Chapter 13 - I BUILT THE HOME DAVID SAID I COULD NEVER HAVE WITHOUT HIM
Margaret Grace came home from the NICU with monitors, instructions, appointments, and a mother who checked whether she was breathing approximately every seven seconds.
Maggie moved in for three weeks.
Nathaniel came every evening.
He was terrible at diapers.
A Chief Justice can interpret constitutional questions and still put a diaper on backward.
I photographed it.
He threatened litigation.
I reminded him truth was a defense.
For the first time in years, home felt quiet without being dangerous.
I returned to legal research gradually.
Then something unexpected happened.
I enrolled in law school.
I had considered it years earlier.
David laughed.
“Why? One lawyer in the family is enough.”
Now there was no David.
At thirty-four, with a toddler and a complicated past, I became a first-year law student.
Hard?
Brutal.
Worth it?
Absolutely.
Nathaniel never helped academically beyond ordinary family encouragement.
I wanted no shortcuts.
I earned my grades.
Passed the bar.
Then chose victims' advocacy and financial exploitation work.
Of course I did.
The first client I helped obtain an emergency protective order was a pregnant woman whose boyfriend controlled her bank account.
Afterward, I sat in my car and cried.
Not because I was sad.
Because life had folded.
Pain became knowledge.
May you like
Knowledge became work.
Work became somebody else's open door.
