When a child gets seriously injured on a school field trip, Lizzie loses not only her job and apartment, but most of her friends. She has a choice: face the consequences or hide. She chooses refuge with her brother, Justin. Except consequences can’t be avoided forever, and the incident at work causes Lizzie’s past to bubble up and uncover a long-buried truth about the accident that claimed the lives of their mother and sister twenty-five years ago.
Justin is happy to offer Lizzie a fresh start by having her move in with him. But as Lizzie cobbles together a new life forward, Justin’s starts to fall apart. Turbulence hits him at work when already challenging colleagues–who have never understood his autistic traits–become adversarial after his recent promotion, his best friend disappears for days at a time, and unwanted, long repressed memories begin to resurface.
As Lizzie and Justin’s lives collide, they must face a deeply held secret and a hidden promise. Both will open questions of loyalty, forgiveness, and what it means to be family.
As Though You Were Mine is a touching story about siblings, children, love, loss, and what it means to be a family.
Julie Mercer donated her eggs to help her brother and sister–in–law conceive via in–vitro fertilization, never expecting a few years later, she would have to take full responsibility for those children after they lose their parents in a car accident.
Julie never wanted kids of her own and now she suddenly needs to make room in her small apartment for four–year–old twins who present additional challenges as they work through their grief and trauma. With Lucy throwing intense tantrums and Mikey not talking at all, Julie doubts her ability to raise her niece and nephew as her own.
When Grant, the twins’ uncle – and also their biological father – shows up at her door, he says he wants to help, but is he sincere? Or does he have a hidden agenda to fight for custody? With her family also questioning her role as guardian and her job on the line in the face of an inflexible boss as she deals with the sudden life changes, Julie must determine if her brother and sister–in–law really did make the best decision by entrusting their kids to her.
Teacher and single mom Naomi is always biting off more than she can chew. Naomi knows what it’s like to grow up in hard times and still manage a decent education, so when it comes to her online, at–promise (not “at–risk,” thank you very much) high school students, she goes the extra mile.
At the rate she’s going, though, she’ll need the mouth of a hippo to have a shot of chewing it all.
Except, her students aren’t the only ones who need her. Naomi’s best friend discovers her wife has a mysterious disease doctors can’t figure out how to diagnose, her daughter struggles with debilitating social anxiety, and her mother calls her repeatedly. From jail. When one of Naomi’s students shows up at her door, pregnant and homeless, Naomi can’t help but take her in. But Naomi’s hyper–involvement in her students’ lives results in her alienating the people she loves most.
Wondering how she’d gotten everything wrong, Naomi joins an online book club made up of sugar–addicted candy lovers. Her newfound friends help her to see her life through a different lens. With the members’ support, Naomi pieces her life back together, owns her mistakes, and discovers how true family wants everything you are instead of everything you’re not.
Narrated in a series of emails, texts, discussion forums, and other forms of communication, ALL I'M ASKING delves into the bonds of friendship and family, what can test it, and how we find our way back to strengthen those ties.