But they had reached past her money, and past her house, all the way into her sense of herself, and were now trying to turn the entire city into another voice telling her she was worthless.

That, I decided, was the thing they were going to answer for most of all.

Chapter 10 — The Broken Man

Over the following days, we gathered.

Brenda made a video call to my phone, and I let her talk while Sam recorded from the next room — Brenda sitting in the living room of the townhouse I had bought, surrounded by my daughter’s furniture, Derek smiling behind her chair, the two of them explaining that Gaby needed serious psychological treatment and had until tomorrow to come home before they went to Child Protective Services.

I said very little.