“Slowly,” she whispered to the boy. “If you want to stop, we stop.”
Ethan swallowed hard.
No one had ever spoken to Daniel like that before.
Everyone else tried to fix him.
Livia was simply… meeting him where he was.
“Did he… eat everything?” Ethan asked, his voice barely steady.
She nodded. “All of it. And he ate yesterday, too.”
Ethan blinked, stunned.
“How?” he asked.
Livia hesitated for a moment before answering. “I took care of my younger sister for seventeen years. She had special needs. I learned that patience and respect go further than force ever will.”
Something inside Ethan cracked.
He had built a company worth millions… negotiated deals across the country… solved problems people thought were impossible.
And yet, he didn’t know how to feed his own son without turning it into a war.
He stepped closer, hesitating before gently placing a hand on Daniel’s shoulder.
The boy didn’t flinch.
Instead, he looked up at his father—calm, steady, almost as if he were saying:
You can stay.
Ethan’s breath caught.
“How much do you want to keep doing this?” he asked suddenly, the words automatic, almost defensive.
Livia looked up at him, her expression firm but kind.