My mother had done one of them.

She had committed the specific, deliberate cruelty that a judge who has grown numb to almost everything cannot quite grow numb to — the calculated harming of an infant, on tape, with a reason given.

She had, in her arrogance, produced the one piece of evidence that could reach even a person paid to be unreachable.

And watching that judge’s face go to stone, I felt the last of my own doubt, whatever fraction of it remained, go with it.

Chapter 17 — Do Not Ever Speak to Me About Family Again

Facing the overwhelming digital evidence, and felony charges for grand larceny, criminal neglect, and the endangerment of an infant, both my mother and my sister took plea deals rather than let a jury watch that thermostat video.