Twins born with a cruel fate: Peyton deaf, I mute. Early on, our family pursued treatments, but Peyton’s loud tears always drew comfort while my silence was branded coldness. Years passed; Peyton received annual top-tier hearing aids, regaining her hearing. I remained an overlooked introvert. Graduation brought Zach home. Watching Peyton chatter in our parents’ arms, Zach murmured, “So that’s your voice. Lovely.” Parents ignored me, scolding instead: “She never speaks. Zach, you have it tough.” Peyton smiled. “Talk to me whenever you want her voice.” Zach began visiting under pretext of hearing me. He received her nightly voice messages, her comfort when low. His birthday looped her recorded song. I confronted him in sign; he shoved me. “Piper, drop the act! You lied about being mute!” Parents joined in: “Pity Peyton, not fake silence for attention!” Mother’s slap landed. Clarity struck: in their neglect, they’d forgotten I was truly mute. 1 I held my burning cheek in silence, neither crying nor moving. Seeing me stare at him, Zach signed frantically with his hands. “What, did that slap make you stupid?” “Are you going to pretend you are deaf now too, so everyone pampers you like your sister?” “Piper, I never realized you were so manipulative.” His fingers moved with lightning speed, practiced and fluent. When Zach first pursued me in college, he chased me relentlessly. Knowing I was mute, he never looked down on me. Instead, he spent an entire month learning sign language just so he could understand what I wanted to say. The very first sentence he signed to me was: “Piper, will you let me be your voice?” From then on, Zach was always by my side, acting as my translator. He encouraged me to make friends, to travel, and to see the beauty of the world. Yet the sincerity of our past love had now transformed into sharp daggers aimed at my heart. He kept using sign language to mock me. In his eyes, I was merely a manipulative woman who lied about being mute just to steal attention from her sister. Perhaps his hands grew tired, or perhaps seeing tears drop from my eyes softened him slightly, but he finally sighed. “Fine. Today is my birthday, so do not ruin the mood.” “I am just mad that as my girlfriend, you refuse to say a simple happy birthday to me.” “Speak right now, and I will forgive you.” I lowered my eyes, my vision blurring completely. Zach, I wanted to speak too. I opened my mouth, but only a dry, raspy wheeze came out of my throat. Peyton’s sweet singing voice vibrated through the room speakers, creating a cruel contrast to my ugly noise. A few guests in the room let out quiet giggles. Embarrassment flushed my cheeks, and I instinctively turned to my parents for help. My father immediately berated me. “Have you had enough? Today is Zach’s birthday, what kind of humiliating noise are you making to cause trouble?” My mother gave me a look filled with utter disappointment. “I taught you and Peyton to be graceful from a young age. Why can your sister do it despite her condition, while a healthy person like you pretends to be pitiful?” “Piper, you disappoint me deeply.” The wave of accusations weighed down on me, forcing my head even lower. When we were kids, Peyton once got angry because she could not hear, smashing things around the house. When our parents rushed in, they only heard Peyton’s sweet, tearful voice accusing me. “Sister did it, she made fun of me because I cannot hear!” “Mom, Dad, am I really going to be deaf for the rest of my life?” Peyton’s voice was delicate and lovely. When everyone turned to look at me, all they heard was the awful, raspy croak in my throat. In their eyes, my sounds were nothing more than a guilty, indefensible noise. So what was I still hoping for? Hadn’t they always believed whatever suited them best? I shoved the birthday gift I had prepared into Zach’s hands, turned around, and walked straight out. Zach frowned, stepping forward to chase after me, but my parents held him back. “She is always like this, running away whenever she loses an argument.” “Today is your birthday, let us celebrate happily and stop spoiling her.” “Remember when she was little? Just because we took her sister to the hospital without her, she ran away from home.” “Nobody went looking for her back then, and didn’t she come crawling back on her own in the end?” I waited in the hallway outside the private dining room for ten minutes, but Zach never came out. A bitter laugh escaped me. How ridiculous I had been. After a moment of silence, I pulled out my phone and filled out an overseas transfer application. My department director, Dave, had mentioned before that he had a doctor friend in the UK who specialized in treating vocal cord and hearing disorders. Being assigned abroad would allow me to work while receiving medical treatment. Back then, Zach had insisted that living abroad was too dangerous and refused to let me go, so I had put the idea on hold. Now, I pressed the send button without a second thought. Goodbye. I was going to find my own voice. Inside the taxi on the way home, Director Dave approved my transfer request almost immediately. “I guessed you would come to me in a day or two, so I prepared your paperwork early.” “You can leave as early as tomorrow evening. The project over there is quite urgent, so pack your bags as soon as possible.” I was confused. I had only decided on the transfer an hour ago. Dave responded in surprise. “Didn’t Zach tell you?” “Last month he came asking about my doctor friend and the treatment costs.” “He seemed very serious, so I gave him my friend’s contact information.” Staring at the message on my screen, my heart skipped a beat. Last month was the exact time I took Zach home to meet my parents for the first time. An unsettling suspicion crept into my mind. I opened my chat history with Zach to check something, only to see a video posted by him in our department group chat. In the video, Zach sat in the middle of a crowd as the birthday boy, making a wish. Standing right next to him was Peyton, singing a sweet birthday song into a microphone. Colleagues showered the chat with wishes. “Happy birthday, Team Leader Zach!” Someone recognized the face identical to mine and raised a question. “Wait, isn’t that Piper?” “So Piper can actually speak? I thought she was mute all this time.” “Her voice sounds so pretty, why does she pretend to be mute every day at work?” I wanted to type an explanation, but Zach sent a message right after. “Piper is just shy and doesn’t like to speak, she didn’t mean to trick anyone.” “I apologize to everyone on her behalf.” The message I had typed was rendered useless. In the group chat, everyone praised Zach for being a responsible, understanding man, while subtly mocking me for being unworthy of him. He did not refute a single insult. Only Director Dave, who had seen my official medical records, messaged me privately. “Did you and Zach have a fight?” “Who is the girl in the video? She looks just like you.” I texted Dave back: How did you know it wasn’t me? Dave explained: “That girl is covered in designer brands from head to toe, and the hearing aid on her ear is the most expensive model on the market. How could that be you?” “After all, you are the most frugal person in our entire company.” “I know you are saving up for throat surgery. Don’t worry, my doctor friend is amazing. Just focus on your treatment, and I will ask him to give you a discount.” As Dave’s comforting messages kept coming, tears finally streamed down my face. After all these years, he was the first person who did not look down on me for being cheap. I used to think my parents refused to pay for my medical treatment because all our money went to Peyton. So since I was little, I pinched every penny. I thought that if I saved enough money myself, my parents would finally take me to see a doctor. It was only when I learned about luxury brands online that reality shattered my naive dreams. The money I saved by eating plain bread for an entire year could not even match the price of a single dress on Peyton. My medical examination fee was less than the cost of a hair clip on her head. So I became even more frugal. I told myself I would earn my own money and cure myself. Zach, however, always complained that I was too stingy. “We are still young, we should enjoy life! Why are you always saving so aggressively?” “Surgery? Your throat has been broken for years, how could it ever be cured?” “Sweetheart, you have me. What are you afraid of? I will be your voice for the rest of your life.” He used sweet words to keep me tethered to his side, turning around to spend our shared income on whatever expensive gadgets he liked. I quietly tapped open a hidden bank account, where I had secretly stashed money behind Zach’s back. Thank goodness the designer clothes on Peyton had taught me a harsh lesson early on. It made me realize that in this world, there is no one you cannot leave behind. I opened the company group chat and uploaded my medical records from over the years. “I am not pretending. The girl singing in the video is not me. She is my twin sister.” Type, attach, send. Smooth and decisive. A wave of relief washed over me as I turned off my screen. As expected, Zach called my phone via video the very next second. “Piper, do you really have to let everyone know I have a girlfriend who pretends to be mute?” I watched him through the screen without making a sound. So he finally blurted out what he truly felt. When we graduated from university, Zach and I joined the same company. The night before our first day, he asked me not to tell anyone I was mute. I was confused back then, and he had explained gently: “We have to work with these colleagues every day. I do not want them looking at you with strange eyes.” “You just need to act quiet and distant, and I will handle all the talking for you.” I didn’t think much of it then, assuming he was protecting me. Now, I finally understood. Even back then, he was no longer the passionate young man from college. He had started feeling embarrassed by me long ago. Seeing me remain silent, my father, who was standing beside Zach in the video, shouted at me in anger. “Where are your manners? Zach is asking you a question!” “Is this how I raised you, to ignore people when they speak to you?” “Don’t tell people you are my daughter from now on, I do not have a daughter like you!” My father clutched his chest, acting as if I had enraged him, and Peyton immediately rushed over to support him. “Sister, it is all my fault. You are Zach’s girlfriend, yet I had to steal the spotlight.” “If you are mad, curse at me, but please do not make Dad angry.” “You rarely come home, so you do not know Dad is sick and cannot handle big emotional swings.” She was always like this, acting dutiful in front of our parents. Yet she had never experienced a single day of real hardship. After graduation, my parents gave her thousands of dollars in allowance every month to stay home effortlessly. Meanwhile, I stopped receiving a single cent from my parents during my junior year of college. Over the years, I worked multiple jobs. Missing a single day meant I could lose my position. I quietly watched the harmonious family on the screen. Peyton and my mother supported my father, while Zach poured water and served tea beside them. What a heartwarming family, if only Zach were not my boyfriend. My mother joined in the scolding as well. “Look at your sister, then look at yourself! How did I give birth to a daughter like you?” “Since you are so heartless, do not bother coming back. We only have Peyton as our daughter from now on.” With that, she slammed the phone down, ending the call. I packed my luggage until the early hours of the morning before a drunk Zach finally stumbled through the door. Peyton was the one supporting him. Seeing me, Zach grumbled with dissatisfaction. “Piper, why do you never consider my feelings?” “Do you know that back in college, people laughed at me for having a mute girlfriend?” “I loved you, so I swallowed all those insults alone. But now your family tells me you were just faking it! Do you have any idea how hurt I am?” He wrapped his arms around me, burying his face into my shoulder just like he used to. All I felt was intense disgust. Peyton stood by the door, acting gentle. “Mom and Dad were just speaking out of anger today, do not take it to heart.” “You and Zach stay together happily, he is a really good guy.” I ignored her, pushing Zach off me, and used my hands to sign a question. “Did you open the birthday gift I gave you?” Zach was annoyed that I pushed him away, answering carelessly, “What gift? Oh, that cheap box? I do not know where it went.” “You only ever give me cheap handmade crafts to save money anyway.” My eyes dimmed. I grabbed his phone off the table. He did not stop me. He was always confident about letting me check his phone. I opened his messaging app. Very quickly, I found his chat history with the doctor abroad. Sure enough, every single question he asked was about hearing aids and ears. There was not a single word about vocal cords. At that moment, the cold wind blowing through the doorway woke me up completely. Zach, perceptive as always, picked up on my subtle shift in mood. He quickly softened his tone, trying to coax me. “Wait, did my sweet girl give me a special gift this year?” I shook my head, signing back calmly: “Nothing special. Just the same old stuff.” “If you do not like it, just throw it away.” I lied. Inside that box was a recording pen containing six months of ventriloquism practice I had secretly learned online. I had just wanted him to hear my voice. Now, I looked at the luxury watch on his wrist. It was the exact watch Peyton had posted on her social media feed yesterday. My heart died completely. Zach instantly lost interest, walking into the bedroom and falling asleep on the mattress. Peyton had not left yet. I could see the smug triumph deep in her eyes, a look she only ever displayed in front of me. This time, I did not argue with her about why she treated me this way. I signed a simple question to her: “If you like him, just say so. Aren’t you tired of acting after all these years?”
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