Drama · Survival 18+

Silenced

by Steven

She did not stay silent. She was not heard.

When Sarah Nankya's father dies, her mother marries a man who is kind in public and dangerous at home. Sarah is fifteen. She wants to be a lawyer, and she tells the truth in a clear voice.

She tells her mother, who says they depend on him. She tells others, and learns who will listen and who will look away.

At eighteen, on a night when she is alone with him, she finally has to act. What comes after is the hard part: the police, the courts, a mother who must face what she did, and a girl learning to cry and to speak again.

A story about being silenced, being heard at last, and not being forced to forgive. The abuse is never shown on the page. Includes the Uganda Child Helpline, 116.

Mature themes: child sexual abuse (never shown), violence, and trauma. 18+.

22 sections · about 101,000 words · about 8 hours to read