It did not send me flying across the room.

It was only hard enough, deliberate enough, that my shoulder struck the wall behind me.

And then came the part that mattered most, the part that told me exactly what kind of thing I was dealing with.

The instant after he pushed me, before I had even recovered my balance, before the pain had fully registered, my son said, in a raised and performative voice, Mom, why did you step backward like that?

He was building his defense in real time.