Book excerpt: A frustrated college grad looks for work. A bitter mother channels her old regrets and failures into a struggling business. But at what cost? A young woman writes to her half-brother to explain why they can never be family. And two strangers meet for the first time. Or will they? A Trilogy of Disappointment (and a dash of hope) is a series of untold stories about millions of people. They’re the experiences that we don’t realize we share. Sometimes they’re forgotten in the whirlwind of life, and sometimes we carry them with us forever.