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.

It was a vacant commercial unit Martin had complained about for years.

He had said it cost more to maintain than it earned.

“Why would they spend this much there?” I asked.

“That’s the question.”

The formal process produced further records.

A contractor identified on the invoices said his business had not performed the listed projects.

Another document appeared to be a duplicate with a new date.

Priya referred her findings to Gabriel, who evaluated the civil claims and coordinated with investigators where appropriate.