Ficorpio
Chapter 1
I had been the chart-topping singer Ethan Sterling’s hidden girlfriend for seven years.
Yet on my birthday, he led everyone in calling out the wrong name.
“Vivian, happy birthday!”
Vivian wasn’t me. She was his first love from his youth.
One of his brothers asked, “Vivian’s finally come back to him, and he’s still keeping a disabled girl around as a substitute? Doesn’t he ever get tired of it?”
Ethan pinched my ear, his voice lazy and careless.
“Little Deafie is fun to play with. I’ll keep her around for now. We can talk about marriage after I propose.”
He didn’t know that my hearing had just been restored.
The smile on my face froze as Ethan continued.
“Let’s count this birthday as something I owed Vivian. Consider the debt paid.”
Everyone started cheering and calling him a “true romantic.”
At the end, someone stared straight at me.
“But aren’t you afraid she’ll find out?”
Ethan tilted his head, looking utterly unconcerned.
“Afraid of what? That she’ll refuse to let go?”
Laughter erupted around us.
“Seriously, a deaf girl managed to stay with Ethan for seven years. She really came out on top.”
“If she didn’t look a little like Vivian, she never would’ve gotten the chance.”
Amid the mocking voices, Ethan lowered his head and placed a birthday hat on me.
His face was only inches away—the same striking, world-weary face that seemed permanently bored with everything.
Someone asked, “Still, she’s been with you for seven years, and she’s pretty. What if she runs away? You’d really be willing to let her go?”
Ethan’s hand trembled. The hat tilted crookedly.
After a moment, he gave a cold, thin smile.
“Lock her up. Who said she was allowed to run?”
The room fell silent.
No one took it as a joke. With the Sterling family’s power behind him, Ethan was reckless and unhinged enough to do exactly that.
But why?
Ethan patiently straightened the hat. His expression was gentle, but his words were as sharp as a blade.
“I waited seven years for Vivian to turn back to me.
“I’d gladly keep her close to my heart every day. How could I bear to say a harsh word to her?
“Keeping a substitute around gives me somewhere to vent all the frustration I’ve been holding in, doesn’t it?”
Everyone laughed.
They laughed because he knew how to cherish the woman he loved.
They laughed because I was pathetic. Ridiculous.
My fingernails dug into my palms, and pain shook my entire body.
Ethan slipped an arm around my shoulders and held his phone in front of me.
[Come on, sweetheart. Make a wish. Everyone’s here to wish you a happy birthday :D]
I covered my ears and blew out the candles.
Chapter 2
Everyone shouted in unison again.
“Happy birthday, Vivian!”
Someone added, “Here’s to Ethan’s successful proposal!”
Ethan gave a soft, mocking scoff.
“What, did none of you eat? Is that all the volume you’ve got?”
The next second, a message from him appeared on my phone.
[You little idiot, what did you wish for?]
[Don’t wish for your album to sell well again. Your big brother is already as famous as he can possibly be.]
I forced my tears back, one by one.
I opened the videos I had once recorded, and the cruel truth finally came to light.
Seven whole years of love. It had all been a complete and utter joke.
Not once—not a single birthday—had Ethan Sterling celebrated for me.
Even when he performed for the first time, I had worked around the clock promoting him until I collapsed from exhaustion. All I got in return was a single sentence:
“Vivian, you’ve worked hard.”
Even when passion took over in bed, when I was gasping helplessly beneath him, the name he murmured with longing was still Vivian.
Ethan had never known his own strength. Whenever he hurt me, I would desperately sign that it was painful, but he never paid attention.
Afterward, he would always look at me innocently and say:
“Good girl, your hands are shaking so badly I can’t understand you.”
But lately, he had started using sign language to ask whether I was in pain.
I had never seen him so gentle.
Now I understood why.
He had said, “She’s perfect for practice. That little deaf girl can take it. Vivian’s delicate and soft—I can’t risk hurting her.”
The bitterness swelled in my chest until it hurt. Tears spilled down my face.
How could he be so cruel?
When Ethan had broken with the Sterling family and chased his dream of making music with nothing to his name, it was Vivian Bennett who had abandoned him and gone abroad.
I was the one who had stayed beside him, helping him rise from nothing to one award after another.
My phone lit up.
It was a message from my doctor.
“Ms. Bennett, are you certain you want to give up on further treatment overseas?
“You’ve already endured the pain of the cochlear implant surgery. It would be such a shame to stop now.”
I wiped away my tears and typed back:
“I’m going.”
I didn’t want Ethan Sterling anymore.
My departure was scheduled for a week later.
It was also the day Ethan planned to propose to Vivian during his concert.
That night, Ethan didn’t come home.
Instead, I received a text from Vivian.
“Sis, don’t wait up. Ethan’s playing the piano to help me fall asleep. My insomnia is supposedly cured, but he still won’t rest until he’s watched me fall asleep with his own eyes.
“Tell me—after seven years, how does he still remember everything so clearly?”
In the attached photo, a man sat at the piano beyond the woman’s pale shoulder and thin camisole strap.
He wore a black T-shirt and an antique silver necklace.
His aloof, beautiful face looked impossibly gentle beneath the warm glow of the floor lamp.
Chapter 3
His long fingers danced across the black and white keys, moving as tenderly as if they were caressing a lover’s body.
Vivian continued showing off.
“Never mind. He caught me using my phone and got mad at me.”
After all these years, she still couldn’t stand the thought of me being happy.
But I no longer wanted to fight her for anything.
Ethan was tainted.
I didn’t want him anymore.
“Oh, right. Do you want this? You poor thing. Beg me, and maybe I’ll give it to you.
“LOL.”
The moment I saw the photo she sent, my pupils contracted.
The next day, on the variety show, Vivian Bennett lost the game and had to accept her punishment.
She wore a little white off-the-shoulder dress and lay on the floor, her almond-shaped eyes rimmed red.
A heavyset male celebrity positioned himself over her and started doing push-ups.
Nearby, Ethan Sterling leaned lazily against the railing, idly spinning the signet ring on his middle finger.
When the celebrity finally collapsed, Ethan could no longer stand it.
He muttered a curse and kicked the man aside.
His face turned dark as he stepped in to take over the punishment, letting Vivian sit on his back. The fans erupted in shocked screams.
Vivian looked frightened, wrapping both arms tightly around Ethan’s neck, where the tendons stood out beneath his skin.
Someone beside me sounded puzzled.
“That’s strange. Ethan Sterling is one of the biggest names in the industry. Why would he agree to appear on a show like this?”
“Even stranger, he can’t stand anyone getting close to him. And yet he’s actually willing to let her ride on his back…”
I pulled up the corners of my mouth in a bitter smile.
Because she was Vivian Bennett, Ethan’s first love from his youth.
The unattainable first love he had never been able to forget.
…
The next game involved randomly choosing an audience member and having them identify a song.
The moment Ethan saw me, his hand froze as he adjusted his earpiece. His brow furrowed.
But a second later, he lowered his head and helped Vivian adjust hers instead.
The backing track began.
Ethan’s singing was flawless, and his stage presence was cool and commanding. The spotlight fell across that impossibly handsome face, triggering wave after wave of screams from the audience.
When the Host asked me to identify the song, I answered evenly, “Sorry. I can’t tell.”
The entire venue erupted.
It was one of Ethan’s recent hits, a song that had swept across the country and won him countless awards.
His fans exploded.
“What’s wrong with her ears? She can’t recognize a song this famous?”
“Get someone else up here! Get off the stage!”
“Get down!”
Only Ethan remained utterly cold.
With one hand in his pocket, he lifted his narrow, elegant eyes and stared at me.
He was angry because I had forgotten that I was his Hidden Girlfriend, someone who could never be seen in public.