They think of it as slow and cold and bureaucratic, and it is all of those things, and those are its strengths, not its weaknesses.

A furious sister is a small thing — one person, one night, one pair of fists, easily discredited, easily stopped.

But what I had just reached for was not one person.

It was a protective order and a warrant and a detective and troopers and social workers and a forensic accountant and a judge and, behind all of them, the entire weight of a state that has decided that what was done to my father is not permitted.

My brother had built his whole scheme on isolation — on keeping my father alone, unseen, unheard, cut off from anyone who could help.