My Father Mocked Me for Coming to Court Without a Lawyer, But the Judge Opened My File and the Whole Room Went Silent

on your own.”

“Yes, sir.”

He studied me for a moment longer than most people ever did. Not in judgment. In recognition. That was the unsettling part. He had already read something in the file, or in me, or in the arrangement of the morning, that the rest of the room had not caught up to yet.

Then he nodded once.

“Very well,” he said. “For the record, she continue reading …