When she finally finished, she squared the stack of papers against the desk, folded her hands on top of it, and looked at me.

“Evelyn,” she said, “I’m going to be honest with you, because you strike me as someone who would rather have the truth.

Infidelity is painful, but on its own it is not usually worth very much in a settlement.

This, though,” and she rested one hand flat on the stack, “this paper trail is what wins cases.”

Then she leaned forward, and her voice sharpened into something I would come to rely on completely over the following months.

“But we are going to do this entirely by the book,” she said.