Maya announced her intention to study law during her senior year of high school, delivering the news over dinner with the same fierce, protective directness she’d carried since childhood, though considerably more refined now by years of careful nurturing into something that looked, increasingly, like genuine purpose.

“Family law, specifically,” she clarified, watching both her fathers’ faces carefully for reaction. “I want to work on cases like ours. Adoption disputes, custody questions, the kind of complicated situations where kids need someone actually fighting for what they want, not just what looks simplest on paper.”

“That sounds exactly right for you,” Ezra said, pride evident in every word. “You’ve always been...