Dumped in the Dark, Saved by Myself

I stutter, so I've been mocked relentlessly since I was a child. Little by little, I become too afraid to speak at all. Until I meet Hugo Sheridan, who learns sign language and lip-reading just for me. He always patiently runs his hand over my hair and says, "You don't have to speak if you don't want to. As long as I understand you, that's enough." This goes on until his childhood sweetheart, Lorelei Judge, returns from abroad. One weekend, while we're camping in the wilderness, Hugo pulls over halfway there and asks me to go into a convenience store to buy a few bottles of water. The moment I walk into the store, he drives away. He messages me, "Follow the main road for about two miles, and you'll reach the campsite. Lorelei and I will wait for you there. Lorelei is right. If no one pushes you, you'll never stop having a stutter and depend on others. If you run into trouble, shout for help. Learn how to speak up for yourself." I walk alone along the dark mountain road. After a while, several drunk men start following me. Trembling, I call Hugo. I'm so terrified that my throat tightens, and all I can manage are broken whimpers. However, all I hear is Lorelei's cheerful laughter. "Congratulations on being dumped! Hugo and I made a bet about whether you'd be able to clearly shout 'Help!' when you got scared. I bet you couldn't. Looks like I won again. "For the rest of the camping trip, Hugo is all mine. After all, being with someone who can't even speak properly is simply too boring." Hugo's voice comes from beside her. "A bet's a bet. You win. We'll do whatever you want." So this is what it feels like when someone takes away their special treatment. It's enough to destroy a person. I stop trying to call Hugo for help and dial the police instead. This time, I'm going to speak for myself. Chapter 1 I sat wrapped in the blanket the officer had given me, clutching a paper cup filled with hot water. Ripples appeared in circles on the liquid due to my trembling hands. The water reflected my pale face. When I gave my statement, I was so terrified that even the simplest one-syllable words got stuck in my throat. They were reduced to nothing but ragged breaths. Seeing my condition, the officer didn't rush me. Instead, he brought me a stack of blank paper and a pen. With trembling hands, I wrote down everything that had happened. I recounted everything from the moment the three drunk men began following me. Two long hours later, hurried footsteps echoed from the end of the hallway. Hugo Sheridan strode into the room, with Lorelei Judge close behind him. He was still wearing the dark gray hiking jacket he'd put on while camping. "Well, Andrea, look at you. We asked you to buy some water, and you somehow ended up at the police station. Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you?" The irritation in his voice was unmistakable as he stared at my hunched figure on the bench. He didn't even ask if I was hurt. The officer who had taken my statement stood up and frowned as he stepped in front of him. "Are you her family?" he asked. "Three drunk men nearly dragged her into an alley while she was walking alone, yet you didn't even ask if she was hurt. How can you just start scolding her the moment you come in?" The words that Hugo had been about to say died on his lips. His gaze dropped to my scraped knee, where a large patch of blood had seeped through the torn skin from my fall. His Adam's apple bobbed twice before his tone softened slightly. "How did you run into those drunk guys? And if you were in danger, why didn't you call me? You never say a word when something happens, but you sure knew how to call the police." Lorelei poked her head out from behind him and patted her chest, looking genuinely shaken. "My gosh, Andrea. So you didn't manage to keep up with us. Hugo was trying to help you get over your fear. Who knew you'd be so unlucky? It was just a short distance, but you ran into a bunch of creeps. "Honestly, you could have just run back as soon as you got scared. You shouldn't have troubled the police with a late-night call." I lifted my head and quietly looked at her innocent face. Then, I turned to Hugo, who stood silently beside her. Once, I had gotten lost in the school library. Because I stuttered and was too afraid to ask anyone for directions, I hadn't known what to do. Hugo had searched for me for three hours in the pouring rain. When he finally found me, he hadn't blamed me even once. He had simply pulled me tightly into his arms and kissed the top of my head again and again. He'd comforted me, "Don't be afraid, Andrea. From now on, I'll be your voice. You never have to bow your head to anyone. If anyone dares make fun of you, I'll shut them up." But now, he knew perfectly well that I had a stutter and was afraid to speak. Still, he'd left me alone on a completely dark mountain road. And it was all in the name of helping me build up my courage. In reality, he'd only done it so he could play a stupid bet with his childhood sweetheart, Lorelei. I set down the paper cup and slowly pushed myself up from the bench. My legs were so weak that I swayed unsteadily. Hugo instinctively reached out, wanting to hold me by the shoulders like he'd done so many times before. I turned away and avoided his touch. His hand remained suspended in midair, and his expression visibly darkened. I picked up the pen from the table and wrote four words in the empty space on the paper. Then, I pushed it toward him. "I want to go home." Hugo stared at those four words for several seconds. Then, he took a deep breath and forced down his anger. "Fine. Let's go home." Chapter 2 When we walked out of the police station, a light drizzle had started to fall. Hugo opened his umbrella and instinctively tilted it toward Lorelei. On the drive home, Lorelei naturally took the passenger seat. She lowered the seat, connected her phone to the Bluetooth, and played some upbeat pop music. I sat in the corner of the back seat, watching the streets slide past outside the window. The car heater was blasting, but I still felt cold. The cup of hot water hadn't warmed me at all, as the chill had already seeped into my bones. After dropping me off, Hugo drove away with Lorelei without another word. I dragged my aching legs home, limping the entire way. When I pushed open the front door, a small lamp cast a warm yellow glow across the living room. My grandmother, Adeline Wood, was sitting on the couch in her robe. The moment she saw me, she hurried over, her eyes immediately falling on my bloodied knee. "Oh, Andrea, what happened to your knee?" Her eyes filled with concern as she pulled me onto the couch and turned to get the first-aid kit. I swallowed the ache in my throat and wrote in my notebook, "It was too dark, and I tripped. I'm fine, Grandma." Grandma sighed. With her rough but warm hands, she carefully cleaned my wound and applied some ointment. As I looked at her white hair and the slight tremor in her hands from worrying about me, I could barely hold back my tears. In this world, Grandma was the only person who truly cared whether I was hurting. Sadly, the man who had once promised to protect me forever had left me alone in the darkest night. The next morning, sunlight streamed through the gap in the curtains and fell across the worn wooden floor of the living room. Grandma had a routine checkup scheduled before her upcoming heart bypass surgery. The appointment required visits to several departments, and we'd have to wait in line for her turn. A week earlier, Hugo had promised he'd drive us to the hospital and stay with us the entire time. I packed Grandma's medical records, thermos, and coat into a canvas tote bag. Then, I sat on the couch and waited for him. The clock on the wall reached nine, but the doorbell never rang. Instead, my phone rang. "Andrea, you'll have to take Adeline to the hospital yourself. Something urgent came up, and I can't get away." I could hear Lorelei's soft, whiny voice in the background, complaining that her foot hurt. Hugo's voice immediately became anxious. "She missed a step and fell down the stairs. Her ankle is badly swollen. She doesn't have any family or friends here. I need to take her to an orthopedic specialist. Adeline's only going in for a routine checkup. You can handle it yourself, right?" I clenched my phone so tightly that my fingertips turned white. It felt as though a painful lump was lodged in my throat. I struggled desperately to force out a sound. "Grandma—" "Alright, Andrea. Don't be difficult," Hugo cut me off without hesitation. "You need to learn how to handle things on your own. Lori is hurt. She can barely stand. I have to go. I'll call you later." The line went dead, leaving only the monotonous beeping in the empty living room. Grandma came out of her room holding one of my old jackets. "Andrea, is Hugo not here yet?" I swallowed the lump in my throat, walked over, and took the jacket from her. Then, I supported her arm that was joined to a shoulder hunched from years of hard work. I pulled out my phone, typed a message, and showed it to her. "He needs to attend an emergency meeting at this company. I'll take you there." Grandma sighed and gently patted the back of my hand with her wrinkled fingers. "Since Hugo is busy with work, we'll just take a cab. Let's not get in the way of his work." At the hospital, we checked in and waited in line for Grandma to have her blood drawn. I ran from one department to another, weaving through the crowded halls. Because of my stutter, the people behind me at the payment window grew increasingly impatient. "Can you hurry up? Are you mute or something?" Sweat covered my forehead. The more anxious I became, the less I could speak. In the end, I could only shove the payment slip and the payment QR code on my phone through the window. The cashier impatiently scanned the code and tossed the receipt back at me. As I helped Grandma sit on a bench to rest, a notification popped up on my phone. It was an update from Lorelei's social media account. The photo showed an ankle wrapped in gauze, with a bowl of freshly washed cherries right beside it. In the background was a man's slender hand. A faint scar ran across one of his knuckles. It was the same scar Hugo had gotten during our freshman year when he'd accidentally cut himself while peeling an apple for me. The caption read, "People who are truly cherished don't have to endure even the smallest injury alone. Someone will always drop everything to be by their side." I stared at those words on the screen and felt my eyes sting. During my sophomore year, I had a severe case of the flu that developed into pneumonia. I'd ended up in the hospital for IV treatment. Hugo had skipped an interview with one of the country's biggest companies just to stay with me. Back then, he'd gently rubbed my feverish cheek and said to me that my health mattered more than his career. Back then, his warm light had shone on me alone, unwavering and without hesitation. Now, he'd taken that light away and left me standing in the shadows where it used to be. Chapter 3 Hugo didn't come to see Grandma even once during the following week. He only messaged me twice on WhatsApp to ask how she was doing. After I replied, "She's okay," he didn't say anything else. Grandma's test results didn't look too good. The doctor recommended keeping her in the hospital under observation for a few days while preparing for her upcoming bypass surgery. Every day, I went back and forth between the hospital and the apartment. I settled into a busy routine of making soup for Grandma and washing our clothes. One night, I went to the pantry at the end of the hallway to fill the thermos. As I passed the nurses' station, I overheard two young nurses working the night shift whispering to each other. "Did you guys see Lorelei's livestream today? It was insane." "I did. I never would've guessed that stuttering girl who acts so helpless all the time was actually so disgusting." "I heard that stutter is completely fake. She pretends to have it to make men feel sorry for her so she can keep them wrapped around her finger." "And the worst part is her grandmother. Apparently, she borrowed a lot of money from relatives back in their hometown years ago and ran off to the city with it." "How does someone like that even have the nerve to stay in a private hospital room? She's using stolen money to pay for medical care. That's unscrupulous. " The thermos slipped from my hand. It hit the tile floor with a loud crash. The glass liner shattered into pieces, and scalding water splashed across my lower legs. The two nurses jumped. When they saw me, they shut their mouths diffidently before hurrying away. I didn't have time to worry about the burning pain in my legs. With trembling hands, I pulled out my phone. I quickly opened the livestreaming app and found Lorelei's profile to watch the replay. On the screen, Lorelei sat in a luxurious apartment, her makeup perfectly done as she chatted with her followers. Someone asked if her injured foot was feeling better. She smiled and replied, "Of course it's getting better quickly with him taking care of me." Then, her tone suddenly changed. She sighed and put on an expression of helpless resignation. Lorelei said, "I have a close friend, and honestly, I feel terrible for him. He's been emotionally manipulated by a woman pretending to be sick for years. That woman has been faking a stutter since she was little, just to make people feel sorry for her and make him feel like he owes her. "And her family isn't exactly respectable either. One of her relatives used to scam hardworking people in their hometown out of their money. Now, they're using that money to live it up in a major hospital." Comments flooded in right away. Many of them were insults aimed at that "shameless stuttering girl" and her "deadbeat grandmother". Someone even dug up photos of Grandma and me from behind while we were paying our hospital bills. My mind went completely blank. My breathing became rapid and shallow. Clutching my phone, I slipped into the stairwell and dialed Hugo's number. It rang for a long time before he finally answered. The background was noisy. People were toasting each other, and it sounded like he was in a private room at an upscale restaurant. "What's wrong, Andrea?" My tongue trembled uncontrollably. I forced every ounce of strength I had into pushing out a few broken sounds. "On… Online…" "Did you see Lori's livestream?" Hugo asked instantly. He sounded exasperated, as though he thought I was making a big deal out of nothing. "It was just for entertainment. Lori was trying to get more views, so she made up some gossip. She didn't name anyone. You need to stop being so sensitive. "Why do you keep assuming everything is about you? Besides, there was some controversy surrounding the money Grandma borrowed back then, wasn't there?" My heart sank to my stomach. If there was anyone in this world who knew the truth about Grandma, it was him. Years ago, some of my awful relatives had spread rumors that Grandma had borrowed money and refused to pay it back because they wanted to seize our family's property back in our hometown. Hugo had been 22 then. He'd stood in front of me and Grandma, using the evidence he'd gathered to drive those relatives away. And now, with one casual remark about there being "some controversy", he'd condemned Grandma to public disgrace. "Take… it… down…" A faint metallic taste of blood spread through my throat. "Alright, Andrea. I'm having dinner with Lori and the sponsors. Don't make a scene. Be good." With that, he hung up on me. The stairwell's motion-activated light finally went out when the silence stretched out for too long. In the darkness, I finally accepted the truth. The young man, who had once stood before me and protected me against the world, was gone. Chapter 4 The rumors spread across the internet far faster than I'd imagined. The online harassment spread into the real world without warning like a creeping epidemic. In the afternoon, I went to the billing counter on the first floor to pay Grandma's medical bill. When I returned to her hospital room with the printed receipt, I found a large crowd gathered in the hallway. There was shouting, along with the sound of things being knocked over. I recognized the woman leading the mob. She was Lorelei's personal assistant. She pointed her camera into the hospital room. Then, she glanced back and gave the people behind her a signal. She said, "Make sure you get a clear shot. This is the deadbeat grandmother of the stuttering girl. Let's show everyone online the kind of person who raised a shameless young woman like that." Several people laughed as they shoved the door open. They pointed their cameras at the elderly woman lying helplessly in the hospital bed mockingly. My mind went blank with a loud buzz. I dropped the payment receipt and charged forward, desperately shoving my way through the crowd. The room was a complete mess. The fruit basket had been knocked over, spilling fruit across the floor. Grandma clutched her chest while gasping for air, her face turning purple. The heart monitor let out a shrill, frantic alarm. I frantically pressed the call button beside her bed. "Help…" I gripped Grandma's hand and opened my mouth as wide as I could, desperately trying to call for help. However, only broken syllables came out. By the time the medical staff rushed in, the people who had caused the scene had already left with their footage. The doctors fought to save Grandma for three full hours. I crouched outside the emergency room, dialing Hugo's number over and over. Every call rang until it went to voicemail. I opened our chat and frantically typed. "Hugo, Grandma is in a critical condition. Please come. Please, you have to come. Some people came and caused a scene in her room. Grandma isn't going to make it. Please answer." I sent message after message but received no reply at all. Ten minutes later, a reply finally appeared on my screen. "Stop texting me. I'm busy." At 6:00 pm, the doors to the emergency room finally opened. The doctor removed his mask and shook his head wearily. "Her heart was already extremely fragile. The severe emotional shock triggered acute heart failure. I'm sorry. We did everything we could." A white sheet covered Grandma's peaceful face. She hadn't even had the chance to say one last thing to me. The only person in this world who had truly loved me was gone. A nurse handed me the death certificate and asked me to sign it. I took the pen and shakily scrawled my signature on the form as tears streamed down my face. I called Hugo one last time. The phone rang until it was almost about to disconnect before he finally answered. The clinking of glasses and lively conversation filled the background. "Hello? Andrea? I can't hear you. We'll talk later." I said nothing and simply ended the call. Then, I blocked the number I'd known by heart for years and deactivated all my social media accounts. I watched as Grandma's small, frail body was pushed into the cremation chamber and reduced to a tiny urn. It was so small that I could hold it entirely in both hands. When I got home, I pulled out a suitcase. I folded the clothes Hugo had given me and put them back in the closet. Our photographs from all our years together, the souvenirs, the little notes he'd written me all went into a garbage bag. I didn't throw away the old tablet that held all our memories. Instead, I restored it to its factory settings and placed it squarely in the center of his pillow. At 11:00 pm, I held Grandma's urn in my arms and boarded the last overnight train heading south. At the same time, Hugo walked out of the hotel while scrolling through his phone after his business dinner ended. A notification for a trending news appeared on his screen. The headline was so glaring that it was impossible to miss. It read, "Deadbeat Lady's Granddaughter Exposed—Stuttering Girl Caused the Death of Her Only Relative".