“Legal work should support your life, not take over every hour of it,” she said.

“You can handle decisions in an organized way.”

I drove home thinking about that distinction.

For three years I’d tried to win arguments by proving I was the reasonable person in the room.

Agnes was better at making a scene, and Lucas was more willing to end a conversation than to resolve it.

I had come to believe that if I could find the perfect explanation, they would finally hear me.

But there wasn’t a perfect explanation for needing rest after surgery.