Watching Gregory realize it, watching a competent professional understand in real time that he had been made a fool of and an accessory both, I felt something almost like fellowship with him.

Michael had done to his lawyer a smaller version of what he had done to everyone: handed him a confident, complete, false story, and let him carry it into a courtroom before pulling the floor out from under it.

Chapter 14 — Margaret L. Parker

“This,” I said, opening my next folder, “is where the guardianship petition stops being the worst part.” Rachel closed her eyes.

Michael did not, and I noted the difference, because it meant Rachel knew what was coming and Michael, somehow, still did not.