Chapter 12 - THE MOTHER’S PUBLIC UNRAVELING
As word of her arrest spread through her online community and local social circles, my mother’s carefully curated internet persona collapsed overnight. Friends, church members, and online followers who had initially rushed to comfort the "grieving grandmother" saw the unedited video footage and the police reports released by investigative journalists. The backlash was instantaneous and absolute; her accounts were flooded with condemnation, and she became an instant pariah in the very community where she had played the saint for decades.
