M. Gessen

I hadn't messaged with Priscilla in over a year, but I heard from my father that Priscilla's claim, filed under the Hague Convention, was going to be heard in federal court in Boston.

The case would probably drag on for a while, but I assumed that Priscilla would now be able to see her son.

And then there it was, on social media.

Priscilla posted a picture of herself embracing O. I liked the picture.

I figured my job was done.

My time as a double agent, long over.

About four months later, Alan was arrested for kidnapping O. Not for the time he took O from Russia.

This was new.

That's after the break.

Alan was arrested in Montreal at the airport when he, Lena, and O were waiting to board a flight to London without, apparently, Priscilla's knowledge.

This time Alan went to jail.

But no, this arrest and what Alan did to get himself arrested weren't the things that shocked my family.

We didn't exactly act like Alan's arrest was normal.

We acted like it was absurd.

I entertain my friends with stories of my serial kidnapper cousin.

Lena kept the family updated with overdramatic notes on the Facebook family chat and at least one video from Canada in which Alan, wearing a striped uniform, sings her Russian prison song.

Alan spent a couple of weeks in Canadian detention, then another few weeks in a jail in upstate New York, and was finally released on his own recognizance to await trial in Massachusetts.

O was now living with Priscilla.

Alan got out of jail in February 2022.

A couple of months after that, he sent out a missive in the family chat, as self-important as the one that began this whole story.