My mother became hospitalized in February 2009.  I contacted Standen's side and proposed that we settle. I would've been willing to take almost anything at that point.

But my former friend ignored my plea.

Something very strange must've been behind this behavior. This heartlessness was beyond a business thing. Here was a chance at an easy settlement for him. But it really seemed as if his cruelty was deliberate. I don't know at what point Julian turned against me or where the hatred began to gradually chip away at his benevolence. He never revealed the rot. My guess is that his attitude toward me had changed some time ago, but he hid it in order to keep me around so I would work under the assumption everything was fine and we were still the tightest of friends. 

Standen's refusal meant I couldn't leave town until I made a special emergency appointment with the judge in order to ask them to pause the trial so I could be with my dying Mother. 

I left London immediately after the Judge told me he would ask the other side to pause "as a favor" to him. Technically they could've denied my request but realistically the judge would've looked unfavorably upon them at trial. 

So I arrived in Poway, CA to the incendiary mix of emotions that surrounded my family in the US. Mom looked small, frail, and with just the faintest hint of spark left in her deep brown eyes. She lay unblinking most of the time, too sick to even feign enthusiasm. Though we all tried to deny it as long as possible, her heart was about to give up. 

The anxious face of my poor mother will always haunt me as she headed into the operating theatre for an unsuccessful triple bypass. In the end, she went to her grave worried about my lawsuit and the financial future of her youngest daughter. Those from Asian American backgrounds with "Tiger Moms" may be able to relate to how difficult that was for me.

Mom passed away on July 9, 2009.

Upon my return to London, I suffered my 2nd ever anaphylactic shock in Benitos Hat restaurant in Fitzrovia. The stress of both the trial and my Mothers death was too much for me to bear. For I knew that my mother died with a broken heart and went to her grave knowing my future was in the balance.

So if things had been personal before, they were really was personal now.