She gave me a chilling grin. I wondered for the hundredth time, what motivates a woman like this? Who takes on a case like Penny’s? She seemed like a cartoon villain to me.

“Indeed. And when did yours begin, that is, at what age did skiing become a major focus for you?”

“Around five,” I said.

“Five years old?” Sheila said. “That’s very young, Ms. Cleary. You must have been extremely dedicated. And tell me, does it take a lot of resources to bolster the career of a young, potentially professional, Olympic-level ski champion?”

“Objection. Relevance?”

“Ms. Gregory,” said the judge, who’d been looking increasingly exhausted as the trial wore on, “keep it moving or change tracks, please.”

Sheila put her hands up.

“Is it true that in order to pay for your skiing, your parents deprived Penny of all but the most basic necessities? That she was forced to work outside the home from the time she was a teenager to help contribute to your family’s dreams of having a gold-medal downhill skier?”

“Objection!”

“Ms. Gregory, I agree that I don’t see the point of this line of questioning.”

I wasn’t so sure I wanted them to stop her. I wanted to answer, to defend my family. Maybe her hobbies hadn’t been as costly as my skiing, but she hadn’t been deprived of anything. Penny got a job waiting tables when she was sixteen to spend more money on makeup and clothes, not to pay for anything for me.

“I’m trying to establish that this is a particularly uneven family dynamic, one that set Penny Cleary up to be the screwup, the misfit, and one that affects her family’s perspective on my client and her actions to this day. Penny Cleary grew up in the midst of extraordinary neglect in a home where she was forced to survive on the scraps of whatever was left over from her talented sister.”

“That’s not how it was!” I burst out. “My parents wanted me to succeed but never at the cost of Penny. Penny had jobs and I didn’t, but that’s only because skiing was my job and Penny didn’t have a sport she loved or anything. My parents never deprived Penny, that’s ridiculous! We weren’t wealthy people. I moved to Sun Valley when I was fifteen, we had a team and patrons. It wasn’t like they were taking anything from Penny so I could succeed.”

Sheila smiled calmly.

“Indeed, Ms. Cleary, you moved away from home to Sun Valley to live with the Duncan family. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“And at what age did that take place?”

“Fifteen.”

“While your sister was still finishing high school, correct?”

“Yes.” I legitimately had no idea where she was going with all of this.

“And your line of work since then, it involves a great deal of international travel, is that right?”

“Yes.”