Chapter 6
The next morning, my mother arrived with coffee, rage, and three bags of groceries.
She hugged me hard.
Then held my face and looked at the slap mark.
“I am going to behave because lawyers are present.”
Alicia, sitting at my kitchen table, nodded.
“Appreciated.”
The police report was expanding.
Identity theft.
Harassment.
Extortion.
Defamation.
Cyber impersonation.
Possible financial fraud.
Lauren was released pending charges.
She texted me from a new number.
You’re making this bigger than it has to be.
I never meant to hurt you.
Mark was the one cheating.
Claire attacked you, not me.
Don’t forget who was there when your dad died.
My mother read the last line and nearly threw my phone.
My father had died when I was twenty-one.
Lauren had been there.
She had held me at the funeral.
Now she was using that memory like collateral.
Alicia saved every message.
Then blocked the number.
The forensic review of Lauren’s phone revealed the beginning.
Six months earlier, Mark messaged what he thought was my professional account after a conference.
Except I had never met him.
Lauren had created the account after finding my photos in shared cloud albums.
At first, she flirted.
Then she asked for gifts.
Then money.
Then hotel rooms.
She used my name to make herself seem safer.
Respectable.
Worth chasing.
But she met Mark in person as Lauren.
Told him she was my best friend.
Told him I was “too scared” to meet at first.
Then told him I needed money to stay quiet because I felt guilty about Claire.
It was absurd.
Complicated.
Cruel.
And somehow Mark had believed enough because believing allowed him to keep cheating.
That was the ugly truth.
May you like
Lauren created the trap.
Mark walked into it because he wanted to.
