After Edwin James left, the Henson house stayed quiet all afternoon.

Not because anyone felt sorry for me.

Because they were afraid word of the broken engagement would get out and sound bad.

At dusk, Brendan called me into the study.

A gala program sat on the desk.

*Hear Love, Step Into a World Without Sound*

I turned a couple of pages.

"A charity gala for the hearing-impaired?"

Brendan nodded.

"The Henson family holds it every year."

"You've just come home. This is a good chance to be seen."

He spoke very slowly, as if afraid I wouldn't understand.

"Lottie, a formal occasion isn't like being at home."

"When people ask you something and you can't hear it clearly, just smile."

"Sabina will help you."

I looked at him.

"I stand there, and she speaks for me?"

Brendan frowned.

"She's more familiar with how it runs."

There was a knock at the door.

Sabina came in carrying tea.

"Dad, I can go with my sister."

"It's her first time at something like this. She's bound to be nervous."

"If anything complicated comes up, I'll handle it for her."

I lowered my eyes to the program.

The host's script read:

*Miss Sabina Henson has devoted years of attention to the hearing-impaired community and took part in the community caption-screen initiative.*

My finger stopped.

"Caption-screen initiative?"

Something flickered in Sabina's eyes.

Brendan said:

"A charity project Sabina did a few years back."

"Installing little screens for the elderly in the community, so they can see queue numbers and notices."

I looked up.

"You did that?"

Sabina smiled softly.

"Sister, it's all just helping people."

"There's no need to draw such sharp lines about it."

I didn't smile.

That set of screens was originally called *Old Street Can Hear*.

My adoptive father built it while he was still alive.

The soup shop had a lot of elderly customers who couldn't catch the numbers being called, so he rebuilt an old monitor into a small screen.

I helped him enter the text, adjust the brightness, test the delay.

Later the clinic, the shoe-repair shop, and the community center room all had them installed.

After my adoptive father passed, I organized the schematics and submitted them through the charity platform.

I never thought I'd see them again under Sabina's name.

I set the program back on the desk.

"I don't need her to speak for me."

Brendan's face darkened.

"Lottie, don't throw a tantrum."

Sabina's eyes reddened at once.

"Dad, don't blame my sister."

"She probably just feels I've stolen her spotlight."

I looked at her.

"Is it the spotlight you stole?"

Her face went white for an instant.

The night of the gala, a lot of the Henson family showed up.

The lights were very bright.

There were plenty of cameras too.

The moment I walked in, a staff member handed me a badge.

*Hearing-Impaired Experience Guest*

Sabina stood at the side of the stage in an evening gown, waving to me gently.

"Sister, go sit in the audience for now."

"When the host mentions you, just smile."

I set the badge back on the sign-in table.

"So I'm not a member of the Henson family."

"I'm material."

The staff member lowered their head, embarrassed.

Edwin James stood beside Sabina, comforting her in a low voice.

"Don't be nervous."

"Tonight you're the one giving the speech."

The music started.

The host introduced Sabina.

The big screen lit up.

The first slide read:

*Sabina Henson: Standing With the Hearing-Impaired Through Gentle Companionship*

The next slide was a photo of the little screen in the Old Street soup shop.

The one after that was the queue-number screen at the community clinic.

In the corner, you could still see the label my adoptive father had written by hand.

Only the credit had changed.

It had become Sabina.

She stood under the lights, her voice soft as water.

"Ever since I was little, I've felt that people who can't hear deserve to be seen."

"These years, I haven't done much. I just didn't want them to be alone."

Applause broke out.

Ethan sat next to me and said quietly:

"See? Sabina's always been kind."

I looked at the big screen.

"Sure."

"Kind enough to take a dead man's schematics and use them to gild herself."

Ethan's face changed.

"What are you saying?"

I didn't answer.

On stage, Sabina finished and went backstage.

She thought the microphone was off, and thought I couldn't hear.

But the red light on the control panel was still on.

She lowered her voice and said:

"Don't let Lottie Bishop go up later."

"The second she opens her mouth, she sounds too deaf."

"Just let her sit in the audience as material."

The line jumped up on the small monitor at the control desk.

【The second she opens her mouth, she sounds way too deaf.】

【Just seat her in the audience as filler. That's enough.】

The staffer panicked first. He reached out to kill the captions.

I caught his hand.

"Leave it."

His face went white.

"Miss Bishop, this is a minor glitch."

I looked at him.

"It's not a glitch."

"It's what she said."

Backstage, Sabina still hadn't noticed.

She was touching up her lipstick.

Her assistant asked quietly beside her:

"What are we going to do about the experience-sharing segment?"

Sabina's voice was soft.

"Just have her go up and stand there."

"She won't catch the host's questions anyway."

"I'll answer for her when the time comes."

The staffer glanced at me, and his face turned worse.

Onstage, the host had already moved into the next segment.

"Next, let's invite the daughter the Hensons just recovered, Miss Lottie Bishop, to the stage."

The lights swung toward me.

Ethan dropped his voice.

"Don't say anything out of line."

"Tonight is the Hensons' event."

I watched his mouth.

"So?"

He frowned.

"Sabina didn't mean it just now."

"Don't cling to one sentence."

I smiled.

"One?"

"How many did you hear?"

Edwin came over too.

He planted himself in front of me and kept his voice low.

"Lottie."

"Everyone here tonight is somebody."

"Do you really want to embarrass the Hensons?"

I opened the captions on my phone.

His words popped up on the screen.

【Do you really want to embarrass the Hensons?】

I held the phone up for him to see.

"Was it me who put the embarrassing part out there?"

"Or was it her, saying it?"

Edwin's face darkened.

"You're too sharp."

I nodded.

"Not as soft-edged as the rest of you."

"Cutting people open and calling it doing me a favor."

Onstage, the host had already called my name a second time.

Brendan sat in the front row, his face grim.

Valerie's eyes were red. She wanted to come pull me back.

Sabina finally emerged from backstage.

The moment she saw me still sitting, she put on a worried look.

"Sis, are you nervous?"

In front of everyone, she walked over to me.

Bent down, took my hand.

Her voice was soft enough to drip.

"It's okay."

"If you can't hear clearly, I'll go up with you."

"Whatever the host asks, I'll say it for you."

The camera was pointed right at her.

She really knew how to pick her angle.

I pulled my hand back.

"No need."

Sabina's eyes went red at once.

"Sis, don't push yourself."

"I'm just afraid you'll mess up."

I looked at her.

"Afraid I'll mess up."

"Or afraid I'll open my mouth?"

Her lips trembled.

People around us were already whispering.

"So this is the one they found?"

"Why is her temper so strange?"

"Sabina really has it hard."

"Hearing-impaired kids are sensitive, that's for sure."

I stood up.

There was still faint static in my hearing aid.

The light landed on my face, harsh.

All at once I thought of the little screen outside the soup shop.

Every time letters flashed across it, Grandma would tap the rim of a bowl.

"Lottie, see that?"

"The soup's ready."

She never once thought I was a bother. She only worried I'd let a hot meal go cold.

I walked up onto the stage.

The host passed me the microphone.

"Miss Bishop, we hear that Miss Sabina stood by you and pushed the community caption-screen project forward."

"Is there anything you'd like to say to her?"

Sabina stood at the side of the stage, tears held in her eyes.

As if waiting for me to thank her.

I held the microphone and looked toward the big screen.

"There is."

"First I'd like the staff to switch the backstage captions to the main screen."

The host's face changed.

The room went quiet too.

Brendan shot to his feet.

"Lottie!"

I didn't look at him.

"Isn't this a charity event for the hearing-impaired?"

"Then let everyone see the captions."

The staffer hesitated.

I walked straight up to the control desk and connected my own phone to the display.

The next second, the big screen blacked out.

When it came back on, it showed the backstage caption log from before.

【Don't let Lottie Bishop go up later.】

【The second she opens her mouth, she sounds way too deaf.】

【Just seat her in the audience as filler. That's enough.】

The whole room went dead silent.

The tears on Sabina's face hadn't fallen yet. She stood frozen under the lights.

Edwin was ashen.

Ethan couldn't get a word out either.

I picked up the microphone.

"Sorry."

"My ears don't work well."

"But I read captions just fine."

I opened the second file.

Photo after photo popped up.

The little screen at the Old Street soup shop, the number-call screen at the community clinic, the notice screen outside the shoe-repair shop, the handwritten schematics my adoptive father left behind.

Grandma stood by the pot, the screen behind her lit up:【Table three, your soup's ready.】

The last page was the project registration form.

Project name:【Old Street Can Hear】

Lead: Lottie Bishop.

Helper: Theresa Bishop.

Late technical maintenance: Andrew Dickerson.

I turned my head toward Sabina.

"You said just now that you didn't do much over these years."

"You really didn't."

"You only changed the name to yours."