“You don’t have to give me an answer right now, but please think about what you want this to be. You can act faster and more flexibly if you’re loose with the law, but you’ll lose your chance at getting a big success past a judge’s desk. I can help you if that’s the route you need to go.”

“But you think we shouldn’t go that way.”

“The people on the team are young, so you need to think about what you’re teaching them. You need to think about your balance of real life and cape life.”

“I’m not—” I started. “I never got that. Even before I had powers, the cape life had taken over.”

“I can understand why you would resent her for that, but—”

“That’s not it,” I said.

She sat there, waiting like she was expecting me to elaborate.

I almost got angry. I pushed that back.

“I’m not going to get into particulars,” I said, calm. “It’s between me and her, and it would make things messy. Nobody benefits from that. Least of all you.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I’ll think about what you said. About what I want, what I’m doing, keeping an eye out for balance. The team and what they need.”

“The kind of counsel you need me to be.”

“Yes,” I said. “Absolutely. But I need something from you too.”

Natalie nodded.

“Don’t involve my mother in this. Don’t pass on information, give hints, or respond to hints. Lawyer-client confidentiality should be in effect.”

“I’m not a lawyer, exactly. I can and do intend to do that, absolutely, but—”

“Act like one, here. Please. She’ll convey her side of the story, probably not in an obvious way, and I need you to be neutral. I won’t be sharing my side, but assume I have one.”

“Okay,” Natalie said.

“I can’t get into that stuff. I can’t afford to,” I said.

“She does care about you, you know,” Natalie said. “She might not handle it in the best way, I don’t know the details, but I know that she is smart and caring, and both of those things are magnified when it comes to you.”

I stared at her. My first thought was that I wanted to strangle her, because of the frustration I felt even before what I’d just said, her going against it, and how she seemed to not get it at all. Even with an absent parent? I wondered if it was something wholly different, like a parent that had left and cut contact of their own volition, rather than a parent that she’d cut herself off from.