Becoming Formidable

"Draft the agreement," he said to Octavia.

Then he looked at me with the expression I had been learning was his version of satisfaction — not warm, not demonstrative, just certain.

"You'll be formidable," he said. The kind of thing that was about the daughter, not the situation.

"I know," I said. "I started late. I'm making up for the time."

Something shifted in his face — the grief and the pride