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.

“We’ll ask for the supporting documents.

We don’t need to invent a motive.

If one is there, the records may show it.”

I hung up feeling steadier.

Evidence was not a weapon to swing wildly.

It was a light to hold still.

PART 10

Dad kept a small vegetable garden behind his house.