Chapter 2 - The Mugshot and the Spin
By 3:00 PM, news of Lauren’s arrest had sent shockwaves through Charleston’s social circles.
The wedding had taken place at a historic plantation estate along the Ashley River, attended by over two hundred guests, including prominent local business owners, city council members, and our parents' lifelong friends.
When two Charleston County Sheriff's cruisers pulled up to Lauren and her new husband Tyler's newly purchased three-story home, the neighbors watched in utter shock as Lauren—wearing a silk loungewear set—was led down her brick walkway in steel handcuffs.
My phone rang continuously on my living room coffee table.
It wasn't Lauren. It was my mother, Eleanor.
I answered on the fourth ring, setting the phone on speaker while I sat on my sofa with an ice pack resting near my neck.
"Claire!" my mother shrieked into the line, her voice hysterical, high-pitched, and laced with frantic desperation. "What have you done?! What on earth have you done to your sister?!"
I closed my eyes, taking a slow, deep breath of the cool air in my apartment. "Hello, Mom."
"The police just dragged Lauren out of her house!" Eleanor wept, sounding breathless. "Tyler called your father in tears! They took her to the Charleston County Detention Center! They're saying she... she poisoned you with some cleaning supply! That is completely absurd, Claire!"
"It isn't absurd, Mom," I said, my voice dropping into an icy, unshakeable register. "The forensic lab found concentrated lye on my dress and my skin. She got it from the venue's utility closet."
"It was a mistake!" Eleanor yelled, shifting immediately into the familiar protective defense she had used for Lauren since childhood. "She was drunk! It was her wedding night! She was drinking champagne and somebody must have put a cleaning glass on the bar! Lauren wouldn't hurt a fly, and you know it!"
"Mom," I interrupted softly. "She looked me in the eye, threw it straight at my face, and laughed while my skin dissolved."
"You are blowing this out of proportion!" my mother shouted back. "You always make everything about you! Lauren was stressed! Your father gave that toast complimenting you for taking me to my doctor appointments, and it made Lauren feel excluded on her special day! Can't you see how hard this is for her?!"
A cold, clean stillness washed over my soul.
My sister had thrown a corrosive chemical at my face, causing second-degree burns that required daily debridement at the hospital, and my mother was blaming me for ruining Lauren's special day because our father had thanked me for driving her to her oncology appointments.
"The police have the security footage, Mom," I said cleanly. "They watched her pour the lye into the glass."
Silence hung over the line for three long seconds.
"Claire... please," Eleanor rasped, her tone shifting into a sickening, manipulative purr. "Call Detective Reed. Tell him it was a family prank that went wrong. Tell him you don't want to press charges. Tyler’s family is very prominent in real estate—if Lauren gets a criminal record, Tyler’s father will void his business partnership with him! It will ruin their entire future!"
"She ruined my face, Mom," I whispered.
"Skin heals!" my mother spat back, her true colors flashing like lightning through the phone. "A felony record stays forever! If you don't drop these charges by tomorrow morning, don't you ever come to this house again!"
Click.
The line went dead.
I set my phone on the table. My hand didn't shake. My eyes didn't cry.
May you like
For thirty years, I had believed that if I were gentle enough, helpful enough, and patient enough, my mother would eventually love me as much as she loved Lauren.
Now, looking at the ice pack in my hands, I realized that my mother didn't love Lauren because Lauren was good; she loved Lauren because Lauren was the monster she had built.
