“I know all that. And I know she can handle it. But I don’t want her to have to, if that makes sense.” Connie stood up and selected a couple of oranges from the bowl on the table. “I want to see her smile again. Really smile, not a forced don’t-worry-about-me smile.”

She sliced the oranges in half and reached for the juicer.

“I understand. But all we can do is offer support.” Peggy paused. “And for the record, I still worry about you, so don’t think that ever goes away.”

“You worry about me? Why? I’m not the one whose life has been blown apart.”

“No catastrophizing!” Her mother waggled a finger. “And I worry about you for the same reasons you worry about Milly. Because you’re hurting. Also, I worry that you’ve put your own life on hold.”

Connie stopped juicing oranges. “I haven’t exactly—” She broke off. Had she put it on hold? Yes, in a way she had.

From the moment Richard had walked out, she’d stepped up to be there for her daughter. She’d made Milly and Zoe her priority. She’d offered childcare whenever it was needed, and she’d done her best to bolster Milly’s confidence. She’d hidden her own distress behind a mask of calm confidence, but there had been nights when she’d fallen into her own bed exhausted by the stress of holding everything together for her daughter.

“I’m fine.” Connie poured the juice into a glass. “And I’ll be even better when Milly starts moving on with her life again. I just want to fix it, and I can’t.”

“No, you can’t,” Peggy said. “It’s the hardest thing about being a parent. You can’t fix everything. And you shouldn’t. It isn’t your job to fix things when they’re adults. It’s your job to support them while they fix things.”

Connie knew the theory, but she wished she knew how to do that and not worry herself sick in the process.

She made herself a strong coffee. Zoe would be down any moment, and she needed to pull herself together, but after a bad night she was feeling particularly vulnerable. “I used to think of myself as a pretty relaxed mother. Competent. I ran a successful business and raised a child. Even when Milly was bullied by those awful girls in the year above her, I didn’t lose as much sleep as I’m losing now. And she’s an adult.” She looked at her mother in despair. “How can this feel worse?”