Lauren’s Choice
Chapter 17 - Lauren’s Choice
Lauren Vega agreed to cooperate when she learned Adrian planned to blame her for everything.
His attorney described her as a resentful cousin acting alone. Messages disappeared from Adrian’s phone but remained on Lauren’s. Payments had entered an account in her name. The white container carried her lipstick.
Adrian had built the escape route before the wedding.
Lauren understood too late that she had never been his partner.
She gave prosecutors the missing pieces.
Falcon Ridge was weeks from collapse. Adrian needed Reyes money before auditors discovered the fraud. Lauren had embezzled smaller amounts from the family company and feared Roberto would find them. Adrian promised to erase the evidence if she helped gain temporary control.
She changed the authorization document.
She contacted Dr. Marsh.
She placed the second glass.
But she claimed Adrian increased the dosage without telling her.
“I thought Camila would sleep,” Lauren said. “I didn’t think she could die.”
Camila listened from behind one-way glass during the interview.
When Lauren cried, Camila’s face remained still.
They had grown up together. Shared bedrooms during holidays. Buried a pet bird in Roberto’s garden. Lauren had helped fasten Camila’s wedding dress hours before attempting to drug her.
Betrayal did not erase love’s history.
It poisoned it.
Afterward, Camila asked the prosecutor whether cooperation meant Lauren would avoid prison.
“No,” he said. “It may reduce the sentence.”
Camila nodded.
She did not ask for revenge.
She asked for the record to state clearly that Emma Lane stopped the plan.
The waitress everyone dismissed would not be edited out of the story.
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Lauren also revealed that Adrian had rehearsed the aftermath. He would cry beside Camila’s clinic bed, blame the pressure of the wedding, and ask the board for privacy. Lauren had drafted the statement. It described him as a devastated husband before the marriage even existed.
Camila read the draft once. The most painful line called her “the love of his life.” She handed it back without comment. Some lies were so polished they no longer deserved anger. They deserved preservation as evidence.
