Aria Solstice

Tethered Silence delves into the fragmented psyche of Raven, a young woman bound by roles she never chose. Raised by a mother who grooms her to be both wife to her stepfather and mother to her siblings, Raven’s existence has never been her own. As her body carries the visible marks of her compliance, her mind suffocates under the weight of expectations that seem inescapable.
Raven drifts through life, detached from her emotions and desires—if she ever had any. Her days blur in a numbing cycle of caregiving and survival, and her voice drowns in a silence she has never been allowed to break. On the cusp of adulthood, she finds herself attending college, an environment that promises freedom but only sharpens her awareness of the chains that bind her.
This is not a story of love, nor is it a tale of self-discovery. This is the slow unraveling of a life that was never lived for oneself. There is no salvation here—only the echoes of a mind slowly breaking under the weight of a life never meant to be hers.

Tethered Silence

I was TWELVE when she first asked me to tuck them into bed. 


Her voice was soft but firm, the kind of tone that left no room for questions. I remember glancing at the clock, the numbers blurring in the dim hallway light. My small and unaware siblings tugged at my sleeve, asking for a story. And when I looked to her for guidance, she was already walking away, a shadow disappearing into the quiet darkness of their bedroom. 


I wasn’t sure when it started—the way I became an extension of her, a second mother, a silent partner in her marriage. But there was always this look in her eyes, a mix of expectation and something I couldn’t name. As if, in her mind, I had been born for this role: caretaker, substitute, the steady anchor in a household where love was conditional. 


I did what she asked, night after night. I tucked them in, cleaned their messes, and tended to their needs. And then, I waited for him to come home. 


He would kiss her on the cheek, but his eyes... his eyes found me. 


And that’s when the silence began. The kind that tethered me, bound me to a life I never chose.


Prologue