Stop fighting us, she said.

And then my son stepped into the frame.

He did not stop his wife.

He did not tell her to let go of his mother.

He simply looked at me, at the old woman whose arm his wife was twisting, and he said, in a voice of weary reasonableness, Mom, you’re making this worse.

Then the recording ended, and nobody in that courtroom spoke.

Judge Bennett folded his hands.