I pulled my arm away so sharply that she stopped speaking in the middle of her sentence.
At that exact moment, Ashley’s phone buzzed loudly in her hand.
She glanced down at the screen.
Then every bit of color drained from her face.
She had forgotten to delete the messages.
Even from several feet away, I could see the conversation thread glowing on her phone.
Mom: “Don’t give her more food. She’ll learn not to act helpless.”
Ashley: “The baby won’t stop crying.”
Mom: “Let him cry. She wanted to be a mother.”
For one second, the entire hallway seemed to shift beneath my feet.
Then I noticed Mr. Harris standing behind them, holding a brown paper grocery bag in one hand. He had returned to our house after helping me bring Emily and Noah to the hospital, and now he slowly set the bag down on one of the waiting room chairs.
