Hearing my familiar voice, my adoptive mother on the other end of the phone was so excited that she almost fainted.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t contacted her for a while.
"My dear, mom and dad have always treated you as our own daughter. We have always respected your choice and will never sacrifice your happiness for our own interests!"
"Don't talk about married or not for now. I heard from your brother that you have a boyfriend who you have been dating for three years and you love him to death, right?"
After a moment of silence, I couldn't control my emotions and cried out, "Mom and Dad, this should have been over long ago. Now I just want to be with you."
In the evening, I returned to the villa that Felix bought for me.
At the beginning, in order to prove my ability to my parents, I took the initiative to stop living expenses, but naively relied on Felix for support.
After being Felix's canary for three years, he gave me tens of thousands of rare treasures.
We went to more than a dozen countries for our honeymoon together, leaving behind more than a dozen thick photo albums. Keeping these now would only made people sick.
I personally sent the valuable gifts to the pawn shop and exchanged them for a long string of numbers in my bank card.
Then I threw the photo album into the fireplace and burned it to ashes.
At the same time, another call came in from Rockbottom.
"Alice, my parents said you are going back to Rockbottom. Did you encounter anything there?"
It was my brother William's voice. I didn't want my brother to worry too much, so I just used vague words to evade the question.
"I'm fine, I just miss home."
"By the way, brother, I have passed the bar exam. I want to work in our family's law firm in the second half of the year. Do you have any objections?"
William was surprised by my decision, but he agreed readily.
"Why would I have any objection? I'd love to have it. You're a top student at the University of Chevening Political Science and Law!"
After a few seconds of silence, William on the other end of the phone seemed to have noticed something was wrong.
"Alice, I heard from my parents that you decided to leave your current boyfriend. Have you been wronged? If so, you must tell your brother. Your brother will protect you."
My brother's concern made my heart astringent and tears instantly welled up in my eyes.
In an instant, the words I just heard outside the door and the countless times that Felix's camera was aimed at me flashed through my mind...
How could I be so confused that I became a joke among others and a tool for him to have fun.
"No, I'm fine. Leaving him is my own choice."
Hearing my answer, my brother's tone seemed to have relieved some of his tension.
"Alice, you are always the best in my heart. There are many excellent colleagues in our circle, all of whom have good family backgrounds and looks. If you want to meet them, the people chasing you can line up from China to France. But no matter what, we will respect your choice."
The moment I hung up the phone, the door of the villa was also pushed open.
Felix came out of the house in a suit and saw me squatting in front of the fireplace and the photos scattered on the ground.
"Alice, what are you doing?"
I picked up the photos calmly and threw them into the flames in front of him.
"Nothing, just some duplicate photos. It takes up too much space to keep them, so it's better to burn them."
Felix's eyes reflected the fire in the fireplace and he never suspected that I was different.
He hugged me tightly from behind, greedily sniffing the fragrance of my hair.
The hot and wet kiss went from behind the ear to the neck and Felix pressed down. Suddenly, his eyes were startled and his lips stopped on the empty neck.
"Where is the Heart of the Ocean I gave you? Didn't you always wear it around your neck before?"
I turned my face to the side, just thinking of a reasonable excuse.
"It rushed into the sewer when I was taking a shower today."
"Felix, I'm tired. I have to go to school to attend the graduation ceremony tomorrow morning. I'll sleep in the second bedroom tonight."
Felix rubbed my head and a gentle smile overflowed from his eyes.
I couldn’t tell whether it was deliberate or a show on the spot.
"Okay, go to bed early, I'll ask the driver to take you tomorrow morning."
An earthquake fifteen years ago took away my hearing and the lives of my biological parents.
My father's friends, that was, William's parents adopted me. I had a new family, so I rarely thought about that broken past.
Later, with my own efforts, I became the first hearing-impaired graduate since the founding of the University of Chevening of Political Science and Law and one of the few hearing-impaired people in Germany who passed the bar exam.
According to the original plan, I would give a speech on stage as an outstanding student representative tomorrow. In order to show the best speech state in front of the public, I had practiced speech for several months.
Just a sudden notice turned my efforts of these days into bubbles.
[Alice, the leader asked me to tell you that your speech at the graduation ceremony was cancelled and replaced by someone else.]
My right hand holding the phone trembled slightly and I typed frequently to try to reason, but after repeated entanglements, I still cleared it.
Then another line of words popped up in the dialog box.
[It was a person inserted by the school director, named Celine Murphy. There is nothing we can do when we encounter such a person with connections.]
On the day of the graduation ceremony, I met Celine for the first time.
She stood high above me in the position that should have belonged to me, covering up my existence with the identity of "outstanding alumnus".
Although I felt a little disappointed, I finally accepted it calmly. But my best friend couldn't stand it.
"Alice, you prepared for such a long time, but the speech was replaced by a relative who came out of nowhere. I'm worried for you!"
In fact, this speech had no other benefits for me except the opportunity to show my face. It was better to had less trouble than more. Besides, I could work in the Grey Family's law firm after graduation and I didn’t need the so-called "speech" to fill my resume.
The graduation ceremony ended with the principal's speech. At that time, my mobile phone received an unmarked text message.
[I am Celine Murphy, Felix's fiancée and I want to meet you.]
[Just go to the western restaurant at the back door of the school. I just returned to Germany and can't get used to the local food.]
I did not choose to change out of casual clothes, but just wore the simplest shirt and went to this "Fancy Banquet" alone. Opposite, Celine wore a high-end brand beaded suit, a brooch on her chest and exuded the scent of a thousand-dollar perfume.
Seeing me approach, she slowly put down the menu in her hand and smiled at me with a deep meaning.
She greeted me, "Hello, Miss Swift. Nice to meet you. I am Celine Murphy."
She started to explain, "We are quite predestined. Five years ago, I was also a student of the University of Chevening Political Science and Law. I just graduated from the London School of Economics this year. I am your predecessor."
I was unmoved. I had long understood the hidden meaning of this woman's words.
I looked at Celine's face calmly and then put on a polite smile. "Miss Murphy, you flew all the way from the UK, not to submit your resume to me, right?"
Celine's face changed and she was a little confused by my calmness.
I guess she might have thought that I would hysterically compete with her for the position of the main owner, but she never expected that I would be so unmoved by her appearance. Because I had seen through Felix a long time ago, I knew he didn't love me.
Celine frowned slightly, sneered and then said straight to the point, "I've heard that Miss Swift is very smart and is the first hearing-impaired graduate of the University of Chevening Political Science and Law. I think you should understand..."
"Felix is fickle-minded. He has many children outside. As his fiancée, I have always seen it. But I have lived abroad for a long time and I have not been able to eradicate him all these years. Of course, Felix will get tired of you one day. But we are about to get married. If you continue to stay with him, it will not be good for you or me."
In between the sarcasm, Celine looked up and down at my clothes and seemed to have grasped the key point again.
"I can compensate you for Felix. You just need to mention a number and I can add six zeros to the end."
After hearing these ridiculous words, I couldn't help but sneer.
"No, Miss Murphy, I'm not so poor that I need your money for help. You can keep this money for yourself and treat it as my wedding gift to you."
I turned around and left decisively. When I reached the door, a woman's scream suddenly came from the hearing aid.
After I turned around, I found that Celine had caught up with me.
"Alicia, you are really shameless. You have been with Felix for a long time and you really take yourself seriously!"
Celine found the hearing aid behind my ear at some point and she suddenly had evil intentions in her heart.
In order to vent her anger, she reached out and pulled the hearing aid behind my ear and then threw it to the ground and broke it into pieces.
The sound of the world instantly left me. The dizziness and insecurity instantly overwhelmed me, almost making it impossible for me to stand.
I forced myself to shake off Celine's hand and the strong recoil made me fall backwards, but I didn't expect to accidentally bump into a large and warm embrace.
I looked up in panic, only to see Felix's face dark, staring coldly at everything that happened in front of him.
I saw Felix's lips tremble slightly, so I tried to interpret them with lip reading, but I couldn't understand what he said.
Later, I realized that he and Celine were talking in French.
"Celine, why did you return home early?"
But Celine was already furious at that time. She stared at me in Felix's arms with resentment and tried to step forward to punch and kick me, but she never thought that Felix would push me away.
Celine staggered to the corner of the table to stand steady, then pointed at me who was silent and scolded, "Felix, do you know what you are doing! You are bored and go to play with her, but don't fool yourself!"
In the fierce argument, I felt that my center of gravity was suddenly unstable and I fainted on the cold floor.
When I woke up, I was the only one in the huge VIP ward.
I took my phone off the table with difficulty, but after unlocking it, a series of pop-up messages dominated the screen.
It was a bombardment of messages from my bestie and a link to a forum.
[Alice, are you there!?]
[Now a group of people on the school forum are spreading rumors about you. It's so hateful, you should quickly refute the rumors!]
Clicking on the forum link, I was shocked by the explosive title.
[Frontline of gossip, Alicia Swift, a hearing-impaired beauty from the Law Department, was caught red-handed by the real owner and the man accused the real owner of moral corruption]
A video was attached to the post, which was the video of Celine and I arguing in the Western restaurant yesterday.
The comments below were full of abuses from friends and many netizens who didn't know the truth came to join in the fun.
Some people speculated that I was born in poverty and sold my body for four years in college to be supported by my sponsor. Some even posted my face photo and student ID, which "confirmed" the crime.
Later, even my mobile phone number was exposed and hundreds of harassing text messages were sent in just ten minutes.
When I was at a loss, the door of the VIP ward was pushed open without warning.
I saw Felix rushing in, dusty, followed by a few of his friends.
He hurriedly trotted to my bedside and squatted down, his face full of unresolved sorrow. Felix's big, bony hands tightly grasped mine, as if he was afraid that I would leave in the next second.
I took out my phone and directly put the overwhelming abuse in the forum in front of Felix.
Even though I already knew the truth, I still waited for his explanation expressionlessly.
