a few times, with the boys. I never heard from Angelica again. I’ve seen my mother a few times. I even wrote my father a letter, and he didn’t respond, and that was okay. All of it has been progress, of one kind or another.
Dylan has started speaking more—not much, not yet, but enough. He has a friend in school named Jenna. She is autistic, and Larissa tells me they’re pretty much inseparable.
And now we’re here, on this beautiful June day in the center of Bloomfield, to look at potential retail spaces for Crafty Kids, the shop I’m hoping to open, with the help of a business loan—in part thanks to Nick—and also Ally’s offer of doing my accounts for free. I can hardly believe it’s even a glimmer of possibility, but it is.
“What do you think?” Ally calls as she, Nick, Josh, and Emma come down the street. We’ve agreed to meet in Bloomfield to look at possible spaces and then go out for a pizza.
“I’m not sure. It might be too small.”
“But it might not,” Ally says cheerfully. She’s had her challenges this last year and a half, as well. About a year ago, Josh was suspended again, this time for drinking at school. Emma quit the job at the music shop and drifted for a while, depressed and aimless.
They’ve worked it out, though, as much as any of us can. Josh got his act together along with an afterschool job and Emma started counseling and has applied to Connecticut State, to study education. She starts in September.
All of it has made me realize that life isn’t easy—not for me, not for Dylan, not for any of the Fieldings. No matter how charmed someone’s life looks on the outside, on the inside everyone is messy and uncertain and afraid. Everyone needs help. Everyone holds possibility.
Ally brandishes the key she picked up from the real estate agent. “Shall we have a look?” she asks, her eyes alight, and with a smile for Mike, for Dylan, for everyone, I nod.
Ally unlocks the door of the empty shop and I breathe in dust and hope.
Still smiling, holding Dylan’s hand, I step inside.
If you loved this heartbreaking and beautiful story about motherhood, then don’t miss Not My Daughter, an atmospheric and powerful novel about a mother’s worst nightmare…
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Not My Daughter
Get it here!
Anna’s hands tense on Alice and she hesitates. In that endless pause, I see all I need to know. She doesn’t want to give Alice to me – not now, and not ever. And part of me doesn’t even blame her…
Milly always dreamed of being a mother. Adopted herself, she has always imagined a powerful intimate connection with a child of her own. So when she and her husband Matt are told they can’t have children, her dreams are shattered.
But then their loved ones offer the ultimate gift – Milly’s best friend Anna and Matt’s brother Jack will be donors so that Milly can carry a child and finally have a chance to be a mother. And with everyone accepting and open, Milly believes that nothing could could go wrong.
Except none of the four people involved are prepared for the feelings that will threaten their most important relationships as their precious, longed-for daughter Alice grows up and receives a heartbreaking diagnosis.
Then those who love her best will have to decide what it means to be a parent, and to make decisions with far-reaching and devastating consequences… for Alice, and for themselves.
A powerful, heart-breaking novel guaranteed to make you cry, for fans of Jodi Picoult, Diane Chamberlain, and Gracie’s Secret.
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Books by Kate Hewitt
Standalone Novels
When You Were Mine
Into the Darkest Day
A Hope for Emily
No Time to Say Goodbye
Not My Daughter
The Secrets We Keep
A Mother’s Goodbye
This Fragile Life
When He Fell
Rainy Day Sisters
Now and Then Friends
A Mother like Mine
The Far Horizons Trilogy
The Heart Goes On
Her Rebel Heart
This Fragile Heart
Writing as Katharine Swartz
The Vicar's Wife
The Lost Garden
The Second Bride
The Other Side of The Bridge
AVAILABLE IN AUDIO
Into the Darkest Day (Available in the UK and the US)
A Hope for Emily (Available in the UK and the US)
No Time to Say Goodbye (Available in the UK and the US)
Not My Daughter (Available in the UK and the US)
The Secrets We Keep (Available in the UK and the US)
A Mother’s