I spent the days before the custody hearing getting my story straight: Russell broke the bassinet and the photographs and the teapot and the dining-room chair and the glass lamp. He shoved and kicked me. He pointed a gun toward his skull while the baby and I watched; he covered us in broken lightbulbs. He unsheathed a machete to kill my dog; he threatened to snap my neck.
Russell had petitioned for custody of the 4-year-old who’d seen every broken thing and of the 1-and-a-half-year-old he’d never met, who’d been born while I had a protective order. My lawyer said Russell planned to ask for full custody. I wanted visitations supervised. I wanted Russell ordered to a family-violence-intervention program.
