“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.

He sent forty-six top syndicate men to federal prison, men who spent their whole lives thinking their money made them untouchable.

My mouth went totally dry at his words.

All of that done by my quiet, gentle dad?

Gabriel slid an official-looking legal document across the tray table toward me.

“Twelve minutes ago your husband’s family filed an emergency custody motion,” he said to me calmly.

A cold hard something came into Gabriel’s eyes.

“They obviously think you’re alone, hurt and easily intimidated,” he said quietly.

He leaned toward the side of my bed.