Ten Years of Silence: The Daughter They Punished to Death

The tenth year of my family's punishment, and I was still invisible in that house.

When my acceptance letter from the university arrived, I stood in the living room holding it for a long time.

My mother was picking out a necklace for my older sister. My father was busy ordering a new computer for my younger brother.

Nobody looked up.

I asked again, quietly. "The school needs confirmation paperwork. Could you help me look it over?"

My father turned up the volume on the TV. My mother got up to slice fruit for my sister.

I called out to each of them in turn. Still no one answered.