Eleanor Gordon Smith

Nicole had a foggy thought that her mum might have done something bad to her as a kid.

She remembered saying something to someone when she was young about her mum burning her feet on a stove, and remembered something about a sexual abuse allegation.

But could that be right?

Surely she'd remember those things actually happening.

But she didn't.

What if her dad had just made her say those things about her mum?

It had been a really ugly custody battle.

Each parent said all kinds of things about the other.

What if her dad wanted custody so bad he invented all these awful stories?

There was so much about her mum that Nicole didn't know.

So she arranged to meet her mum in person.

They did.

They started seeing each other more regularly.

But it always felt off.

Once, she remembers sitting next to her mum at dinner and putting her head down on the table in front of her.

Nicole says they didn't talk about any abuse.

And then, in the middle of that doubt, a piece of evidence seemed to fall from the sky and with it, the promise of knowing what had happened in the custody dispute.

Dr. Dave Corwin phoned Nicole.

He was the child psychiatrist in the custody battle that had split Nicole off from her mum, and he had videotapes of interviews he'd done with her when she was a very young girl.

It had been his job to investigate the abuse allegations.