The wording was polite and the numbers were anything but.

Costs and fees totaling nineteen thousand four hundred dollars.

Full surrender of every claim by nine o’clock tomorrow morning, or else the court would be asked to impose sanctions.

I read it twice over at the kitchen table with the desk lamp dragged in close beside me.

Then I turned to the page in my notepad where I had jotted down three lawyers’ names and the retainer each one had quoted me.

Twelve thousand.