“Come get your worthless daughter and take her back,” my mother-in-law shouted my father as I lay broken at the bottom of the stairs after my husband shoved me down. “Your family will answer for it if she has even a scratch,” was the sole warning Dad offered her. They had no notion who my father really was, so they made fun of him.

“You’ve known me for less than an hour,” I said.

“I already went through the preliminary background file your father gave us,” Gabriel said.

“Preliminary dossier?\”I repeated in surprise.

He dug into his leather briefcase again and pulled out a second folder, much thicker than the first.

“Your father has been surreptitiously gathering information and official papers on your husband’s family for years,” said Gabriel.

My stomach churned nervously at that news.

“Why would Dad do that behind my back?“I asked gently.