He laughed and shook his head. “No, but I felt the weight of my bloodline on my back. I...believe in karma and I guess I wanted to somehow balance out some of what I’d seen my dad do. Even then I’d already gone to see him in court, even though I didn’t introduce myself. And he’s good at what he does. Really good. I just knew that I could be that good too, but that I could be on the team of the little guy. But it bothers me when he claims that I did it for him, because really, I made that decision for Estrella more than anyone.”

“What do you mean?”

“My mother was the one who taught me to care about justice. About doing the most you possibly could for the people around you. To care about what was right or wrong. To never give up in the face of some all-powerful issue that you might never have a chance at correcting. It wasn’t just my dad leaving us that made her that way. She was always taking me to marches and town hall meetings and protests. She was always petitioning the city for this or that. And meanwhile, making dinner for the people on our block who’d just gotten back from the hospital or had relatives visiting. You know, Cormac really did start out as our tenant. He’d just gotten out of rehab and his life was a mess. He’d had a fair amount of legal trouble himself, which, now that I’m thinking about it, probably motivated me toward becoming a public defender as well. He needed people on his team, just like so many people who’d reached a low point. He had next to no money and no real family to speak of. He once told me that my mother had let him live with us rent free for six months until he got back on his feet. Just to help him out.”

“Wow.”

“And then, once he’d started paying rent and had a good job working construction, they fell in love. A lifetime kind of love. But she wouldn’t have ever had the opportunity for that kind of love if she hadn’t taken a chance and opened her door to him in the first place. Those were all things that I learned just from being her son.”

Mary was quiet for a long moment. “I can see why it would bother you that your dad assumes the public defender choice was in reaction to him. Kind of a conceited assumption.”

John chuckled. “Well, my dad is kind of a conceited guy. He has a lot of trouble seeing an issue for anything beyond what it means for him.”

“You don’t have that problem.” She lowered her chin to her palm and smiled. Her face was friendly, but John felt pinned in place by her expression.