Peace by Piece

Six years after Thomas’s unfaithfulness in college, Maggie has nearly given up on love. Enter Izzie, a motherless eight-year-old, and every maternal instinct kicks-in. With Izzie’s dad, Maggie waits for the magic: a spark, a quiver racing up her spine. The thrill never comes, but the ordinariness of his kisses and marriage proposal make her feel safe. She imagines that loving Izzie is enough to erase the emptiness that no amount of bingeing can fill—and finally lock Thomas out of her heart. After a chance reunion with Thomas, Maggie faces a decision that may change the course of her life. Will she return to her loveless marriage for the sake of the daughter who has become her own, or this time around, will she trust Thomas and follow her heart?

Six years after Thomas’s unfaithfulness in college, Maggie has nearly given up on love. Enter Izzie, a motherless eight year old, and every maternal instinct kicks-in. With Donald, Izzie’s dad, Maggie waits for the thrill—for anything magic: a spark, a quickening, a quiver racing up her spine. The magic never comes, but it is precisely the ordinariness of his kisses and subsequent proposal that make her feel safe. She imagines that loving Izzie is enough to finally lock Thomas out of her heart. Over time, Donald sways Maggie to quit work and be a stay-at-home mom to Izzie, dismisses her desire to finish her degree, cajoles her to wait for the right time to have a baby. Izzie is the center of her world, but some days Maggie cannot think over the roar of her biological clock. Unable to win the baby debate, she returns to college, graduates, and accepts a teaching job. She has what many women long for: the house and minivan, the daughter and spouse, a career and steadfast girlfriends. But there’s an empty space inside that no amount of bingeing can fill. By chance, Maggie and Thomas, also a teacher, reconnect when Maggie attends a teacher’s conference in her college town, a handful of miles from where her heart first came alive—and where it was irrevocably shattered. Can Maggie and Thomas mend their relationship? And, will she return to her loveless marriage for the sake of the daughter who has become her own, or this time around, will she trust Thomas and follow her heart?

Carol Fragale Brill’s fiction was named Poets and Writers 2010 Maureen Egen Writer’s Exchange first runner-up and a Peace by Piece excerpt was selected as a readers’ favorite for the Philadelphia Stories Anthology. Her work has been published in New York Journal of Books, Wide Array, The Press of Atlantic City, NovelAdvice, WriterAdvice, and several business journals. She earned an MFA from Fairleigh Dickinson University, blogs at 4broadminds.blogspot.com/, and is the author of two novels, Peace by Piece and Cape Maybe (Summer 2013)