The Smear
Chapter 08 - The Smear
Margot's public relations campaign, once it became clear that Charlotte intended to contest the narrative rather than quietly accept the mental health framing, shifted from sympathetic concern to something considerably more calculated.
A carefully sourced story appeared in a prominent business publication, citing "sources close to the family," describing Charlotte's supposed struggles with postpartum depression following Henry's birth, a struggle Charlotte had, in fact, experienced and had spoken about honestly, years earlier, in a single interview meant to help other new mothers feel less alone in exactly that experience.
The article twisted that honesty into evidence, suggesting Charlotte's history of mental health challenges made her account of the yacht incident unreliable at best, and potentially indicative of a relapse serious enough to explain an apparent suicide attempt involving her own son.
Charlotte read it in the hospital's small family lounge, hands shaking with an anger that had, over the past week, become the primary fuel keeping her upright through each exhausting day.
"She's using my own honesty against me," Charlotte said, showing the article to Owen during their morning meeting. "The one time I was open about struggling, and she's turned it into a weapon."
"This is precisely why we need Patricia Colgrove's testimony formalized as quickly as possible," Owen said. "Right now, this is becoming a battle of competing narratives, and your mother has forty years of carefully built credibility working in her favor. We need physical evidence and corroborating witnesses that can't be dismissed as easily as your own account might be."
"Patricia hasn't called back," Marcus said. "Not since the hospital cafeteria conversation. I think your mother's gotten to her."
Miguel Torres, meanwhile, had submitted his own formal statement to the maritime authority investigating the incident, a statement Sterling Maritime's own legal team had immediately challenged, questioning his proximity to the railing, the accuracy of his hearing given the wind conditions, his relatively junior position within the company that employed him.
"They're trying to discredit the one person with nothing to gain from lying," Charlotte said, reading the company's formal response to Miguel's statement. "A twenty-six-year-old officer who saved my life, and they're painting him as an unreliable witness because he's not senior enough to be trusted."
"It's a common tactic," Owen said. "Attack the credibility of every witness before you have to address the substance of what they're saying. It buys time, and time is exactly what your mother needs right now while her legal team looks for a way to make this entire situation simply disappear."
Charlotte looked at Henry, playing quietly in the corner of the lounge with a set of building blocks the hospital had provided, seemingly recovered on the surface, though his nightly nightmares told a different, more complicated story.
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"How much time," she asked. "Before this either resolves or destroys us completely."
"Weeks, most likely," Owen said. "Possibly longer, if your mother's team is as thorough as I expect them to be. I want you prepared for a fight considerably longer and harder than the one you've already survived."
