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.

Had Celeste said I deserved it before or after the fall?

I could remember the railing hitting my wrist, but not which step I struck first.

“I don’t want to get something wrong,” I said.

“Then say what you remember and what you don’t,” Ortiz replied.

“You don’t have to fill the gaps.”

I nearly sobbed with relief.

She asked about earlier incidents.

I said there had been no fall before this one.