But I did not have only my word.

I had documents.

And documents do not have a reputation to assassinate.

A bank record cannot be called an alcoholic.

A forged signature, analyzed by an expert, does not become less forged because the person who found it has been smeared as unstable.

A cloud backup of a confession does not care how many emails have been sent to your consulting clients.

The evidence in that blue folder, and later the footage from my mother’s phone, existed on a plane entirely above the reach of my parents’ campaign against my character, because it did not depend on my character at all.