[chc]

Why can't somebody be satisfied both with getting back his children and with sticking it to the person who took them in the first place? I think most people would gain some degree of satisfaction from seeing the person who kidnapped their children brought low.

(Admittedly, this is not the narrative I think is more likely, but it doesn't seem like all that remote a possibility either. Vengeful feelings are ugly, whether we consider them justified or not.)

[CocaKoala]

Sure, absolutely that's the sort of thing you would get satisfaction from.

But when you're relating the story to others, are you going to describe that satisfaction at seeing "the bitch" brought low? Or are you going to describe the relief from having your children back? People tend to relate portions of a story which they consider to be important; if this guy is describing to his friend the satisfied feeling of getting one up on her, then that sends some pretty heavy signals about why he broke the law and company policy to find her.

[chc]

Well, maybe. Which part of the story is important is largely a matter of context. If the topic of discussion were his children, yeah, changing the subject to how he got one over on his wife would be kind of disturbing. If the topic were his wife, expressing satisfaction at how he got one over on her when she was at her most "evil" seems pretty normal.