At fifty-five, Maya Sullivan thought she'd built the security she never had as a child. She was wrong.
Maya's life is unraveling one rejection email at a time. Eight hundred and forty-eight job applications. Eight hundred and forty-eight dismissals. At an age when she should be hitting her professional stride, corporate America has decided she's worthless?overqualified, outdated, invisible.
But unemployment is just the surface wound. As Maya sits in her quiet house, surrounded by the achievements that once defined her, she begins to hear the voice that has haunted her for decades: "Nothing you own is yours, Maya. It all belongs to me."
Her mother's words, spoken in childhood, are proving devastatingly true.
When Maya finally finds the courage to seek help, she discovers that her struggles run deeper than job market ageism. The perfectionism that built her business empire, the hypervigilance that made her indispensable to clients, the people-pleasing that exhausted her?they're all survival mechanisms from a childhood she's spent forty years trying to forget.
Now, as everything she worked for slips away, Maya must face the truth: she's never learned the difference between surviving and living. Between earning love and receiving it. Between being useful and being worthy.
"Everything Can Be Taken Away" is a raw, unflinching look at what happens when childhood trauma catches up with you at midlife?and the courage it takes to heal for an audience of one.
Perfect for readers of:
- Complex family dynamics and generational trauma
- Authentic mental health representation in fiction
- Women's midlife awakening stories
- Only child experiences and family dysfunction
This powerful 15,000-word novella is the first book in the "Not Quite Good Enough" series?five interconnected stories following Maya's journey from survival to healing.
Some wounds are invisible. Some healing happens alone. Some stories need to be told.
Warning: Contains themes of childhood abuse, unemployment anxiety, and family estrangement. Includes resources for trauma survivors.
Length: Approximately 15,000 words (60-70 pages)
