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 held the phone with both hands.

It was the first time I had heard an official say the Callahan story might be wrong.

PART 12

The recording did not look like the dramatic security footage people watch in television courtrooms.

It was grainy, silent, and framed too high to show the entire staircase.

A narrow strip of carpet occupied the left edge of the image.

The banister ran down into the shadows.

A wall sconce reflected light against the painted ceiling.