Chapter 4 - The Smear Campaign Begins
By the next morning, the digital warfare had officially begun.
I woke up to a dozen confused text messages from extended family members.
My phone was vibrating constantly on the nightstand.
I opened Facebook and immediately saw the reason why.
Brenda had posted a massive, multi-paragraph rant on her public profile.
She painted herself as the tragic, heartbroken grandmother.
She claimed I was suffering from severe postpartum depression and had completely lost my grip on reality.
She wrote that I had cruelly banned her from seeing her only granddaughter.
The post had dozens of comments from her friends, all calling me ungrateful and cruel.
Jessica chimed in, commenting that I had selfishly cut off my nephews' phone lines right before school started.
They were building a narrative to isolate me and force me into an apology.
Years ago, this public shaming would have worked perfectly.
I would have panicked, called them crying, and bought the laptops just to make the embarrassment stop.
But looking at Maya’s tiny, sleeping face, I felt no panic.
I only felt a cold, calculating determination.
I took screenshots of everything.
I screenshotted Brenda’s dramatic post.
I screenshotted Jessica’s nasty comments.
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And then, I opened my own photo gallery.
I was going to need my own ammunition if this was the game they wanted to play.
