The chambers of a Federal Judge are designed to be intimidating. The mahogany walls, the high ceilings, the absolute silence that swallows sound—it all serves to remind visitors of the gravity of the law. I sat behind my desk, the heavy oak surface covered in case files, the golden seal of the United States hanging on the wall behind me.

I signed the final order on a racketeering case I had been overseeing for months. My signature was sharp, practiced, and final.

My phone buzzed on the corner of the desk. I glanced at the screen and felt a jolt of surprise that I quickly suppressed.

Richard Vance.

My father. Or rather, the man who had contributed half of my DNA before disappearing to the French Riviera when I was sixteen. I hadn’t spoken to him in ten years. Not since the day he and my mother, Martha, decided that parenting a teenager interfered with their “lifestyle aspirations.” They left me with my grandfather, Henry, and never looked back.

I let it ring three times before picking up.

“Judge Vance,” I answered, my voice professional, detached.

“Evelyn! Darling!” Richard’s voice boomed down the line, smooth and overly affectionate, as if we had spoken yesterday. “Judge? Oh, that’s right, I heard you were… working in the legal field. Listen, sweetheart, your mother and I are back in the States! We’re settling into a new place in Connecticut. We miss you terribly.”

I swiveled my chair to look out the window at the gray D.C. skyline. “What do you want, Richard?”

I looked at the fire, and for the first time in my life, I felt completely whole. The broken furniture had been restored. The discarded child had become the protector. And the verdict—the final, unappealable verdict of our lives—was peace.