(Brad)
I ended up at the water without meaning to.
I just kept driving after the courthouse until the city thinned out and I found myself parked with nothing in front of me but the shoreline and the horizon and the particular quiet of somewhere that had no interest in what kind of day I had just had.
I got out and sat down.
Seventy percent.
I kept coming back to that number. Not the sixty Lena had asked for. Seventy. Judge Ames had looked at everything on the table and decided that wasn't enough and gone further. Like she was making a point. Like the ruling itself wasn't sufficient and she needed the number to say something extra on top of it.
Gerald had prepared me for a loss. He hadn't prepared me for that.
I had sat in that courtroom and watched Judge Ames go through every piece
