When My Right Ear Heard the Truth

I have mild hearing loss, and I can barely hear from my right ear. Ever since we were kids, Seren Arden has always stood on that side. "It's okay," she tells me. "I'll be your right ear." Years later, we're engaged, the invitations are printed, and everyone says I'm lucky to be marrying the girl who has looked out for me for most of my life. Then Ronan Holt transfers into Seren's company. He's charming, outgoing, and far too comfortable crossing boundaries. The first time we meet, his eyes go straight to my hearing aid. "So if you two get up to anything in bed, does she have to yell loud enough for the neighbors to hear?" My expression hardens, but Seren barely reacts. "That's just Ronan. He runs his mouth. Don't take it personally." Then comes the wedding rehearsal. I'm standing outside the room when I hear Ronan reading my vows aloud, changing the words as he goes. "I promise to be your ears, your crutch, and the pain in your ass you're stuck with the rest of your life." The room erupts in laughter. Seren laughs too. "Stop messing with his vows. You know he'll get upset if he hears you." Then Ronan asks her a question. "Do you even still want to marry him?" Seren is silent for two seconds. "The invitations are already out. What am I supposed to do, call off the wedding now?" I stand outside the door with the old headphones she gave me covering my ears. Once, she told me they would keep the noise out whenever she couldn't be there to protect me from it. For a moment, I almost believe they still can. But the rain has already stopped. And I no longer want to go inside. Chapter 1 I had just taken off my headphones when my fiancee, Seren Arden, stepped out of the room. She stopped when she saw me. "When did you get here?" I looked up at her. "Just now." Ronan Holt came out behind her, wearing his usual easy grin. "Hey, Adrian. We were just messing around in there. You didn't happen to hear us, did you?" He deliberately moved to my right side, where he knew I had trouble hearing. Seren frowned and shot him a look. "Do you ever stop fooling around?" Ronan shrugged. "My bad. I wasn't thinking. Can't blame me for forgetting Adrian's got a bad ear, though. I'll make sure I stand on his left next time." A few of the bridesmaids and groomsmen nearby laughed. I looked at Seren. There had been a time when anyone making a joke about my hearing would have wiped the smile straight off her face. She used to tell me there was nothing shameful about not being able to hear properly. The people rude enough to mock me for it were the ones who should be embarrassed. She simply took the sheet with our wedding vows from Ronan's hand and passed it to me. "Don't read too much into it. Ronan just doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut." I took the page from her. It was covered in edits, whole lines crossed out and rewritten. I'd originally written, "Thank you for being my right ear all these years." Ronan had changed it to, "Thank you for putting up with me all these years." A few raindrops had soaked into the paper, blurring the ink along one edge. Seren noticed and reached for it. "I'll have someone print you another copy." I stepped back before she could take it. "Don't bother." Her hand froze in midair. "Adrian Corbett." The moment she used my full name, I knew she was annoyed. Beside us, Ronan cleared his throat. "Yeah, that's on me. Guess I took the joke too far and stole your thunder." He gave an awkward little laugh before adding, "It's your wedding, after all. I only came to help, and somehow I ended up making everything about me. Can't blame you for being pissed. My fault." Something in his words seemed to remind Seren that we were still standing there in front of everyone. She walked over and took my hand. "Come on. It's pouring out there again. We should head back before it gets worse." Her palm was cold against mine. But all I could think about was what I'd heard earlier. "The invitations are already out. What am I supposed to do, call off the wedding now?" So that was it. Seren wasn't marrying me because she wanted to. She was marrying me because backing out now would be too much of a mess. I gently slipped my hand out of hers. "It's fine. I'll get back on my own." Seren stared at her empty palm, her expression darkening. "What's wrong with you now?" Now. That one word landed harder than it should have. A faint ringing started in my ears. Ronan stepped forward, lowering his voice. "I seriously didn't mean anything by it. Look, why don't I just apologize to him?" Seren put out an arm to stop him. "Don't. Adrian isn't that petty." Ronan raised an eyebrow at me. "See? She still can't stand to see me take the blame." Seren quickly moved half a step away from him, a flicker of discomfort crossing her face. "Adrian, he's talking nonsense." I nodded. She kept looking at me, as if she were waiting for me to say something else. I didn't. I simply folded the paper with my vows and slipped it into my pocket. "I'm heading out." Seren stopped me. "The wedding is in three days. Can you please stop acting like this?" My gaze dropped to the bracelet around her wrist. I'd given it to her for her birthday last year. Now the same bracelet hung from the hand blocking my way, and for some reason, it looked less like a gift and more like a shackle. I looked back at her. "Seren, I'm tired." Her frown deepened. "If you're tired, go home and get some sleep. Don't start acting up now of all times." Ronan leaned out from behind her. "Hey, Adrian, there's a ton to rehearse before the wedding. If you're not feeling up to it, I can always fill in for you. I did a pretty decent job with the vows just now." Someone laughed again. Seren didn't laugh this time. But she didn't tell him to stop, either. I looked away from her and picked up my headphones. Ronan must have knocked them earlier. One side of the adjustable headband had been jarred loose, and when I put them on, the right ear cup sat crooked. Wind slipped through the gap. I stared at them for a couple of seconds. Then I adjusted them as best I could, covered my ears, and walked out into the rain. Behind me, Seren's voice carried faintly through the downpour. "Enough with the sulking, Adrian. If you actually walk away from me today, don't expect me to come chasing after you again." I stopped for a moment. Then I kept walking. Chapter 2 The next morning, I got a call from the wedding planner asking me to come approve the names on the ceremony backdrop. By the time I arrived at the venue, Ronan was standing in the middle of the ballroom. He was dressed in a charcoal-gray suit, with a tie almost identical in color to the one I'd already chosen for my wedding suit. The coordinator visibly relaxed when she saw me. "Mr. Corbett, thank goodness you're here. Mr. Holt wants to replace the main backdrop with a design he came up with, but we didn't want to approve anything without checking with you first." I looked toward the stage. The backdrop had originally displayed two names in large lettering—Seren Arden and Adrian Corbett. Now, that had been replaced by a quote in sweeping script. My name had been reduced to a tiny line of text tucked away in one corner. Ronan smiled when he noticed me looking. "Don't take it the wrong way, Adrian. I just thought having your names plastered across the backdrop looked a little tacky. It's a wedding. It should have some class." Before I could answer, Seren looked up from the schedule in her hands. "I've seen the new design. I like it." The coordinator hesitated. "It's just that this is the main backdrop. Mr. Corbett's name is so small that it probably won't even show up in the photos." Ronan lifted his hands in surrender. "Forget it, then. I was only trying to help. Adrian has trouble hearing, so it's not always easy for him to keep up when everyone's discussing the details." Seren closed the wedding schedule. "We're using Ronan's design." I looked at her. "Seren, this is my wedding." Her expression didn't change. "It's my wedding too." I had no answer to that. Ronan came over and gave me an easy pat on the shoulder. "Come on, Adrian. Lighten up. You're getting married. You're supposed to be happy. If you keep walking around looking miserable, Seren's going to get tired of it too." He was standing too close. The sharp scent of his cologne was almost overpowering. I shifted a step away. "I don't like the design." For a split second, Ronan's smile disappeared. "Seriously, man? Is the design the problem, or do you just not want me here?" Seren rose from her chair. "Adrian, don't take your frustration out on him." I looked at her. "All I said was that I don't like the design. And don't call me 'man' like we're friends. We're not." "You know he's only trying to help." She came over and lowered her voice. "The wedding is in two days. Do you really have to make this uncomfortable for everyone?" Several members of the venue staff immediately found something else to look at. But I knew they were listening. There were plenty of things my bad ear kept me from hearing clearly. The weight of everyone's eyes on me wasn't one of them. Ronan sighed. "Forget it, Seren. Just use Adrian's version. You know he's always been a little sensitive about this stuff." Sensitive. There was that word again. Seren used to tell me I wasn't too sensitive. People simply needed to learn when they'd crossed a line. Now she stood on the other side of that line. She didn't even have to say anything. Her silence told me she agreed with him. I pulled up the original design and handed it to the wedding planner. "Use this one." Seren's expression turned cold. "Adrian." I didn't look at her. "My name is on the contract. I paid the deposit. So we're sticking with the design I approved." It was the first time I'd ever openly contradicted her in front of other people. For a moment, genuine surprise flashed across Seren's face. "Do you really need to keep score over something like this?" Ronan stood behind her. "Forget it, Seren. Don't fight with him because of me. If I'm causing this much trouble, I'll just leave." He turned as if to go. Seren immediately caught him by the arm. "No one's asking you to leave." The coordinator looked more uncomfortable by the second. "So... which design should we use?" Seren stared at me. "Adrian, don't push this so far that you can't take it back." I'd heard something almost identical yesterday. "The invitations are already out. What am I supposed to do, call off the wedding now?" So that was what all these years together had become—something neither of us wanted to make a scene by walking away from. I took the original design back. "Fine. Do whatever you want." Seren's expression eased a little, and Ronan smiled again. "Don't worry, Adrian. I'll make sure your wedding looks incredible." Before leaving the ballroom, I glanced back one last time. Bright white lights washed over the stage. My name was so small I could barely see it. Standing there, I suddenly thought maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. If I couldn't see it, I wouldn't have to look at it anymore. My phone buzzed. It was a private message from the wedding planner. It read, "Mr. Corbett, if you decide to cancel the wedding, the contract allows for a 60% refund of your deposit. We'd need confirmation by 5:00 pm today." I stared at the message for a long time. My thumb hovered over the screen, but I hadn't tapped anything yet when Seren called to me from behind. "Adrian, send me the menswear shop's number. Ronan needs to get his groomsman's suit." Chapter 3 I turned around. "Ronan isn't one of the groomsmen." "I'm adding him," Seren said. "It's one extra person. What's the big deal?" Ronan stood beside her with his hands in his pockets. "If Adrian doesn't want me in the wedding party, forget it. It's not like I'm dying to be a groomsman." Seren glanced at him. "Stop saying that." Then she looked back at me. "Adrian, it's just a suit." Just a suit. Just a few lines in my vows. Just a backdrop. Just a pair of headphones. Somehow, everything that mattered to me became just something the moment Ronan wanted a say in it. I unlocked my phone and sent Seren the contact information for the menswear shop handling the groomsmen's suits. Her expression finally softened. "See? Was that so hard?" I said nothing. By the time I got home, the living room was buried in boxes. There were wedding favor boxes, place cards, the guest book, and the thick wedding album I'd spent weeks putting together. It held our whole history, from grade school to high school and then college. I'd arranged every photo in chronological order myself. On the first page was a picture of Seren leaning slightly toward me, holding an open textbook upright to shield me from the boys behind us who wouldn't stop teasing me. A breeze had caught a few loose strands of hair by her cheek. On the back of the photo, I'd written a single line. "She was the first part of the world I learned to hear." Back then, I'd truly believed that. The doorbell rang. When I opened the door, Ronan was standing outside with two assistants from the wedding planning company behind him. He lifted the garment bag in his hand with a grin. "Hey, Adrian. I came to pick up my groomsman's suit. Figured I'd see if there was anything else you needed help with while I'm here." I stayed in the doorway. "There isn't." Ronan peered past my shoulder. "Wow. You've got a lot of stuff in there." Before I could respond, he squeezed past me and walked inside. I reached out to stop him, while the two assistants hovered awkwardly by the door. But Ronan had already spotted the album on the coffee table. He picked it up and opened it to the first page. A laugh escaped him. "Wow, look at you two. You were such dorks as kids." I walked over, took the album from him, and closed it. "Don't touch that." Seren's voice came from the doorway. "Ronan, didn't you say you were just here to pick up your suit?" She'd come too. Ronan immediately pulled his hand back. "Hey, I was only taking a look. Didn't realize Adrian would get so worked up about it." Seren looked at me. "He was just curious." I held the album against my chest. "I told him not to touch it." Her expression hardened. "Adrian, how long are you going to keep this up? No one's trying to take anything away from you." Ronan lowered his voice. "Seren, leave him alone. Maybe because of his hearing, he's always been a little more protective of his stuff. Makes sense he'd get insecure about people touching things." Seren didn't correct him. For two full seconds, she said nothing. I looked at her. Two seconds shouldn't have felt that long. But they were long enough for me to understand. She thought so too. Then Ronan noticed a pair of cufflinks on the coffee table. "Oh, hey." He picked one up. "Adrian, can I have these? They'd look pretty sharp with my suit." They weren't spare cufflinks. I'd gotten them specifically to wear with my wedding shirt. They were black onyx set in silver, each one engraved with the delicate outline of an evergreen branch. I'd loved that design for years. Seren knew exactly why. When we were kids, I'd once misheard "evergreen" as "everlasting". After that, every year on my birthday, Seren gave me something with an evergreen worked into the design. And every single time, she'd make sure I could see her lips as she said the same word—"everlasting". Now Ronan was holding one of them between his fingers, grinning as he asked if he could have the pair. "No." There was no hesitation in my answer. Seren walked over. "If he likes them, just let him have them. We can rush-order another pair before the wedding." I looked up at her. "Seren, you picked those out yourself." She froze for a second. Ronan glanced at me, then at her. "Wait, you chose these for him? Now I want them even more." He held the cufflink against the sleeve of his suit, admiring the effect. "What do you think? Looks good on me, right?" Seren didn't answer. But she didn't tell him to put it back, either. Suddenly, the wedding album in my hands felt unbearably heavy. My wrists actually ached from holding it. I lowered my head and placed the album back inside its box. Then I took out my phone and messaged the wedding planner. "If I want to cancel, I have until 5:00 pm today to confirm, right?" Her reply came almost immediately. "That's correct." I hadn't even finished typing my response when Seren suddenly snatched the phone out of my hand. "Who are you texting?" The screen was still lit. She saw the message. The entire living room fell silent. Seren stared at me, her voice dropping. "Adrian, what the hell is this?" Chapter 4 I reached for my phone, but Seren lifted it out of reach. "Answer me." Ronan leaned over to glance at the screen and gave a disbelieving laugh. "Cancel the wedding? Come on, Adrian. You're not serious, are you?" I kept my eyes on Seren. "Give me my phone." She didn't move. "You're really going to cancel our wedding over a few stupid things that happened this week?" A few stupid things. A quiet laugh escaped me. Seren's expression darkened. "Adrian, don't threaten me like this." "I'm not threatening you." "Then what are you doing?" She set my phone down on the coffee table but kept one hand over the screen. "You know both our families have already been invited. The venue's been booked. We've sent out hundreds of invitations. And now you want to cancel everything? Do you have any idea how humiliating that would be for me?" My gaze drifted to the cufflink Ronan had fastened to his sleeve. All at once, I was too tired to argue. "It won't be." Seren frowned. "I won't let you be humiliated." I should've understood a long time ago. It wasn't whether I was hurting that mattered to her. It was whether anyone else could see the cracks. Ronan gave Seren's shoulder a light pat. "Don't be mad. Maybe Adrian just wants you to make a fuss over him." Seren let out a cold laugh. "Haven't I done enough of that already?" She looked at me, lowering her voice. "Adrian, you've been like this since we were kids. If you couldn't hear something, I had to repeat it. "If you were upset, I had to figure out why. The second someone said something you didn't like, you would shut down and expect me to deal with it. I used to think you needed me. Now I'm just tired." I stood there without moving, my right ear ringing. But I heard every word. Every single one. Ronan spoke again, his voice gentler this time. "Seren hasn't exactly had it easy either. She's spent all these years looking out for you. It's her wedding too. She should at least get to have some of it the way she wants." Seren didn't disagree. My gaze fell on the charcoal-gray headphones lying nearby. When she'd given them to me, she'd said that whenever the world got too loud and she wasn't there, they could shut the noise out for me. I walked over and picked them up. Seren frowned. "You're leaving again?" I didn't answer. I simply held the headphones out to her. She didn't take them. So I set them down on the table in front of her. "You can have them back." Seren's eyes widened. Ronan picked up the headphones and turned them over in his hands. "These are pretty beat up anyway, aren't they? The padding's worn through, and even the hinges are loose. No wonder Adrian doesn't want them anymore." I stared at him. "Put them down." Something in my voice made Ronan freeze. The headphones slipped from his hand. They hit the floor, one side slamming hard against the leg of the coffee table. The headband snapped completely at the joint, exposing a tangle of fine copper wires inside. The living room went silent. The only sound left was the low hum of the air conditioner. Seren looked down at the shattered headphones. For the first time, her expression changed. But Ronan spoke before she could. "Sorry. I swear I didn't mean to drop them. Adrian, I was just looking at them." Seren seemed to snap out of it and instinctively stepped in front of him. "Adrian, they're an old pair of headphones. I'll replace them. I'll get you the newest model." I looked at her for a long moment. Then I crouched down and began gathering the broken pieces one by one. Seren reached for my arm. "Leave it. I already said I'll buy you another pair." I moved away from her hand. "Don't bother." Beside her, Ronan spoke quietly. "Seren, maybe I should go. I can't shake the feeling Adrian really doesn't want me around." Seren rubbed her temples. "I'll walk you out." Then she looked at me. "Stay here and cool off. The wedding is going ahead as planned, so stop making this harder than it needs to be." She made it all the way to the door before stopping. "Adrian." I kept picking up the pieces. "I know you can't manage without me. Call me when you've calmed down and thought this through." The door closed behind them. The apartment fell completely silent. I placed each broken piece of the headphones into a trash bag, then picked up my phone from the coffee table. There was one last message from the wedding planner. "Mr. Corbett, you have ten minutes left." I pressed the button to record a voice message. My voice was perfectly steady. "Cancel it."