In Glitter by Eliza Grace Howard, silence can be more dangerous than a scream. After a night under the stage lights performing at a rundown North Carolina club, Becky Barnes wakes to a quiet house and a heavy conscience. Coffee in hand, she moves like a ghost through her sister’s kitchen. Years ago, she left this town to chase fame and forgot the people she left behind, especially her infant son, Benjie. Now, she’s back. Not for music. Not for applause. She’s here for one thing. And it might be the one thing the town won’t let her have.

Her sister Clara returns from church, stiff with suspicion. The two women circle each other with practiced bitterness. When Becky drops a hundred-dollar bill on the table, “for the long-distance calls,” she says, it’s not just about money. It’s a peace offering, an apology she can’t voice. Clara hasn’t moved. She wants answers. Why is Becky really here? What does she expect after vanishing for over a decade?

One Name, and the Air Goes Still

Then Becky says it. A single name. Benjie. The air shifts. Clara freezes, her coffee halfway to her mouth. She warns Becky to let it go. To leave the past buried. “Quinn will never let you near that boy,” she says. Becky knows that’s true. Her ex-husband is a powerful man in town now, with a new wife, new children, and a reputation to protect. But Becky’s resolve is set. She doesn’t want custody. She doesn’t like chaos. She wants to look at her son, really look at him, and say something she’s never had the courage to say before.

The Knock That Closed the Door

The next morning, Becky drives to Quinn’s construction office. The lot is filled with trucks and machinery. Men move like clockwork. Her hands shake as she steps through the door. Quinn looks up. His face hardens the moment he sees her. “What do you want?” he asks, though his eyes already know. When she tells him she wants to see Benjie, the temperature drops. He doesn’t shout, he warns. “Stay away. You’re not his mother. You gave that up.”

Becky doesn’t fight. She walks out, humiliated, crushed, and more determined than ever because there’s one last person who might listen: Donna, Quinn’s new wife.

A Door Cracks Open

Back at the diner, she crashes into Clara, still reeling from the encounter. “You were right,” Becky whispers. “I shouldn’t have gone.” But Clara surprises her. She picks up the phone and dials Donna’s number. “Meet me at the diner,” she says. “There’s something you need to hear.” That call sets the story on a new path, one lined with secrets, guilt, and the chance, however slim, for redemption.

Glitter is not a tale of glitz and glamor. Eliza Grace Howard strips the shine off fame and lays bare the raw cost of abandoning your past. This is a story about what it takes to ask for forgiveness from someone who doesn’t even know you need it. And what happens when the door you knock on refuses to open? Grab your copy of Glitter by Eliza Grace Howard today on Amazon or from the author’s official website, and discover what happens when a mother tries to reclaim what she lost.