“You let him take over caring for her because you felt you couldn’t, and he would be better?”

Kim nodded solemnly.

“Babies sometimes reject breastfeeding. It is nothing strange and it certainly isn’t personal,” Antonio assured her.

“It felt like it.”

“I can’t imagine. I can, however, imagine a colicky child. I had one myself. Nothing worked. Nothing Emilia or I did worked, but we got past that. It wasn’t us, it wasn’t the baby. It was just a simple condition that Giuseppe got over, and I am sure Lily got over, too.”

“After a while,” Kim said with a sniffle.

“Did you try with her after that?” he asked gently.

“Not really,” she replied with a shake of her head. “Things started getting even better with work, the collaboration offers were flying in, and Gabriel seemed happy to do it all, so I let him. I let him be mother and father to her. She doesn’t need me, even now.”

The soothing strokes on her back stopped as firm hands gripped her shoulders and Antonio turned her to face him. “Now that is nonsense. I have never heard a more foolish remark. Your daughter needs you, Kim. Your husband needs you. You can’t just run away again and turn to work to escape what doesn’t go according to plan in your life.”

“But...”

He raised a finger to silence her. “No. Maybe I can understand that you didn’t have an example to follow, and you felt lost and incapable because of it, but the Kim I know is not a quitter. Six years ago she did whatever she could to free herself of her parents’ hold and established a thriving business all on her own.”

“Not exactly. I had a lot of help,” she interjected.

“I did very little,” Antonio responded. “And Emilia simply opened your eyes to the potential of what you already had inside you. Yes, she might have got you some introductions in the beginning, but it was you who had your wonderful ideas and brought them to life in the first place. We had no part in that.”

“I wouldn’t say that...”

“I would. I would also say that you can’t let your fears keep you from your happiness. Follow your own advice: take a chance. If you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.”

“Well, something like that,” Kim replied with a smile, as he lobbed one of her very own quotes at her.