The day we headed to Mount Clearwaters, I messaged Giovanni and told him to clear his schedule and be ready to represent me in court—because it might not be just one case.

But Giovanni was probably slammed. He never replied to my WhatsApp. He was the kind of man who ran cold, spoke even less, and somehow I talked more with Clara than with him. Which I understood. He was senior counsel at a top-tier firm—someone like that didn’t deal with small stuff personally. And Clara ...