— “Mr. Miller, please, listen! I didn’t hurt him! I helped him! Look!” She held out her hand with the extracted plug. “This was in his ear. That’s why he couldn’t hear! I took it out!”
— “You’re not a doctor!” David snarled. “You could have killed him! Call the police!”
The guards grabbed Vicky roughly by the arms. Mike started to scream. A real, loud scream.
— “No! Don’t touch her!”
The sound of his son’s voice, loud and desperate, made David pause. But the fear for his child was still too strong.
— “Lock her in the security room. Call the police.”
Vicky didn’t fight them. As they led her away, she turned and looked at Mike.
— “It’s okay,” she mouthed. — “You’re going to be okay.”
Mike was sobbing. Loudly. They were the first sounds of grief he had ever made out loud.
At a private medical center, doctors swarmed Mike. Tests, exams, more scans. David paced the hallway, his mind a whirlwind. His son was talking. His son was hearing. His son was reacting to noise. It seemed impossible.
A nurse approached him.
— “Mr. Miller, the doctor needs to see you immediately.”
David walked into the office. The doctor was sitting at his desk with a grim expression.
— “I don’t know how to say this…”
— “Just say it.”
The doctor pushed a file across the desk.
— “These are your son’s records from three years ago.”
David opened the file. There, circled in red, was a note: “Dense cerumen impaction and foreign body in the right auditory canal. Immediate removal recommended.”
The blood drained from David’s face.
— “Someone saw this before?”
The doctor nodded slowly.
— “According to the records, yes. Но there is no record of the procedure being done. Your account was flagged for a ‘long-term treatment protocol.'”
The words hit David like a physical blow. Long-term protocol. They knew. They saw the problem and left it there because his money was too good. Because his desperation was profitable for the clinics.
— “They kept my son deaf…” David whispered. — “On purpose.”
The doctor remained silent, but his look confirmed it. David’s hands began to shake.
All those years, millions of dollars, dozens of experts… They had lied. And the only person who told the truth, who risked everything for his son, was currently locked in a room waiting for the police.
David stood up abruptly.
— “Where are you going?” the doctor asked.
David didn’t answer. He had to find a housekeeper and offer an apology that would take a lifetime to finish.
Vicky sat alone in the security room, her head down. She wasn’t praying for herself. She was praying for Mike—that his hearing would stay, that his father would understand, and that the boy would finally know how beautiful the world of sound could be…
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