Three Years Blind, One Song Broken Chapter 01
By the third year working as a blind massage therapist I’d stopped caring who walked through the door.
Until Jackson Vale showed up during his company retreat.
Out of all the therapists in the building, they assigned him to me.
The moment he saw me, his breathing never even faltered. Calm. Controlled. Like the past between us had never existed.
And I treated him the same way I treated everyone else.
Professional. Distant.
Untouched.
Then his phone rang.
The second my younger voice drifted through the speaker, my hands froze against his shoulders for the first time all night.
The employees around him immediately started teasing.
“Damn, Mr. Vale, your wife sounds adorable.”
Jackson’s voice softened slightly.
“She recorded it years ago. Back when she was young and dramatic.”
Young and dramatic.
I almost smiled.
When the session ended, he stood quietly for a long moment before finally turning back toward me.
“Mimi.”
My fingers tightened against each other.
“I never forgot you.”
His voice dropped lower.
“Are you really planning to keep raising my child in a place like this?”
I slowly rubbed my fingertips together and said nothing.
He still didn’t know.
Back then, after carrying that baby for ten months, I’d gone through postpartum recovery with empty arms.
***
After a long silence, Jackson sighed.
“Mimi, look at your hands. They’re covered in calluses.”
“You really think you can give our daughter a good life like this?”
“If you apologize to Sloane, I can take both of you home right now.”
I stayed perfectly still, Then calmly pulled out my phone.
“No need, Mr. Vale. Just leave a five-star review on your way out.”
The room went silent.
Jackson didn’t move. His fingers tapped slowly against the armrest.
“Mimi,” he said quietly, “you can’t even see anymore. What exactly are you getting out of living like this?”
I blinked my sightless eyes and opened my mouth to answer—
Then his phone rang again.
Two childish voices burst through the speaker.
“Daddy, we miss you so much, when are you coming home? Mommy’s sick.”
“Yeah, her eyes are all red today. Come back and stay with her.”
Jackson’s entire tone softened instantly.
“Daddy misses you too.”
“Take care of your mom for me. I’ll be home soon.”
The call ended.
I could feel his hesitation hanging in the room.
“Mimi, I…”
I smiled faintly and stepped aside for him on purpose.
“Drive safe, sir.”
A long time passed before I finally heard his footsteps moving away.
But at the doorway, he stopped again.
“Mimi… you never used to act like this.”
Used to?
My fingers brushed unconsciously against the corner of my eye, where phantom pain still seemed to linger.
Back then, I’d cried. Fought. Begged.
I’d even tried using our child to make him stay.
None of it worked.
In the end, I lost the baby. Lost my eyesight. And all Jackson ever gave me was one cold sentence: You brought this on yourself.
Only after I was certain he’d left did I finally return to the therapy room.
One of my coworkers nudged me.
“You know him? That’s Jackson Vale.”
I shook my head.
“Not really.”
Another coworker laughed as she walked over.
“Oh please. He literally bought the annual membership package from you.”
“Mira, you’re basically set for the whole year now.”
“And seriously, Mr. Vale is gorgeous. Rich, loyal, successful… men like that barely exist anymore.”
“If I were his ex-wife, I never would’ve let him go.”
The irony nearly made me laugh.
But she kept going.
“I’m serious. The guy spent thirty million dollars building her that mansion in Ravenshire. What more could a woman want?”
“I heard he’s still single too. That kind of devotion is rare.”
I stayed quiet for several seconds before finally speaking.
“Devotion?”
My voice came out colder than I expected.
“Cheating during marriage and having affair twins is devotion?”
“Keeping his mistress in a thirty-million-dollar mansion is devotion?”
“A woman who spent ten years with him not even having enough money to buy gelato—is that devotion too?”
The room instantly fell silent.
One coworker inhaled sharply.
“How… how do you know all that?”
I lowered my head slightly and pulled an old photo from my bag before handing it to them.
“Were my eyes pretty?”
They stared at the picture for a few seconds before nodding slowly.
“They were beautiful.”
I lifted a finger toward the scarred corner of my eye.
“Jackson Vale took them from me. Still think he’s such a good man?”
Nobody spoke after that.
The atmosphere turned suffocatingly quiet.
I simply returned to work.
After work that night, I wandered into a convenience store with my cane and bought candy, stuffed animals, and tiny toys before making my way to the memorial chapel.
One by one, I arranged everything carefully beside the remembrance fire pit before feeding them into the flames.
I listened quietly as they burned.
“Baby…”
My fingers rested against the cold memorial plaque.
“Your daddy came to see me today. He talked about you.”
The fire crackled softly in the darkness.
A faint smile tugged at my lips.
“What a shame.”
“He’ll never get to meet you in this lifetime.”