He panicked if I was late picking him up.
He asked where I was going every time I put on shoes.
Sometimes he defended Evan.
“He wasn’t mean to me.”
I never argued.
Because that was also true.
Evan fed him.
Bought him books.
Took him fishing.
Made pancakes.
Played cards.
And kidnapped him.
Children can be harmed by people who are affectionate toward them.
That is one reason parental abduction can be so psychologically confusing.
The person who frightens you can also be the person tucking you into bed.
Noah loved his father.
I let him.
Therapy helped us separate love from permission.
Evan’s case took months.
His attorney argued that because no final custody order existed when he initially took Noah, the situation was legally more complicated than a stranger kidnapping a child.
That was true.
But what happened afterward mattered.
The deception.
The disguise.
The fake messages.
