And for a while, lying in that hospital bed, barely able to breathe, I was terrified that it was going to work.

What I did not yet fully appreciate was that I was not, in fact, standing on my word alone.

There was a blue folder.

And there were things in it that no amount of character assassination could refute.

I have come to understand that this is the one defense against the discredit-the-victim strategy, and that it is why abusers who are also thieves are, in a strange way, more catchable than abusers alone.

Because the strategy my parents used, poisoning my credibility before I could speak, is devastatingly effective against a victim whose only evidence is her own testimony.