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.

I nodded.

I wanted to see her more than I wanted anything, but I didn’t want her first memory of this crisis to be a room full of strangers arguing about her mother.

Then Gabriel lowered his voice.

“The opposing affidavit contains a serious discrepancy.

Martin claims you were alone on the staircase.”

“But Celeste was right there.”

“Yes,” he said.

“And she claims she watched you slip.”