“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, try to remember the last time you were in your in-laws’ house,” Dad said softly.

“Christmas,” I said again, more strongly.

“Think of the days before Christmas,” Dad said softly.

I furrowed my brows, attempting to look beyond the foggy confusion in my head.

I remembered slowly.

“Maybe in March.

“My father-in-law had a birthday dinner party and I took Maya upstairs because she was getting sleepy.

“Did you see that blue ledger in his office that March visit?“Dad,” I said.