Em Gessen

The walls were bare.

Closets empty.

These details were new to me.

I knew that he took O, of course.

But I didn't realize that Alan had gone scorched earth on Priscilla herself.

So he actually took all your clothes?

Or some of your clothes?

Here's what Alan had determined Priscilla would need.

Some casual clothes and two pairs of sneakers.

His plan was that Priscilla and the baby would move out of their apartment in Moscow and move into our grandmother's dacha, a summer cottage, by which I mean half of a summer cottage, by which I mean two small rooms and a kitchen, outside the city, where no one speaks English.

Priscilla scrambled to find a place to live in Moscow.

And then, according to lawsuits, police reports, and court testimony, Priscilla became aware of odd things happening with the business that she and Alan shared in Zimbabwe.

She learned that she had been removed as director of a company that owned a property there, the property where she and Alan had a house and their businesses.

And now her businesses were being forced out.

A neighbor told her the property was recently put up for sale.

Soon, Priscilla says, she was struggling to get access to money.

Later, in federal court, Alan confirmed he and his business colleagues had Priscilla removed from their company and that he had canceled her debit card.

I had thought that this was all about O, about who had control of the schools he went to and the books he read.

But now that I was talking to Priscilla, it sounded like Alan was really going after her, punishing her.

Priscilla says she knew why.