“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.

“Rachel, we have to assume your husband’s family is actively seeking information on you,” Dad warned gently.

‘You don’t need to panic, but we need to check every person who comes into this room.’

I nodded, but fear was already squeezing the life out of my chest.

A moment later a friendly nurse pulled back the curtain and checked my vitals.

Dad stepped back to give her space, and Gabriel quietly put away his legal folders.

The nurse read my blood pressure monitor and smiled warmly.

“Can my daughter visit with me tonight?“I told her in a low voice.