They had walked in believing this was a negotiation between a grieving matriarch and a headstrong daughter, and they were about to discover it was something else entirely: a records dispute, and I had spent my whole adult life on the side of the records.

I felt, standing there, none of the fury I might have expected.

What I felt was the strange, level calm of a person who has finally arrived at the confrontation she prepared for months ago, and who has only to let the other side walk the rest of the way into it.

Chapter 3 — Surrender of Inheritance Rights

The lawyer slid a thick folder to my side of the table.

The cover read: SURRENDER OF INHERITANCE RIGHTS AND WAIVER OF TESTAMENTARY CLAIMS.