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As Liza sat around the dinner table with her family, she examined her older sister, Maggie, and Maggie’s fiancé, Chase. The two of them flashed each other sweet smiles and lovestruck puppy eyes.
Bleh, Liza thought to herself.
Maggie was three years older than Liza, but the gap always felt larger. Maggie seemed far beyond her years thanks to her overly responsible nature and maturity. They had very little in common when it came to interests and hobbies—including how they dealt with their mom. Maggie had always seemed content to follow her mom’s incessant demands and whims. At least until she was inches from marrying Elliot, a man she didn’t love.
Then there was Liza—who matched her mom’s stubbornness and ferocity. Instead of going along with whatever her mom demanded, Liza went against it. Admittedly, this caused her mom stress. And in turn, Maggie had then taken the brunt of Deborah Eckland’s need to be in control.
When Liza moved out immediately after graduating high school, all of her mom’s focus landed on Maggie. Their mom was determined to gain access to a life of high society by any means possible—and her daughters seemed to be her chosen vehicle. Since Liza bucked that plan around middle school, Maggie was their mother’s only hope. That is, until Maggie fled to California earlier in the year. Liza had never respected her sister more.
California is where Maggie had met her fiancé, Chase. She hadn’t seemed like the same Maggie since that move. Liza was still trying to figure out what exactly had changed. Her sister appeared lighter, like a weight had been lifted off of her. Maybe crawling out from under the crushing rock of her mom’s expectations was enough to let the woman within bloom.
Deborah interrupted Liza’s brooding when she said, “I hope you have room for my pumpkin pie.”
Maggie and Liza eyed each other.
Since when does mom bake?
Liza shrugged.
As Deborah delicately set the pie on the table, she announced, “It’s dairy-free, egg-free, and sugar-free!”
“Is it also flavor free?” their father, John, muttered under his breath.
Before Liza’s mom could respond, the doorbell rang.
“I wonder who that could be.” Deborah made her way to the front door.
A few minutes later, she returned tight lipped and glaring at Liza. “There’s an officer here that would like to speak with you. He said it has something to do with an incident at the parade earlier today. What’s he talking about?”
Liza shoved a gluten-free bread roll in her mouth as she rose. Holding her pointer finger up to her lips, she mouthed, “Gotta go” then slinked out the back door.
Liza was driving on a rural country road when her phone rang. Seeing her sister’s name appear, she sighed and pressed accept. It would do no good to ignore her sister— someone in her family would call her continuously until she picked up. Talking to Maggie was better than trying to explain anything to her parents.
“Hello,” Liza said in her most casual tone.
She heard Maggie’s calm but stern voice reply, “Liza, what’s going on? Why do the police want to talk to you?”
“I’m not sure,” Liza answered truthfully, although she had an inkling.
“What happened at the parade today?”
“I, um, just showed off one of my new designs.”
Maggie groaned. “Liza, your designs are not the most… family friendly. Please tell me you didn’t do anything too crazy?”
“Sure, we can go with that.”
“Liza, just tell me. If something serious happened, I want to be able to help you.”
Sighing, Liza confessed, “You know how hard I’ve been working on my dresses…”
“Yeah.”
“Well, even with a little traction on social media, I haven’t heard back from any retailers. One of the people I look up to said I need to be bold and creative in getting people’s attention. I wanted to make a statement… so I snuck into the parade with dad’s mustang, stopped in the intersection and did a little fashion show.”
“Oh my gosh… You snuck in?”
“Yeah but I have a plan. If anyone is upset about it, I’ll say I just took a wrong turn.”
