“They waited for him to get all the way away from the property. Then one of Waya’s sisters went to the door. They knew Ellis wouldn’t recognize her on the camera.

“She had to climb the fence. Then she sprinted up to the door. She rang the bell, terrified in case nobody answered. In case my mother couldn’t answer.

“But she did. My mother peeked through the window, then opened the door. Her face was so battered and swollen that she couldn’t even really see Ama, only out of one eye.

“Ama said, ‘We’re leaving right now. What do you want to take?’ And my mother said, ‘Nothing. I don’t want a single thing from this house.’ She stripped off her wedding ring and left it on the floor in the front hall.

“They had to run across the property, knowing that Ellis was probably already speeding home as fast as he could. They got to the wall and my mother couldn’t climb it, because of how pregnant she was. Ama got down on her hands and knees so my mother could get on her back, then she boosted her up. Waya was on the other side to catch her.

“They drove off as fast as they could. They’d left the car down the road, out of sight of the cameras, so Ellis wouldn’t know who had taken her.”

I pause. The next bit is the part that nobody outside my family knows. Or at least, nobody still alive. I look over at Riona. We’ve been walking side by side all this time, not touching each other, but the closest thing to touching. Our hands only an inch apart.

Riona looks tense and expectant. Her face is paler than usual, I think out of sympathy. I know she likes my mother, and doesn’t enjoy thinking about her beaten, battered, and heavily pregnant.

It’s strange to think that I was technically present for all of these events. Just a nearly-grown fetus, carried along for the ride. I don’t remember any of it, obviously. I’m only going off what my mother told me after I found her wedding certificate in the attic.

She was willing to tell me everything, once I knew the truth. She described it all in perfect detail, and Waya added anything she didn’t know, or couldn’t remember.

It’s all burned into my brain. It was the most unexpected thing that’s ever happened to me. I was so safe and secure in my life. I had never suspected for a second that Waya wasn’t my “real” father.

God, I was so angry at them. I’m ashamed of it now. I can picture them standing there, my mother sick with guilt and regret, Waya looking at me with his gentle dark eyes. Both of them trying to say anything they could to comfort me. And me shouting at them, wrapped up in my own emotions without a thought for what they’d been through, or what they were feeling.

It was dumb luck I found the wedding certificate. It was all folded up, stuffed into a folder with a bunch of documents. I wasn’t looking for it. If you can believe it, I was looking for an old set of ninja turtle action figures I’d stashed up there, thinking maybe I could sell them on eBay for a couple bucks.