She didn't technically. In her very carefully worded heart string appeal, she just allowed you (if you didn't know better) to think it was her daughter, and that the daughter died (if you didn't know better) from illegal drugs.
I knew nothing about the incident and, at first assumed it was her daughter and, having a daughter myself, felt terrible. Until I looked into it and realized what she was doing - using her dead step-daughter as a prop.
The REAL mom was pissed about it.
As she should be.
Step-moms are real moms.
The source of the faulty genes.
Being not the source of the bad genes, one would expect Carly to bury the subject. But she did not. That's to her credit.
And if Carly didn’t think of, treat as and refer to her as her child, people would accuse her of being an evil stepmother.
She’s not my candidate by a mile, but jeesh!