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My six-year-old nephew dragged his broken leg across seven blocks of pavement to reach my porch, with his starving three-year-old sister clinging to his shirt. I was fixing a loose hinge when I heard scraping on the steps and turned to see Drew crawling toward me, pale, shaking, and whispering, “She locked us downstairs again.” I called 911 before I even understood the whole story. But when he told me about Reena’s punishment room, I knew my brother had died believing a terrible lie.

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the signature until the letters blurred.

My name was written in careful loops, each one copied from documents Aaron had seen a hundred times—tax returns, insurance forms, birthday cards, the consent papers at my obstetrician’s office.

Whoever had forged it knew that I crossed the final letter of my last name with an upward stroke.

But they had made it continue reading …

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