Sylvia received eighteen months, followed by a long probation, which was less than I might have wished and more than I had let myself expect, and which I decided, in the end, to be at peace with, because the point had never really been the length of their sentences.

The family court moved swiftly after that.

I was granted an immediate divorce and sole legal and physical custody of Mira.

Derek was awarded exactly zero interest in my father’s house or any part of my inheritance, and a civil judgment was entered against his assets to cover my medical bills and my legal fees, so that the cost of what he had done to me came, at last, out of his pocket rather than mine.

My father’s house remained, wholly and permanently and legally, mine.