At the end he asked Brian to bring her for a visit “when emotions had cooled.”

Brian read the letter alone first.

Then he showed it to me.

“I’m not answering him directly,” he said.

“What do you want to do?”

“Have our attorney acknowledge receipt and say there will be no contact with Tessa outside what the court permits, and even then only if it’s appropriate for her.”

I looked at him for a long moment.

A year earlier he would have asked whether we could compromise.