Retaliation Lawyer Attempted To Take Over Wc Case Before Ghosting Me?

I sustained a repeated use injury at my workplace (CA) around early 2024, which lasted the entire year, and is still ongoing. In June of 2024, I was asked by my manager to perform a movement that I knew for a fact was making my injury worse, and I told him that doing so would throw out my back, and that there were other tasks I could do that would be less dangerous, requesting to be transferred to one of said tasks, all of which are done by different people each day, including myself. He proceeds to deny my request and then give me a terrible attitude for the rest of the day, taking my request for accommodation as a personal insult. The very next day I was told that they would be cutting my hours by 2/3rds due to "performance issues".

After this incident, I decided to file a worker's comp case, as my injury wasn't getting any better, and attempted to sue for retaliation as well. I was able to find representation for the injury itself very quickly, but I had no luck on the retaliation side of things. After being rejected by almost every attorney I spoke to, due to not officially being "terminated" (despite now working less than 20 hours a week), I finally found one who agreed to take my case. I was initially ecstatic at the fact that I finally had representation, until the attorney I was speaking with over the phone told me that her firm could not accept the retaliation case unless I also gave them the worker's comp case. I told her that this would not be possible, as I already signed a retention agreement with them, to which she responded something along the lines of "well we can't represent you unless we have both cases", the conversation ending shortly after. I was told this only after signing a retention agreement with them. I further reiterated that I would not be able to give over the case, as it was not up to me, especially without speaking to the WC lawyers first, and that I did not want any action taken until this had been resolved. She then ignored me for 3 months, only to reach out in January of this month, texting me to ask if I could call her.

At this point, I've neglected to respond her out of fear of being told that she somehow did something to damage my WC case by attempting to poach it, or otherwise tell me some kind of information that will send my life into a tailspin. I realize that this is akin to letting my foot rot off without seeking medical aid for fear of what I will be told, but I am having a very difficult time figuring out how to go about this. I am tempted to send her a message asking to terminate our attorney/client relationship, but I worry that I may be made to pay damages for the "work" that has been done so far, despite being ignored for 3 months after she failed to communicate with me regarding an extremely sensitive matter.

Any advice would be appreciated, no matter how blunt. I realize that I should have terminated the attorney/client relationship immediately after this interaction, but it did not occur to me that she would proceed to ignore me for 3 months only to request a phone call months after I had assumed she had dropped my case.