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.

After breakfast, Lily went to her friend’s house to make bracelets.

Dad and I sat on the porch.

I asked him the question that had been waiting since the night Gabriel told me who he really was.

“When Celeste laughed at you on the phone, did you already know what you were going to do?”

He watched rainwater drip from the edge of the roof.

“I knew I was going to find you,” he said.

“I knew I was going to make sure you had medical care and legal help.