Chapter 10 - THE UGLIEST LIE
Mom spun toward Lauren.
"What are you doing?"
Lauren kept filming.
"Tell her."
I opened the door but stayed behind the storm door.
"Tell me what?"
Lauren smiled.
"Mom told me you were raising Emma to be impossible. She said somebody needed to shock you into setting boundaries."
Mom stared at her.
"That is not what I said."
"You said Claire needed a wake-up call."
"About schedules! About letting people hold the baby! Not hitting her!"
Lauren swung the camera toward Mom.
"So now you're pretending you didn't spend six months trashing her parenting?"
"I never told you to strike a child."
For once, I believed Mom.
Not because I trusted her.
Because Lauren's face told me she had expected Mom to fold.
She didn't.
Lauren's smile vanished.
"You're choosing her now?"
Mom whispered, "I'm choosing the truth."
Lauren lowered the phone.
"After everything I've done for you?"
Dad stepped onto the porch behind us.
"What exactly have you done for her, Lauren?"
Lauren froze.
She had not known he was inside.
Dad held up the envelope of printed messages.
"Because from where I'm standing, you've threatened her, used her money, lied about James, and hurt a baby."
Lauren's face changed.
"You went through my room?"
"It's my house."
"You had no right!"
Dad laughed bitterly.
"Funny word for you to use."
Lauren lunged toward him.
James opened the storm door and stepped between them.
He did not touch her.
He did not need to.
"Back up."
She did.
Then she pointed at James.
"This is exactly what I mean. Everyone is afraid of him."
"No," Dad said. "We're ashamed of you."
Lauren's face went pale.
She climbed back into her car and slammed the door.
Mom remained in the driveway.
I looked at her.
"Go home with Dad."
"Claire—"
"Not tonight."
She nodded.
As they drove away, James locked the door.
I thought the worst was over.
At 7:18 the next morning, it became clear it wasn't.
A deputy sheriff knocked on our door.
Lauren had filed for a temporary protective order against James.
Her petition claimed he had threatened her twice.
Once at Christmas dinner.
And once in our driveway.
The second incident had been recorded on video.
Her video.
May you like
But she had cut it so that the clip began with James stepping outside and saying, "Back up."
Everything before that was missing.
