Chapter 8 - What They Tried to Hide
Two weeks later, my cousin texted me.
She had been at my parents’ house for Sunday dinner. Lauren had been there too, laughing too loudly and telling everyone I was “going through something” and “needed space.”
But my cousin had noticed something else.
“Lauren’s kids were weird the whole time,” she wrote. “Especially Lucas. He kept saying stuff like ‘Grace is dramatic like her mom’ and then looking at Lauren like he was checking if he said the right thing. It felt… off.”
I read the message twice.
Then I called my cousin.
We talked for almost an hour.
By the end of the call, I had a clearer picture.
Lauren had been telling her children a version of the story where Grace was the problem. Where I was overreacting. Where “Aunt Erin is just sensitive.”
My cousin had also overheard Lauren on the phone with someone, saying she was “tired of Erin acting like she’s better than everyone because she’s a single mom nurse.”
I thanked my cousin and hung up.
Then I opened my document and added everything she had told me.
This wasn’t just about one night anymore.
This was about a pattern.
Lauren wasn’t just cruel to Grace.
She was teaching her own children to dismiss her too.
I closed the laptop and looked out the window at the dark street.
Some people break things and call it an accident.
Others break things and then teach everyone around them that the broken thing deserved it.
May you like
Lauren was the second kind.
And I was done pretending that kind of person deserved access to my daughter.
