Say One Word and I'll Save You

I am mute.

When I was five, I called out that I was hungry, and my foster mother locked me in the basement.

She said I could come out the moment I learned to shut my mouth.

From that day on, I stopped speaking.

The year I turned eighteen, the Ashford family of Boston found me. They said I was their biological daughter.

My first night back home, Vivienne — the girl who had lived in my place — packed her bags with red-rimmed eyes.

"My sister won't even call me her sister. She doesn't want me in this house."

"I don't have to make it hard for anyone. I'll leave on my own!"