My mother stared silently at the papers because she recognized my handwriting immediately. There was no confusion about whether she had seen the warnings. I had circled them personally before leaving, and both she and Ashley knew exactly what symptoms required emergency treatment.
When police officers arrived, they began asking careful questions about the timeline, phone calls, and everyone who had been inside the house during the previous four days. I handed over my phone willingly and showed them call logs, messages, and Ashley’s final text from earlier that night telling me everyone was asleep and I needed to stop worrying.
Then Ashley’s phone vibrated.
The reaction on her face was immediate and obvious. She looked terrified the moment she saw the screen, and both the officer and I noticed it instantly. When the officer asked what message she had received, Ashley answered too quickly and claimed it was nothing important. My mother snapped her name sharply, and that one reaction told me they were both hiding something.
