A forged eviction and a fake group chat are being used to take my son

Dear Dr. Hart,

I’m writing this with my hands shaking, and I don’t even know where to start. My ex, Liam, and I have been separated for two years. We share custody of our son Leo, who’s seven. It’s been tense but workable—until last month.

At the parent-teacher meeting, Liam walked up to the principal, Priya Kapoor, with his phone out. He showed her a screenshot of a group chat where someone claiming to be me threatens the landlord with violence. I’ve never sent anything like that. I don’t even use group chats for anything serious—mostly memes with my sisters. But Liam had the whole thing printed, timestamped, with my name on it. Priya looked at me like she was seeing a stranger. I told her it wasn’t me, but she just nodded and said she’d need to review it.

A week later, my landlord hands me an eviction notice. It says I’m being evicted for “threatening behavior” based on those same chat logs. I almost laughed—except it wasn’t funny. The notice is dated the same week as the meeting. I’m not late on rent. I’ve never been late. But now there’s a paper trail saying I’m unstable.

Then things got worse. Priya called me in to say the school received a court order asking for Leo’s records. She showed me a photo attached to the chat log—it’s a woman at the school gate, but it’s not me. It’s another mum, Sarah. We have the same kind of long black hair, and she was picking up her kid that day. Priya confirmed the mix-up—she said the photo doesn’t match me. But Liam had already filed a police report claiming I tried to “snatch” Leo from school. He used the mistaken identity as proof I’m unstable.

I have time-stamped location data from my phone showing I was at the parent-teacher meeting when the gate incident happened. I have two witness statements from other mums who saw me there. I gave it all to Priya, and she believes me now. She says the group chat was faked—likely by Liam. But the damage is done. The custody hearing is next week, and Liam is arguing that I’m a risk to Leo. He’s using the eviction notice and the police report as evidence.

I’m so tired. I’m so angry. I feel like I’m fighting a ghost—he’s not even here, but he’s tearing apart my life from a distance. My son is the only thing that matters, and I know I’m a good mum. Leo is happy, healthy, safe with me. But the system moves slow. The allegations are already in the file.

Am I being unreasonable to feel like the truth doesn’t matter here? Like I have to prove my innocence over and over, while he just has to say the words?

Exhausted in Fitzroy