All This Could Be Yours: A Novel

"I'm going live because I want you to witness this." Tessa swiveled her cell phone to show the carpeted corridor of Swain and Woodworth, then walked toward the company's mahogany-paneled elevator bank, the camera shot swaying a bit with each step. "See this, whoever's out there watching? I'm headed for the elevator. For the last time."

Funny way to get courage, she thought, putting it on social media. But it meant she couldn't change her mind. She hadn't even told Henry—though it was only his shiny new job that made today's radical decision financially possible. She was lucky, she knew that.

"I'm trying to remember how passionate I feel right now," she went on. "How powerful. I'm at the elevator. I'm pushing the down button." She turned the camera again, pointed it at herself. "I'm Tessa Calloway. You've seen my comments here on #MomsWithDreams. And now, I want you dreamers to be with me in person. Ready?"

One comment appeared. Ready! Then another. So ready!

"I'm quitting my job. I've had it with the ridiculous stress. With the unnecessary pressure. With being absolutely invisible at every single moment. I've had it with the creeping horrendous reality that I'm wasting my one life—my one life..."

Tessa had to stop, surprised at the catch in her voice. At the tears spilling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry to cry—but no, honestly, I'm not sorry. I'm probably burning bridges, and I don't mean to be critical but—well, yes, I do." She paused, gathering her thoughts, imagining who might be watching. Strangers, all of them. She hoped.

But she wanted to share this. Needed to. She was steel and stone and immovable. "I've been a good, faithful, successful employee. But tonight I had to stay late to clean up someone else's mess. And you know? Not anymore. No. Why is their mismanagement my emergency? I've juggled my husband and my kids and my job and yes, I can do it. But I don't—want to. I simply—want my life to be my own."

The viewer numbers had ticked up, slowly, now in triple digits. Smiley faces and applauding hands flooded the screen. She drew power from them; from the support, the enthusiasm, the sisterhood.

"Look." She turned the camera again. "The elevator doors are opening. I'm about to take my first step. My first step into my new reality. It's risky, I know. But I swear I will figure it out. Because listen, you all. Hear me. I only have one life."

She stood a little straighter as she walked into the elevator. "And I, Tessa Calloway, right this very moment, am taking my one life back. I'm doing it. Are you with me?"

The screen exploded with emojis; hearts and flowers and bottles of champagne.

The elevator doors closed in front of her camera lens.

Through her welling tears, she saw the viewer comments now racing beneath her still-live video, scrolling almost faster than she could read them. Who was out there, watching? But she was Tessa Calloway now, and safe.

One life! one said. And the next and the next. One life!

"Henry? Linny? Zack?" she said as the elevator descended. "I'll be home soon."

Three hundred comments now, four, blurring into a stream of digital approval. She paused, taking a moment as the potentially devastating consequences of her decision threatened to derail her. But no. Not this time.

"Thank you all," she said. "Thank you. I could not do this without you. And I'll keep you posted."

She clicked a button. The phone screen went to black. She was alone.

Alone with another life-changing choice. "Wish me luck," she whispered.

CHAPTER ONE

THREE YEARS LATER

Tessa would never get used to this, not ever, and she would never cease being thrilled by it; the waves of affection as she strode by the rows of women, shoulder to shoulder and filling every beige folding chair the bookstore could hold. She felt their admiration, felt their sisterhood, felt their support—they knew who she was, and she knew them, because even as strangers they were her friends, her readers, those who understood that a book could open your life and open your heart. She tried to silence the warning voice in her head as she continued up the center aisle of the store's bookshelf-lined event space. She was Tessa Calloway now, best-selling author, and she had nothing to fear.