My Parents Chose a Birthday Dinner Over My Family’s Funeral—Then They Asked for Thirty Percent of the $18.7 Million Settlement

It said Claire.

Not claimant.

Not survivor.

Not the woman from the collision everybody remembered reading about.

Ruth had a badge beside it.

She pinned hers to her cardigan, then checked whether mine sat straight.

“Too high?” she asked.

“It’s fine.”