Em Gessen

Not about Alan's general agitation or his apparent indifference to the way his wife and child spend their time on a family trip while he was busy.

I noticed that O had extreme separation anxiety in relation to Priscilla.

He was just four years old.

Some kids are like that.

Then that kid was torn away from his mother.

Now he was eight, and more than a quarter of his life had passed without Priscilla.

When did you see him for the first time?

What had her little boy been thinking for the past two years?

Why did he think his mother wasn't with him?

What had Alan told him?

Owen knew that Priscilla had been in prison.

What other stories about her had taken hold in his mind?

Yeah.

Alan had filed for full legal and physical custody.

In his lawsuit, he claimed that Priscilla had neglected Elle and taken Elle to Zimbabwe without his consent.

He portrayed Priscilla as a cocaine user and serial burglar who could barely stay out of jail.

She came from a volatile country with high crime rates and an unstable economy.

Oh, and he mentioned the dispossession of white farmers in Zimbabwe and accused Priscilla of anti-white racism.

Against all this, Priscilla was arguing for at least some time with her son.

The judge allowed Priscilla to visit O for two hours twice a week.