That felt good. That felt like sisters.
## What I Would Tell Someone Else
I am not in the habit of giving advice about family conflicts, because every family conflict is particular and the details matter enormously and what applies to one situation often does not apply to another. But I have been asked, several times now, what I would tell someone who found themselves in something like my situation, and I have thought about it enough that I have an answer.
The first thing is: read the contract before you sign it, and read it with the understanding that circumstances change. I read mine. The transfer clause was there. When I needed it, I knew it was there. If I had not read the contract, I would have been operating in the dark, and operating in the dark in a financial dispute is expensive.
The second thing is: be factual when you are under pressure to be emotional. My text to Claire after the Jordan call — the one with the numbers laid out plainly — was deliberate. I could have written a long emotional text about what she had done and how it had made me feel. That text would have created more noise than signal. The factual one gave her the information she needed to make a decision. It also gave me something I valued: the knowledge that I had communicated clearly and without emotional manipulation, and that whatever happened next would be a response to the real situation rather than to an escalation I had created.