my aunt up, it wasn’t what I really felt."
Natalie honestly thought Isaac was ridiculous.
Her face was emotionless: "You can’t even admit what you really feel?"
"My real feelings? You think you know what those are?"
Isaac gripped her hand even harder, hurting her.
Their eyes t.
He stared fiercely into her eyes.
Almost as if he wanted her to give in, pretend none of it ever happened.
Natalie suddenly felt a splitting headache, like a thousand needles stabbing at once.
She frowned, and raised the hand not held by Isaac to tap her own head.
"Little Ear!"
Isaac, alard, reached for her other hand to stop her from hurting herself.
"What’s wrong?"
"Don’t scare , baby."
He wrapped her up tight in his arms.
He hadn’t ant to hurt her so much.
She was never ant to hear those things.
Goddammit!
This whole thing is fucked!
Fucked and out of his control!
"Honey, I’m sorry."
He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed it softly. "I’m sorry you had to hear all that."
Natalie shuddered hard in his arms.
When she heard him call her "honey," all she felt was irony.
"Isaac Vaughn, am I really that stupid in your eyes? You throw ’love’ around and I actually believe it?"
"It’s true. Honey, it’s all true."
"Don’t call that!"
Natalie was fighting to keep herself together, to not fall apart.
Falling apart was too pathetic.
She refused to let herself be that pathetic.
She pushed him away, refusing to let him hold her so tightly.
"Why don’t we..."
Isaac, sensing what she was about to say, cut her off, "No, honey, you’re not in the right headspace now. Calm down and then we’ll..."
Natalie said it anyway: "Let’s break up."
Isaac’s eyes went cold and stormy, his heart seized by an invisible fist.
He clenched his jaw. "Should I just go die then?"
Natalie just felt so tired.
His threats drained her, body and soul.
She got out of bed, headed for the door, but he caught her in his arms from behind after only a few steps.
"Where are you going?"
"To sleep in the other room."
"I’ll go."
Isaac let her go, moved in front of her. "I’ll sleep next door. You stay here."
"I know you’re exhausted, just rest. Whatever we need to talk about, let’s do it later, okay?"
"Promise you’ll talk to then, will you?"
Natalie’s head ached, her whole body uncomfortable.
She just wanted to sleep.
To keep Isaac from pestering her, she nodded carelessly.
Isaac leaned over and placed a soft kiss on her forehead, then turned to close the door and left.
Natalie imdiately crawled back into bed, pulled the quilt over herself, and shut her eyes.
——
The next morning, Isaac was up early, busying himself, even personally making breakfast.
The usual sandwich Natalie liked, and a cup of hot milk.
But when he ca into the room to call her for breakfast, he found the bed perfectly made—like no one had slept there.
Everything of hers on the table, her clothes—all packed up and neatly put away.
She was gone.
Isaac imdiately dialed Natalie’s phone.
No answer.
He kept at it.
By the fifth call, she finally picked up.
Isaac, holding back his anger at first, asked, "Little Ear, where did you go? Out for a walk?"
Then, unable to hold it in, he snapped, "Did you run away?"
After a long while, Natalie’s cool voice ca through the phone: "I went back to Seaharbor."
"Okay."
Isaac took a deep breath. "I’ll head back right now. Wait for at ho, okay?"
Natalie said, "No. Isaac, don’t co looking for . I don’t want to see you right now. Let’s not see each other for a while."
With that, she hung up on him, rciless.
Isaac’s face twisted, terrifying in its fury. He cursed and slamd the phone into the bed.
"Isaac?"
Franklin Finch happened to co in, saw him raging, and joked, "What’s up? Face looks worse than death. Don’t tell Natalie dumped you? Ha!"
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