Alienation Victim

This book is dedicated to all victims of Parental Alienation Syndrome,
child and adult.


Alienation Victim
Copyright © 2001 by Cassandra Houston


David Succaar (pronounced soo-kar) sometimes felt his name really did
classify him. His name was often mispronounced \'sucker\'. He was often
accused of being a sucker. He admitted occasionally to being just that. A
sucker.

He was in that most boring of fields, engineering. He knew about
reliability and safety and mechanics. His speciality was locomotives.

After college and a short stint in the military, he married his second
cousin, Margot, for fear of being accused of being a faggot. He had no
interest in other men, but he had very little interest in women either.
But marriage was expected and so he got married. His family was
under whelmed with his choice of wife, but the entire family was understated
and no one said or did very much to keep the relatives from inbreeding.

The marriage was miserable from the proposal until the divorce. Twenty
years of miserable. After ten years, Margot decided she was a lesbian.
David, who was already miserable, was not surprised. He could remember
every time they had sex. It was always when she decided it was time to
have a child. It usually took four sexual encounters to knock her up and
so the total number of times they had sex in the first ten years of their
marriage was twelve. The first four created Karen. The second four
created Joshua. The third four created Michael. Then David took matters
into his own hands and had a vasectomy. Margot fought him tooth and nail.
She wanted more children. She wanted more child support when she divorced
him.

David never wanted the divorce. He would have remained married no matter
what. Although not a religious man, he believed in the sanctity of
marriage. And he did not want to appear as a failure.

The divorce took ten years. Margot wanted to better herself and so David
paid her way through nursing school. She took the children with her as she
studied in New York. She studied both nursing and lesbianism with a
passion, often leaving on weekends with her latest lover when David flew
from California to New York for visitation. She made sure that her mother
stayed with David and the children. Margot\'s mother was co-conspirator in
the master plan.

In order to keep David in line, Margot told him he could not mention her
new found love of women. He might be thinking of using it to gain custody
of the children. Well, he could forget that plan. Margot announced that
if he told of her lesbianism, she would tell the courts and anyone with
their own personal set of ears that he harbored thoughts of molesting
Karen. That is why he could not be trusted to visit with the children
alone. Karen was trained from birth to believe everything her mother told
her and she would be an excellent witness for the prosecution.

And so over the course of ten years and many thousands of dollars, Margot
filed for divorce and moved the children to New York, as far away from Los
Angeles as she could get. As far away from David as she could get.

David loved his children and could not bear the once a month weekend visits
which were all he could afford on his budget. He began looking for a new
job. A company that made snow plows in New Jersey hired him at a pay cut
of thirty thousand dollars a year. They knew a sucker when they saw one.

David was now allowed to see the children every other weekend and for three
hours every Tuesday night. The Tuesday night visits were always in
downtown New York as some incredibly expensive children\'s entertainment
restaurant with plenty of video games that his sons could play on instead
of visiting with their father. Karen would sit with her father near the
window and let her father help her with her homework. She was
exceptionally bright and was in advanced classes. Three hours a week was
spent immersed in mathematical equations with Karen, while Joshua and
Michael honed their hand-eye co-ordination. The weekend visits consisted
of going where Karen dictated. If David disagreed, Karen would quietly
report his transgression to her mother, who would announce that Karen was
too busy with homework or her many school clubs to attend weekend
visitation with her father.

Once David brought up having his sons live with him. Margot\'s reaction was
extreme. He was called Chester the Molester and threatened with legal
action if he ever brought it up again. Margot knew a sucker when she saw
one.

When David was not at work or with his children he began spending time on
the Internet. He flitted in and out of chat rooms, speaking rarely. He
met a few women in these rooms and once even flew to Walla Walla,
Washington for a weekend of drunken sex. He did not email or call her
afterwards and she did not try and contact him. He assumed she did not
remember their meeting.

One night a screen name caught his eye. LoveBeinMom. He chatted with this
screen name for 4 hours the first night and before he logged off he found
that the screen name belonged to a single mother of one and one on the way
in Denver. The father of her second, unborn child, had thrown them out in
the street when he found she was pregnant and she had just managed to
secure housing for her and her daughter, who had just turned two years old.
Her unborn child was due the following May. Alice was eighteen years
younger than David.

In less than a week David found he was very much attracted to LoveBeinMom,
whose real name was Alice. Alice\'s daughter was named Amber. David
convinced her to give him her phone number and they began talking on the
phone almost nightly. The only nights he did not talk to her were the
nights he was with his children. And Alice seemed to understand
completely.

David could not deny his feelings after a month of talking with Alice on
the phone. He was in love. Deeply. So was she. But she wanted him to
understand that she had been burned very badly by the fathers of her two
children and demanded nothing less than complete honesty in their
relationship.

\"Don\'t lie to me or beat me and you can have me forever." She promised.

David surprised Alice in the hospital when her son was born. She named him
James, after her father. David had been on the phone with Alice when she
went into labor and when the line was free he called the airline and
reserved the first possible flight from New York to Denver. Young James
was 7 hours old when they met face to face.

David volunteered to sign James birth certificate as his biological father.
Alice agreed after much discussion as she recovered in her hospital bed.
James Succaar was released within 48 hours and went home with his new
family.

David went back to work as soon as possible and began making plans to move
his new family into his home. The new move was made when little James was
only one month old. Alice quickly made the bachelor pad a home and
prepared to welcome David\'s children with open arms.

The problems began immediately. Alice did not miss the look when she was
introduced to Margot and her live-in lover, Christine. Both lesbians
looked Alice over as if she were a chunk of meat. Neither seemed able to
believe that this woman had given birth a mere four weeks ago. Alice had
recovered her figure completely, with the exception of her breasts. They
were not small to begin with, and filled with mother\'s milk, they were
easily twice their usual size. Neither Margot or Christine had ever
recovered their figures. Quite the contrary. Both women were beyond
obese. Alice guessed that they were both beyond the three hundred pound
mark.

Amber also posed a problem. She had taken immediately to David as a father
figure and was already calling him \'Daddy\'. Alice saw the deep frowns when
Amber first called for Daddy.

And then there were David\'s children. They seemed to like Alice, for which
she was grateful, but she could not understand why the boys ran off almost
immediately after their mother disappeared and they found seats in the
restaurant to play video games. She also watched, while quietly nursing
James and minding Amber, as Karen and her father worked over complicated
algebra problems, but did not really talk beyond "How is school, Karen?"
And "Fine, Dad.".

The first weekend was, to Alice\'s eye, a disaster. Karen, Joshua and
Michael fought for Ambers attention and affection. At one point this
manifested itself in a fight that had Michael and Karen rolling on the
floor. More than once, they came close to kicking a sleeping James in his
bouncer on the floor. David broke up the fight, told the children to
behave, but beyond that, handed out no punishment. Alice bit her tongue
and said nothing.

Alice decided to give the children some discipline. She assigned very
small chores for the kids when they came to visit. Simple things, like
helping with dinner and washing the dishes afterwards. She quickly found
out that the children did not know how to do simple chores. Everything was
done for them, by their mother.

"You have never held a broom?" Alice said, incredulously to Karen. Alice
found it hard to believe this, as Karen was thirteen years old.

Karen shook her head and looked sad. Alice perked up and smiled,
reassuring the girl that it was something that was very simple to teach.
And so Alice began teaching David\'s children simple household chores. She
taught them to sweep and to mop. She taught them to vacuum and to load a
dishwasher. She even went so far as to teach them to wash dishes by hand,
which the kids thought was great fun.

Alice found their strengths and weaknesses. She had Michael, who at ten
was beginning to enter a clumsy stage, put away the eggs and handle the
most delicate chores. When Michael dropped an egg on the floor he looked
at Alice as if he expected the Wrath of God to reign down upon his head.
Alice simply handed him a paper towel and taught him how to clean up a
broken egg.

"Accidents happen. Everyone has broken an egg in their life. It\'s no big
deal, Michael, really." She told him gently as the boy seemed on the verge
of tears.

Joshua was the impatient one. He was also a perfectionist. Alice gave him
little things to do that required patience. Alice put Joshua in charge of
watching little Amber. Amber absolutely loved Joshua and followed him
everywhere he went. At the end of each visit, before his mother and her
girlfriend pulled up in their van, Joshua would take Amber on his lap and
tell her that he would see her soon and not to worry. Alice enjoyed
watching the twelve year old boy with his little two year old step-sister.

Karen seemed to feel that, since she was the oldest, she should be in
charge of the most important chores. She did not like that Alice rotated
the chores often and made each child responsible for their own.

Alice also took the boys aside and suggested to them that they spend time
with their father instead of playing video games.

"You may as well stay home and play video games for all the time it gives
you with your Dad." She said.

She also insisted that Karen not bring her homework with her, so she too
could talk to her father, instead of picking his brain.

After about three months the three older kids found themselves feeling much
better about themselves and their father. Weekend trip planning was begun
shortly after the older kids left from the last weekend and by the Tuesday
before the next weekend three suggestions were made and then voted on by
all three children. Democracy reigned, and the boys found themselves
enjoying their weekends more and more.

Their mother, however, was beginning to have major problems with
everything. She insisted that the chores were too difficult on her
delicate children Michael, especially was ADHD and could not possibly be
expected to have any responsibilities. But Alice treated Michael the same
as any other child. To her he was not handicapped. She simply ignored
Margot\'s complaints.

The most difficult hurdle for Alice was the way Karen interacted with her
father. Oftentimes Karen would run her fingers through her fathers hair in
a manner that reminded Alice of the way she ran her fingers through David\'s
hair, often times in a very sexual manner. Alice also noticed Karen\'s
insistence upon sitting on her fathers lap. She mentioned this often to
David, and he said he\'d never thought of it like that before.

"It doesn\'t strike you as strange she sits on your lap and runs her fingers
through your hair?" Alice asked.

"Well, no." David replied. \"You do it."

\"I am your lover. Your wife. Karen is your daughter."

David\'s jaw dropped open.

David took Karen aside and talked to her about it. They talked about
inappropriate touching. Karen promised to watch herself, but in reality
she tried to get closer and closer.

David tried to bring it up to Margot and was rewarded with another Chester
the Molester rant which greatly upset him. Alice could hear the ranting
through the phone from across the room.

Karen was \'otherwise occupied\' for two months afterwards. When she
returned for visits, Alice walked into the bedroom to find Karen holding
David\'s head in her lap and running her fingers through his hair. Karen
gave Alice a look that said, \"You can\'t stop me.".

Alice stopped it, very upset. David, realizing what had happened, scolded
lightly.

The next weekend visit, Margot announced that Karen no longer wanted to
visit with her father. As her mother, Margot would respect Karen\'s wishes.

The downward spiral began.

David mourned Karen as if she had died. Alice tried to get him involved in
projects with Joshua and Michael, but he did not seem interested. It took
him about two months to snap out of it and then he decided they would buy a
house. Joshua and Michael loved going and viewing houses with the family
and they helped in the final decision.

They moved in at the end of November and the boys helped in the move. They
had a grand time helping arrange furniture and buying sheets and curtains
for their bedroom, which they would share when they stayed weekends.

Again, Alice was struck by the looks on Margot and Christine\'s faces when
they first saw the new house. It was hard to believe anyone could frown so
deeply. Alice had never owned a home before and she took immaculate care
of this one. The walk was always free of the snow and salted, so little
girls could play and not slip on ice. Margot and Christine never shovelled
their walkway and the house they lived in seemed always to be in disrepair.

New Years weekend was spent with Joshua and Michael. They drank sparkling
apple cider when the clock struck midnight and the weekend was very nice
and cosy.

One of the last things Michael said to them was, \"This feels like a
family."

The next weekend was going to be extended, because of Kings birthday. They
had planned a trip to a black history museum, as the boys wanted to learn
about Martin Luther King, Jr.

David tried to call when they did not arrive. He called every hour until
midnight and then he went to bed.

The police came in the morning and told him he would have to work these
things out with his attorney. The police did not enforce visitation
orders.

And so the games began.

Margot accused Alice of molesting the boys. Joshua and Michael weakly
denied the charges when the social worker came, but their sister eagerly
told the social worker that her father had been wanting to molest her for
years. It was why she was afraid to visit with him anymore. But
ultimately the social workers report found no abuse at all. Alice and
David were never interviewed by Social Services.

One court delay followed another. Two hundred dollars an hour was given to
the attorney for phone calls, court appearances, more delays. Hundreds of
dollars turned into thousands of dollars. The single victory came in July,
when a court ordered visit brought the boys back to their father for a day
long visit. From nine o\'clock in the morning until five o\'clock in the
afternoon David saw his sons again. Joshua and Michael marvelled that
Amber was learning to count and little James was walking. They missed his
first birthday. It was forgotten by all in the legal chaos.

Alice stood by her husband. When he cried, she was a shoulder to cry on.
She was angry for him, as he appeared so calm and unaffected by all the
goings on. But after a year, she was tired of the fighting. The courts
finally ordered all three children seen by a psychiatrist. The children
all told the psychiatrist that they felt overwhelmed by the demanding
chores and additionally, they felt that their father had chosen Alice and
her children over them. The psychiatrist suggest no visitation until all
parties were seen by a psychiatrist, first individually and then,
eventually all together. The process would obviously take years and would
cost many more thousands of dollars.

The hardest thing David ever did was tell his lawyer \"No." There was
nothing but back and forth fighting going on and it was bad for the kids.
He stopped fighting. He should have stopped long ago, when the money ran
out. But his attorney, a miracle of modern technology, accepted credit
cards as payment. David was now thirty thousand dollars in the hole over
the custody battle alone. In the background was his adoption of Amber,
which cost him a mere five thousand dollars.

David continued to give forth-five percent of his gross income to Margot in
the name of child support.

David promised Alice that they would take a break. His children had made
it clear that they wanted nothing to do with him. He promised no contact
for six months while they sat back and licked their wounds and tried to
heal. Alice was grateful, but the promise turned sour in less than six
weeks when David could not resist and called his children, who told him
they hated him and never to call again. Alice again offered her shoulder.
David did this about every six months. They sought counselling. Alice
complained she could not heal with David when he ripped open her wounds.
It was not helping that he refused to keep his word.

The worst time came when David was playing with Amber and James one
morning. He suddenly walked into the house and announced he was going to
see his other children. Alice begged him not to, that Margot would
probably have him arrested, but David ignored her pleas.

He returned three hours later. They\'d moved, he said. No forwarding
address. He began another search for them, ignoring his mountain of debt.

When Alice told their therapist about this incident, the therapist suggest
that David might want to respect his wife\'s wishes. David was so obsessed
with his biological children that he was forgetting to pay bills. In the
fourteen months since the day the children didn\'t appear for their
visitation, the water had been shut off half a dozen times and the mortgage
had been late at least four times.

And so Alice set boundaries. And David stepped over the line every time.
Alice began to feel alone. She needed someone to talk to. And so Alice
began looking for friends. She knew her marriage was all but over, but she
did not want to leave it. She sought pen pals overseas.

That is how she met Peter. Peter Richardson lived in London and his work
often brought him to the States. They chatted for months before they
confessed to each other that they felt they were falling in love. Alice
was, again, honest with David. David watched the love between Alice and
Peter grow and knew he could not stop it. He wished them well.

Amber loved her adoptive father and Alice knew this. Amber and Alice had a
relationship like many mothers and daughters have. Amber was simply a
smaller version of her mother and they often bumped heads. Alice decided
that the best place for her daughter was with David and for this David was
grateful. The single thing Alice worried about was David\'s other children.
They had lied before, especially Karen, and Alice was saddened that she so
mistrusted the children she had once loved like her own. She asked David
to promise he would be careful and not fall into traps laid by Margot,
Christina and / or, as much as Alice hated to think about it, Karen. David
promised to be vigilant.

When Peter had a business meeting in Albany, he paid Alice\'s way. Their
first meeting went wonderfully and it took every ounce of strength Peter
had to leave Alice behind to return to London.

David was understanding. He spoke with Peter a few times as the two men
arranged for Alice and James to move overseas. Web camera technology would
keep Alice and Amber in touch. The day of the move, David drove them to
the airport and watched with few tears as Alice struggled to remain
cheerful. She hugged her daughter fiercely and gave David a final kiss on
the cheek before taking little James\' hand and boarding the plane.

Alice and Amber visited with each other once a week via the web camera and
spoke by telephone once a month, alternating who called whom.

David and Alice were divorced seven months later. Alice and Peter were
married three months after that. Alice gave birth to another son one year
after arriving in London.

As the months turned to years, David adjusted to his life alone with Amber,
who helped her Daddy as best she could. David still thought often about
his older children, but his sense of responsibility towards Amber kept him
from actively pursuing the other family. He hoped that, when they were
older, they would seek him out. He was already more than willing to
forgive them.

He and Amber compromised. During the month of July, David had a month long
visitation with James and on August the first James returned to Alice and
Peter along with Amber, who then spent a month in London. David was not
surprised to find that James now called Peter Dad. He was also unsurprised
when James began developing a British accent.

When the inevitable request came, David consented to the adoption with no
argument. David buried himself in his work and raising his remaining
daughter.

He did not hear from Margot or Christine or Karen or Joshua or Michael for
years. And when he did, it would change his life forever.


<><><><><>


It began as a happy ending to a long nightmare would.

The first telephone came the day after Amber left to visit her mother in
London. David Succaar listened as apologies wafted into his ears. As he
listened to the story unfold his heart melted. Threats and blackmail. She
had been so scared. The poor thing. The stories she told were
corroborated by her brothers. Yes, it had been horrible. A non-childhood
filled with false words of love intermingled with threats. They had to
comply or they would lose the love. Sometimes, yes, they truly believed
that he didn\'t love them. No calls, no letters. They\'d moved several
times, hearing how it had to be done. David would come and hurt their
mother. And of course, the hate the bad man felt for their mother was
transferred to them. They fought for a little while, but they had no
choice but to give in. They heard the same tale over and over and over.
Eventually it went from being lies to being fact. And now they were seeing
the error of their ways. They had come home.

David forgave as if the last seven years had never occurred. He forgot the
lies the children told. He forgot the pain they caused him when they said
\"I don\'t want to talk to you." And \"I hate you." And other vicious,
malicious and spiteful things they had said to him in the past. He forgot
that because of the lies, told both by his children and himself, he was a
single man. He forgot to be careful. He forgot Alice\'s warnings. He
forgot everything.

Telephone contact became occasional visits became frequent visits.
Occasionally the three lost children came together, but not often. He knew
what Alice would have said, but he told himself she was wrong. This time
she was dead wrong. She had never been wrong before about his ex-wife and
his children, but he convinced himself that she was wrong this time. And,
so convinced, he did not tell her he was breaking another promise to her,
allowing Amber around his older children.

He went to basketball games with his sons. He could not remember ever
having such a wonderful time with them. They never talked about the past.
Never. They simply enjoyed the present and looked forward to the future.

Amber was reintroduced to her step-siblings when she returned from London.
She remembered her brothers and was glad to see them again. She welcomed
Karen less warmly, not having many memories about her. This seemed to hurt
Karen and she spent a great deal of time showering the little girl with
gifts.

David found himself in a position where he had to convince Amber to
withhold information from her mother during their online visits and
telephone conversations. He taught her that a lie by omission was not
really a lie. Amber never mentioned the return of her step-siblings to her
mother. Alice was only happy that her daughter was getting out so much
now. Before David had been such a home body. But Amber had field trips
through her school and socialized enough. She had many friends and that
made Alice very happy. Alice assumed that that August he spent alone while
Amber visited in London has somehow, finally brought him out of his shell.
David was turning over a new leaf.

David understood completely when his older children told him that their
mother had no idea they had contacted him and were now reconciled with him.
She still harbored resentment towards the wrongs she imagined he and Alice
and even Amber and James had done to her. According to Michael, she
particularly blamed Alice for her weight gain. Margot now tipped the
scales at four hundred pounds. Christine died three years before the
children contacted their father again. High blood pressure exacerbated by
her weight. Christine died weighing four hundred and fifty pounds.

Their first Christmas was a belated affair. The older children all wanted
to celebrate together, but as they were expected at their mothers house,
they combined Christmas and New Years with their father and Amber. Amber
loved the double presents. David loved the feeling of family.

Both boys were much busier with school after the first of the year, but
Karen somehow found the time to spend with her father.

The last night he spent with his older daughter was spent alone. They
talked and laughed. The older daughter tucked in her younger step-sister
and read her wonderful bed-time stories. He wished with all his heart that
Alice could see the tenderness shared between the sisters.

David and Karen were up very late talking and laughing and watching movies.
Karen left her father standing in the early-February snow after a final
peck on the cheek.

David\'s first clue to trouble was the call from the after school program
Amber was enrolled in. They told him that Amber was not on the bus that
dropped the children off. The frown on his face was deep and he was
suddenly very cold, but he maintained his calm.

When the police arrived, not a full minute after he replaced the telephone
receiver, he was numb, but somehow not surprised. They told him, coldly.
That he was under arrest for rape of his daughter. That he had the right
to remain silent. That if he gave up the right to be silent, everything he
said could and would be used against him in a court of law. They told him
he had the right to an attorney, but if he could not afford an attorney one
would be provided to him at no charge. He told them that he did understand
when they asked him if he understood the rights as they had been explained
to him and asked them where his daughter Amber was. They told him Amber
was being taken care of by a state social worker.

Having a great mistrust of lawyers, David did not have one retained and so
he waited silently for the court appointed lawyer to arrive. He was
assured again that Amber was fine and that the social worker in charge of
her would be calling her mother as soon as possible to see if Amber could
stay with her. David could only nod numbly imagining Alice\'s reaction to a
phone call from a social worker at ten o\'clock at night, London time.
Alice\'s nightmare come true.

The interrogation went on well into the evening. The police had enough
circumstantial evidence to arrest, obviously. Karen had appeared at the
police station the morning after she left her father standing on the
doorstep and filed a report. Apparently shame drove her into the shower,
destroying all physical evidence. Her mother appeared the next day to hold
her hand and offer false statements to the police, who believed every word,
apparently. The brothers were tracked down and offered grudging
corroboration to their mothers statements on their father\'s character.
Friends of the alleged victim stated that the daughter had attempted to
reconcile with her father, but that she was scared that he still harbored
ideas of molestation, even though she was now a grown woman. It seemed
that witnesses for the prosecution were everywhere.

Once he made bail, David went home to his empty house. He wondered where
Amber was. He wondered where Alice was. His guess was that she was
probably in US air space, if not already on the ground, rushing to her
daughter. He wondered how this could happen to him as he got into bed and
let exhaustion and tears drag him into sleep.

David picked up the phone on the fourth ring. The sunshine caused him to
squint.

\"\'Lo." He grunted.

\"Amber is with me now." Came a voice, shaking very slightly.

\"Hello Alice." David said, cradling his head in his hands.

\"I got the second flight out of Heathrow." Alice told him.

David said nothing. He knew she would have been on the first available
flight and knew without being told that he had Peter, Alice\'s current
husband, to thank. He would have spent a good deal of time calming her.
Alice was always grateful for his British calm when she was upset. Her
ex-husband was now extremely grateful as well.

Alice began with a deep sigh. \"God damn it David, how could you have been
so stupid?" She said. \"Having Amber lie to me? David? You taught my baby
to lie to her mother? How could you?" And she took a deep breath. \"Well,
I suppose it could be worse. I don\'t know exactly how right now, but I\'m
sure it could be worse. Damn her. I knew that bitch would try something.
How could you just let them waltz into your life like that? They are like,
like,\" Alice struggled for words. "Like prisoners of war or something.
How could you just blindly trust them, David? After all these years? They
have been programmed by that bitch. They\'ll do whatever she tells them to
do.\"

David sighed deeply but silently. He did not answer any of the rhetorical
questions Alice was flinging at him. He knew better.

\"I warned you, David." Alice went on. \"I told you this might happen. I
told you to be careful. And what do you do? Open your arms and close your
eyes. Leave all common sense behind. How could you be so blind, David?\"

David listened as Alice effectively started her rant all over again. He
was willing to bet she had no idea she was beginning to repeat herself. It
was a sign of just how angry and scared she was.

Alice went to the police after her telephone lecture and gave her
statement. The first wife, Margot, was crazy, on a good day. She\'d spent
years alienating the children against their father and had obviously been
planning on this for years. The children would say whatever Margot wanted
them to say. They would probably even believe their own lies. Alice
repeated the story to the prosecutor and David\'s attorney. She insisted
they investigate further. That this was not the case of Second Wife
Syndrome, or whatever they might want to call it. After all, she and David
were divorced, mainly as a result of David\'s reactions to his natural
children. She offered to testify if the circus actually got that far.
David\'s attorney promised to keep her advised and asked her what, if any
plans, she had for Amber. Alice informed the attorney that Amber loved her
father and would like to stay with him, if that was possible. Amber would
want to be there to protect her father from the lies. Alice allowed Amber
to give statements, although it was iffy they would ever be heard by a
judge.

Together Amber and David\'s attorney fought with the state to get Amber back
with her father. The attorney knew it would look good in court, if things
got that far. Alice knew what was best for her daughter. One week after
David was arrested, Alice personally delivered Amber home. She watched the
tearful reunion with moist eyes. When Amber was settled in, Alice called
the airlines and made arrangements to return to London. That night was
spent cheerfully, under the circumstances. David allowed a phone call to
London and Amber spoke with her little brothers, aged eight and four. Her
littlest sister was only eighteen months and not very interested in
conversation. David quickly thanked Peter for the support and the call
ended. Alice left early the next morning.

Further investigation quickly uncovered that Margot and her children were
just about as bad as Alice had accused them of being. David\'s sons came
forward unwillingly after pressure from their friends, and recanted their
statements. They confessed to being put up to lying by their mother and
sisters. They were threatened by their mother, they said. They were
always threatened by their mother. All charges were dropped inside of two
months.

David did become more vigilant. He again buried himself in work and Amber.
He began undoing the damage he caused by teaching her that lies of
omission were not lies. He thanked his lucky stars that Alice did not try
and take Amber away from him, as would have been her right. He would not
have been able to go on without Amber. His daughter. His only daughter.

He never heard from his biological children again.