M. Gessen

This time, he was telling us that he and Priscilla had resolved their battle, which actually turned out to be true.

They would now have shared custody of both kids.

Alan said he was very pleased.

I thought, my God, did you have to go through all this, absconding with your son twice, keeping him separated from his mother for more than two years, just to arrive at a standard 50-50 custody agreement?

This?

Child support and shared custody?

Is the boring end of this crazy story?

I felt a little relieved and a little dumb.

Like maybe I'd bought too fully into other people's drama.

Kidnapping charges against Alan were pending.

They would later be dropped.

And still, Priscilla was able to reach a peace agreement with Alan.

After all he'd apparently put her and their son through.

Well, maybe this was just the way they did things.

With extreme flair.

Then it happened.

The thing.

The bomb that went off in the middle of my family.

July 2022.

Under the new custody arrangement, it was Alan's weekend with the kids.