The silence Kahlan craved was shattered by her father's voice, sharp as a blade. "K! Don't you have anything to say?"
Her mind jolted awake, heart lurching as if caught in a trap.
A frown tugged at her lips, and she just in time caught her father's reddening face, his eyes boring into her with familiar disappointment.
"Umm… no, Dad," she whispered, her voice barely a breath, swallowed by the murmur of the crowd.
"What?!" Mr. Cypher's shout sliced through the warm air of the banquet hall, where laughter and clinking glasses celebrating her younger sister's graduation was heard moments ago.
"Where's your mind, Kahlan? You're a disappointment. Look at your siblings—can't you at least try to be like them?"
His words stung like salt in a wound, each one heavier than the last. Kahlan's throat tightened, and she bowed her head, her dark hair falling like a curtain to shield her from the crowd's judging stares.
"She's always been… off," someone whispered, their voice cold and cutting, like a shard of glass underfoot.
Kahlan's chest ached, her eyes burning with tears she refused to let fall. She bit her lip until it throbbed, tasting the metallic tang of her restraint.
Slowly, she rose from her seat, her legs trembling as she wove through the sea of faces—faces that seemed to mock her with every glance. She didn't belong here, not among the polished pride of her family.
She fled to the Cypher family garden, where the air was cool and the world felt softer.
Collapsing onto the dew-kissed grass, Kahlan tilted her face to the sky, where stars blinked like distant promises. Tears spilled freely now, tracing warm paths down her cheeks.
She hugged her knees, her sobs muffled by the night's gentle hum.
No one sees me, she thought, the words a quiet scream in her heart. I'm nothing to them.
Kahlan had always lived in her own world, weaving stories and dreams in her mind—castles of color and light where she was enough.
But her family saw only absence, a girl lost in thought, useless.
Her brother, a software engineer whose name her parents spoke with reverence, built empires in code.
Her elder sister, a medical student with a perfect record, was their golden child.
Even her younger sister, radiant and sharp at today's graduation, commanded attention with her business acumen.
Kahlan was the shadow, the silence, the mistake.
What am I good at? The question clawed at her, raw and relentless.
Her sobs grew ragged, catching in her throat as she pressed her palms to the earth, grounding herself in its quiet strength. A breeze stirred the garden, carrying the scent of jasmine, and for a moment,
Kahlan imagined it was the world whispering back: You are enough.