The Daughter Allowed Only 10 Seconds of Voice Chapter 06

The Daughter Allowed Only 10 Seconds of Voice Chapter 06

It turned out Dad had started calling every day from the third day after I left Silverpine.

After days of no answer, Mom, Corin, and even Mira joined in.

Missed calls and messages crowded the screen.

Hadn’t they seen the recording at the end of the interview?

Everyone at Northreach had.

Before I could finish scrolling, Dad called again.

I stared at the screen for five seconds.

Then I answered.

“She answered. She finally answered.”

Mom’s voice came through.

“Tessa, where are you? Mom and Dad miss you so much. When are you coming home?”

Maybe the call made her voice sound different, but I heard a gentleness and respect in it I’d never known from her.

I said nothing. I didn’t know what to do with this version of Mom.

“Yeah, when are you coming back? The house has felt so empty since you left.”

Corin’s voice had softened too.

It was strange. The people on the phone didn’t feel like my family.

“Both of you, let Tessa talk.” Dad’s voice cut in.

“What do you want?” I kept it short.

“Mom and Dad just want to hear you talk. Did you really go to Northreach? Can you come home soon?”

“Yes, I’m in Northreach. And no.”

“We’re just worried about you, Tessa. Please come back early. Don’t run away from home.”

Mira, the one with the speech anxiety, seemed miraculously cured.

“Don’t talk nonsense. You’re the reason Tessa left.”

The first time I’d heard Mom cut Mira off. Novel. Nothing more.

“Anyway, don’t call me about pointless things anymore.”

I hung up.

I didn’t go straight back class.

Outside the hallway windows, everything was white, nothing but wind picking up snow and hurling it down.

The walls at Northreach were thick and soundproof, and the corridor was so quiet I could hear my own

breathing.

A thought surfaced.

Back home, silence meant no one wanted to hear me. It was a silence stuck in my throat, like a hand pressed

over my mouth.

Here, no one needed an answer from me, and no one was waiting to interrupt.

They were two completely different kinds of silence.

The first suffocated me. The second let me finally breathe.

I stood in the corridor a little longer.

Then I silenced my phone and went back to class.