"Panic," I said.
"Panic," she confirmed. "Which is good for us in the custody matter. It reads as exactly what it is to any judge with experience, a stall tactic dressed up as concern. But Cameron." Her voice shifted slightly. "I want you to hear this part clearly. A man filing panicked motions is a man who feels cornered. Cornered people don't always behave more carefully. Sometimes they behave less carefully."
I was quiet for a moment.
"I know," I said.
I sat with that after I hung up, longer than the conversation itself had taken.
Adaeze's reading was correct. But professionally, this filing was weak, transparent, and built on omission rather than fact. And it would not survive serious scrutiny in January. I believed that. I had read enough litigation in my career to recognize pani
