They were already falling apart. Then he died.
Vanessa Chen built her entire life around one mistake: getting pregnant at eighteen. Now, seventeen years later, she's determined her daughter Lily won't make the same choices—even if it means controlling every aspect of her life.
Lily just wants her mother to see her as something other than a cautionary tale. She's not another statistic waiting to happen. She's her own person, making her own choices, living her own life.
The only thing holding their fractured family together is David—husband, father, and the one person who can make peace between two people who can't stop hurting each other.
Until the accident that changes everything.
When David dies suddenly, the fragile threads connecting mother and daughter snap completely. Vanessa discovers secrets that make her question everything about her marriage. Lily spirals into dangerous grief, finding comfort in the one boy her mother has forbidden her to see.
And both are hiding truths that could destroy what little they have left.
As resentment turns to rage and misunderstanding deepens into silence, Vanessa and Lily drift further apart—so far that coming back together might be impossible.
But grief has a way of breaking you open.
In the wreckage of the life they knew, mother and daughter must face the hardest truth of all: the only way to save each other is to finally see each other. Not as the mistakes they fear becoming, but as the complicated, flawed, fierce women they actually are.
Perfect for readers who loved:
— The Silent Patient meets family drama
— Jodi Picoult's emotional depth
— Where'd You Go, Bernadette's mother-daughter complexity
— Stories about grief, secrets, and second chances
A powerful exploration of:
✓ Mother-daughter relationships
✓ Grief and healing
✓ Family secrets
✓ Breaking generational cycles
✓ Finding yourself after loss
Sometimes the only way forward is to fall apart together.
