“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.

His loving words were such a balm to my wounded spirit.

Gabriel waited until I stopped crying and caught my breath.

“Rachel, this changes everything for our legal defense,” said Gabriel strategically.

“If they forced or faked your signature to make you the scapegoat for their corporate fraud, this emergency filing is a last-ditch effort to destroy your credibility before you get to talk to federal prosecutors.”

They’re trying to make me out to be a crazy, irresponsible liar, I realised with terrifying clarity, so that no judge or jury will believe my testimony.

“Exactly,” Gabriel affirmed.