He Left Her For the past several months, I have been teaching my legal tricks of the trade to X, a young attorney who has been working in our office for 1½ years. X is hard to miss–-she is tall, young 30s, bright red hair, and busty. I guess you could say that X is my apprentice (徒 弟 tou4 dai6 in Cantonese). Of all the attorneys that I have ever worked with, she is one of the brightest. It’s amazing how fast she catches on, even with complex legal issues that she has not handled before. That makes it easy and fun for me to teach X. And unlike some jerks who hold back part of their knowledge as “job security,” I teach her everything that I know.

This morning, as I opened my work email, I saw the following message from X:

“C,

“I got both of your voicemails. My husband just decided to leave me this morning and I can't talk right now. I'm very sorry but I suspect that this would very much cloud my judgment.

"I'm cc'ing W [me] on this. I know that he has a lot going on right now, but I know you need an answer on this today and I just can't do this right now. Please call W.”

As you might imagine, X is heartbroken. I’m trying my best to be supportive, but it's so sad to see tears in X's eyes and hear her voice crack. Normally, X is so upbeat and in control. Why does shit like this have to happen in life?  ¶ 6:00 PM