The lively atmosphere in the dining room suddenly froze.
Mom's spoon stopped in midair. Tasya, who had just been smiling smugly, quickly turned toward Dad. My older brother frowned, while I was still standing near the kitchen, not truly considered to be there.
“What do you mean, Dad?” Mom finally broke the silence.
Dad didn't answer right away. He still gripped his phone tightly, as if afraid the news on the other end would vanish if he let his guard down for even a moment.
“Repeat that one more time,” Dad said, his voice quieter but tense. “Are you sure about the results?”
Silence.
Then he hung up.
His face was pale.
For the first time since I could remember, Dad looked... shaken.
“The Pradipta family prophecy,” he said slowly, “has changed.”
Tasya immediately stood up. “Changed how, Dad?”
Dad looked at each of us in turn, as if searching for an answer on the wrong face.
“All this time, we believed that the heir to the Pradipta family's fortune would be the child who shone brightest in this generation.”
Mom nodded quickly. “Tasya, right?”
Dad didn't answer right away.
That alone was enough to make the air in the room feel colder.
“For twenty years,” Dad continued, “every sign pointed to one person.”
Tasya smiled faintly, brimming with confidence. “That person is me.”
But Dad shook his head.
And Tasya's world seemed to crack in a single second.
“Not you.”
Silence.
Even the ticking wall clock sounded too loud.
“What do you mean, Dad?” Tasya's voice began to tremble.
Dad drew a long breath.
“The ‘chosen child’ we've believed in all this time... was the wrong one.”
Mom immediately stood up. “That's impossible! We've sacrificed so much for this!”
My older brother cut in, “You must have heard wrong, Dad.”
But Dad raised a hand, stopping all their protests.
“The prophecy wasn't wrong,” he said quietly. “We were wrong about who it referred to.”
Then his eyes moved.
And stopped directly on me.
I had been standing silently in the corner of the kitchen the entire time, still holding an empty glass that I hadn't even filled with water.
My heart stopped for a moment.
“Me?” My voice was barely audible.
Dad nodded.
“The child we've ignored all this time... is actually the one carrying the true line of fortune.”
Tasya took a step back.
“Impossible...”
Mom stared at me as if she were looking at a stranger. “Her? That girl?”
My older brother gave a small laugh, but it sounded forced. “This has to be a huge mistake.”
But Dad didn't laugh.
He didn't argue.
He didn't hesitate, either.
And that was the scariest part.
“The Pradipta family will come tomorrow,” Dad finally said. “And they'll confirm it themselves.”
My chest felt tight.
Revan...
That name surfaced in my mind again.
The man I'd been promised to since childhood as my fiancé.
The man who had never truly chosen me, yet had always been considered mine.
Or at least... that's how it used to be.
Tasya turned toward me, looking at me differently now.
Not with contempt anymore.
But... with fear.
“I can't believe this,” she muttered.
Yet behind her voice, something had cracked.
That night, there was no more laughter at the dining table.
No more clatter of spoons against plates.
All that remained was tension hanging like a knife over our heads.
And for the first time in my life in this home...
I no longer felt invisible.
Instead, I felt... watched.
From the corners of their eyes.
In the way they held their breath.
In the way they began recalculating my place among them.
I slowly lowered my head.
My hands were still trembling.
I didn't know what had really happened.
I didn't know what “the Pradipta family prophecy” was.
I didn't even know why I'd suddenly become the center of all this.
But one thing was certain...
Starting tonight, no one would treat me the way they had before.