Burden describes the mating patterns of ospreys. After courting, the birds normally stay in monogamous relationships.

Burden had pursued a writing career but gave it up to study law. Then, in 1996, when she was in her second year of law school, her father, Carter, died suddenly. His death shook her. Carter had been magnetic. He had two children with Burden’s mother, Amanda; after they divorced, Carter married Burden’s stepmother, Susan, who became a fixture in the family. Burden likes to think that Carter would have been proud of her legal pursuits, although they never had a close emotional relationship. After Carter’s death, Burden discovered that he had started taking diet pills again—a dependence that everyone close to him thought he’d overcome—and that he had a mountain of debt. Because of this, Burden took an associate job at Davis Polk, a Manhattan law firm, picking the more lucrative path of corporate law over the criminal law that she had wanted to practice.

In 1998, Burden and James started working together. They were attracted to each other but were in other relationships. Burden wasn’t in love with her boyfriend but didn’t know how to end the relationship, particularly in the wake of Carter’s death.