The Silent Half

My little sister set off a mortar-style firework next to my right ear the summer I turned eighteen.

At my Juilliard live audition three weeks later, I couldn't hear the accompaniment. The panel marked me failed audition.

Three years of practice. One botched audition away from the conservatory I'd built my whole life around.

Afterward, my parents put Nina on a plane to Paris.

Our brother Julian deleted every trace of her from his phone.

Even Sebastian swore he'd never see her again.

For seven years, I believed they loved me enough to punish her.

Then Nina graduated. And came home.