I had chosen him carefully, and not only for his record.

I had wanted a lawyer who would understand that this was not, at bottom, a case about money, because Julian Vance’s money was the least important thing about him to me.

I did not want his fortune, beyond what a court would order for Noah’s care, and I told Marcus so at our first meeting.

What I wanted was the truth on the record and my daughter’s name restored and that man stopped, publicly and permanently, from climbing any higher on a ladder built partly out of what he had done to Chloe.

A different sort of lawyer might have counseled me to keep quiet and negotiate a large private settlement, and might have served my bank account well and my daughter’s memory not at all.