Em Gessen

Because she had chosen to end the marriage.

In one of their fights, Alan had told her that it wasn't fair, that if they broke up, her life would get better and his would get worse.

Priscilla didn't disagree exactly.

Her calculations showed the same thing.

From the moment she landed in Moscow and got the barrage of WhatsApp messages from Alan, Priscilla had a single goal, to get O back.

She found herself in an adventure horror movie, or just in a nightmare.

The kind where you're trying to get somewhere, but things keep getting in the way, and these things get weirder and bigger as you try to whack your way through them, and it just goes on and on and on.

First, she had to get out of Russia.

For that, she needed to get Elle's documents.

That took five months.

Now she could leave, but she couldn't go straight to the United States.

She and Elle both needed visas, and for that, Priscilla needed to go to Zimbabwe to apply at the U.S.

Embassy there.

What started happening next, it's so dizzying that I'm not going to be able to hit every note, every threat, every attack, every eviction, every police report, every court hearing, and every arrest that make up this saga.

All of them, Priscilla believes, orchestrated by Alan.

Some of it, I should say, Alan denies.

I'll note where I can when court documents and witnesses corroborate Priscilla's account and where they don't.

But these are the highlights, or lowlights, I guess,

As soon as Priscilla and Alan returned to Zimbabwe, Priscilla was able to stop the sale of the house she had lived in with Alan.

This was covered in the Zimbabwean press.