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.

The cameras did not show the staircase, but they could help establish who entered or left and when.

Agnes recalled a maintenance technician visiting the previous week, despite Celeste’s claim that the interior system had been disabled for months.

Gabriel explained that digital evidence had to be preserved and authenticated.

A video was not automatically proof of what happened just because someone announced that it existed.

He would seek an appropriate order for records relevant to the custody matter while Ortiz followed the investigative process.

I thought about the nights I had spent apologizing to Martin for “making a scene.” He would stand in the doorway until I said it in exactly the tone he wanted.