My husband pushed me down the stairs, and as I lay shattered at the bottom, my mother-in-law called my father and said, “Come get your worthless daughter and take her back.” Dad gave her only one warning: “If she has so much as a scratch, your family will answer for it.” They laughed at him because they had absolutely no idea who my father truly was.

“No sticker.”

She looked offended on my behalf, then ran to fetch one from her craft box.

I wore a gold star on my cardigan until bedtime.

PART 18

Several months after the fall, I met Gabriel in his office to review the next stages of the civil proceedings.

The desk was covered with organized folders, each labeled in his careful handwriting.

He had never told me the exact number of cases he had handled, and by then I knew better than to ask whether he had seen anything worse than mine.