Chapter 1
Silence in Life
Chapter One: The Girl with a Secret Voice
Emily Summers had always known how to disappear.
Not in a magical way, or like those characters in fantasy books she loved, but in the quiet way—the kind that made teachers forget to call her name during roll call and made classmates pass by her in the hallway without noticing. She was the girl with the soft eyes and the quiet smile, always in the background.
But hidden beneath her silence was a secret louder than anything else in her life.
Emily could sing.
Not just sing, but feel music in her bones, carry emotion through every note, and write lyrics that bled her soul onto the page. But no one—not her teachers, not her father, not even her two best friends, James and Lila—had ever heard her voice.
It was hers alone. A world where she felt safe. A world no one could ruin.
The sky over New York was cloudy that Friday morning as Emily rushed down the stairs, her backpack half-zipped and her hoodie inside out. She grabbed a slice of cold toast from the kitchen counter.
“You’ll miss the bus again,” her father muttered behind his newspaper.
“I won’t,” she said softly, though she already knew she would.
She slipped out the door, ran to the corner of the street, and found James waiting, skateboard under his arm like always. His dark curls were hidden beneath a hoodie, and his headphones hung loosely around his neck.
“You good?” he asked.
Emily nodded. “Didn’t sleep much.”
