Ellis explained that this happens more than people think: a contingency lawyer looks at a case where the plaintiff’s own mother will testify against her, and does arithmetic, and goes.

Paige called Gavin twice. He didn’t answer. She called the shop. Wyatt took a message that said *tell him I have nothing.*

They settled in August, and I made him do it my way.

Ellis’s advice was to let it die — Paige had no lawyer, no corroboration, no money to file again. Gavin’s preference was to give her nothing at all, and I understood that preference in my bones, and I told him no.

He paid her eleven thousand dollars.

And he signed a one-page acknowledgment, drafted by Ellis and filed with the settlement, stating that on the date in question he had represented to Paige M. Holloway the existence of a compensation package of approximately four hundred thousand dollars; that no such package existed; and that he had made the statement knowingly.