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.

Gabriel explained the details to me afterward so I understood exactly what the order did and did not mean.

Outside, Martin approached while the lawyers were still gathering their papers.

“You didn’t have to humiliate my mother,” he said.

I had rehearsed speeches while lying awake in the hospital.

None of them came.

“She was standing there,” I replied.

His jaw tightened.

“This is what I mean.