Chapter 5 - The Smear Campaign
The next morning, my phone blew up with notifications.
Marisol had given it back to me so I could coordinate with my physical therapist.
Instead of medical updates, I saw a sea of Facebook tags.
Lauren had gone live.
She sat in her new, empty nursery, squeezing out crocodile tears.
“My sister got into a minor fender bender and lost her mind,” Lauren wept to the camera.
She wiped her dry eyes with a tissue.
“Now she’s cutting off her pregnant sister and our elderly parents because she’s greedy.”
The comments were a dumpster fire.
People who didn’t even know me were calling me a monster.
“How could you do that to a pregnant woman?” one commenter wrote.
“Rich people are so heartless,” wrote another.
I locked my phone, my heart pounding against my bruised ribs.
Julian arrived at noon, holding a tablet with the video paused on the screen.
“We can sue for defamation,” he said immediately.
“No,” I said, surprising both of us.
“Miranda, she’s dragging your name through the mud.”
“If we sue, it stays in court behind closed doors,” I reasoned.
Julian raised an eyebrow. “What are you suggesting?”
“I have the hospital logs,” I said. “I have the surgeon’s notes.”
“You want to go public?” he asked, a hint of concern in his voice.
“She brought it to the public,” I said, sitting up slightly. “I’m just going to finish it.”
I asked Marisol to help me prop up my phone on the tray table.
I didn’t use filters.
I didn’t hide the massive bruise covering half my face, or the IV in my neck.
I hit record.
“My sister Lauren recently posted a video about my ‘minor fender bender,’” I started, my voice raspy but calm.
I held up an 8x10 printout of my crushed car that the police had given me.
“I had to be cut out of this with the Jaws of Life.”
I looked directly into the lens.
“I called my family nine times while I was bleeding internally.”
I showed a screenshot of my call log, alongside my mother's dismissive text message.
“They couldn't answer because they were unpacking throw pillows.”
I took a shaky breath, letting the silence hang.
“I didn't cut them off because I'm greedy. I cut them off because I realized I was paying people to pretend to love me.”
May you like
I ended the video and posted it directly to Facebook.
“Checkmate,” Julian murmured from the corner of the room.
