M. Gessen

He then explains what he means by harass.

A few months earlier, Priscilla had the nerve to tell the police that he had kidnapped Owen.

But he had, in fact, been arrested for taking O across the border to Canada and spent five weeks in jail and was now awaiting trial and kidnapping charges.

He tells David, let's just say that I'm a little bit pissed off.

But it's a woman who will go the length of the world to make my life miserable, Allen says.

Women, am I right?

Amid all this bro-y, gangstery hot air, the vaguest outlines of a plan appear.

A bribe will be paid, some government officials will pull some strings, and Priscilla will be ordered to leave the country.

And it will cost $100,000.

At first, Alan seems taken aback by the price tag.

But he quickly recovers from the sticker shock.

Alan's done the math.

He'd pay more in child support.

After everything Priscilla had gone through to get to the U.S.

to see her son again, Alan was going to send her back to Zimbabwe.

After everything O had gone through, being separated from his mother for two and a half years, meeting her again, watching his father get arrested, going to live with his mother and a sister he barely knew,

Alan was going to yank him away from Priscilla again.

And he was going to deprive Elle, who was three, of the only parent she had ever known.

All for the eminently reasonable price of $100,000.

And we hadn't even gotten to the murder-for-hire plot yet.