PART 2
I didn’t sleep.
I listened to all forty-one recordings with headphones in the dark. Nineteen were singing. Six were chewing. Four were Clem saying “Hi Mommy!” and nothing else.
Twelve were rehearsals.
Skye coaching. Jordan playing the evaluator. Clem practicing the scared way, the sad way, the iPad story.
In one, Clem said, “But that’s not true.”
And Skye answered, “It’s true enough, sweetie. Grown-ups decide what’s true.”
At 6 a.m., I called my lawyer, Dennis Hart.
He listened to three recordings over the phone.
Then he was quiet for a long moment.
“Erin, don’t confront anyone. Don’t call Jordan. Let the evaluator come. And don’t coach Clem about anything. Not one word.”
“I would never.”
“I know. That’s exactly why we’re going to win.”
Ms. Okonkwo arrived at 10:00 sharp.
She was calm and kind. She looked at Clem’s room. She asked me about our routines. Then she asked to talk with Clem alone in the backyard.
I sat in the kitchen and watched through the window.
After a few minutes, I saw Clem look at the floor.
Then at the door.
Then she started to cry.
My heart broke watching her try to do what she’d been taught.
But then Clem stopped. She wiped her face. And she said something I couldn’t hear.
Ms. Okonkwo put down her pen.
Twenty minutes later, the evaluator came inside and sat across from me.
“Ms. Marsh, Clementine just told me she was supposed to cry the scared way, but she didn’t want to anymore because she likes it here and she didn’t want me to write a fib in my notebook.”
I covered my mouth.
“She also told me her watch ‘listens.’ Is there anything you’d like me to know?”
I slid my phone across the table.
Then I put in my earbuds, handed her one, and played recording number nine.
Ms. Okonkwo listened to four of them.
Her face never changed.
But she wrote for a very long time.
Three weeks later, we were in front of Judge Rasmussen.
Jordan’s lawyer argued for full custody.
Then Ms. Okonkwo’s report was entered into evidence.
The judge read it in silence.
Then she looked over her glasses at Jordan.
“Mr. Marsh, did you and your partner rehearse false abuse allegations with your seven-year-old daughter?”
Jordan looked at his lawyer.
His lawyer looked at the table.
The judge denied his petition. She modified the order so Jordan’s visits would be supervised for six months. She referred the coaching to the county for review and ordered him to pay my legal fees.
Skye deleted her “gentle parenting” account the next day.
Jordan called me that night.
“You could have told me you had those recordings.”
“You could have told me you were teaching our daughter to lie about me.”
He didn’t call again.
Clem still wears the purple watch.
Last night, she pressed the button and sent me a message from her room.
“Hi Mommy. I’m not crying any way. I’m just happy. Goodnight.”
I’ve saved that one forever.
THE END.
