My Fingerprint Was on the Bottle, but I Wasn’t on the Hook Chapter 02

My Fingerprint Was on the Bottle, but I Wasn’t on the Hook Chapter 02

I didn’t go home.

I took the lab report to the Fairview Police Department and laid it all out for them.

The officer said they’d need to run their own confirmation and told me not to tip anyone off yet.

But I couldn’t leave Grandma unprotected.

I went straight back to her house.

“Grandma, starting now, don’t take any of your other pills. Only the one I brought you. If anyone else tries to give you something, don’t take it.”

She looked at me, confused. “Honey, what’s going on?”

“There’s been stuff on the news about counterfeit meds going around. The one I got is from a legit pharmacy—it’s the safest option. Just use that.”

She nodded. “Alright. I trust you.”

I thought about taking her with me—to my place or Sophie’s. But her knee was still wrecked from a fall last week. She could barely walk. Moving her wasn’t possible without raising alarms.

And if I suddenly pulled her out of that house, Derek would know something was off.

So I waited.

Waited for the department to confirm the lab results and step in officially.

It was supposed to be fast.

That night I stayed at Sophie’s. I texted Derek I was on a lastminute business trip.

He replied, “Okay, be safe,” with a kiss emoji.

I stared at that emoji until my stomach turned.

The next morning at ten, my phone rang. Fairview PD.

“Mrs. Foster, the toxicology confirmation is in. The pills are compromised. We’re opening a case.”

I exhaled.

“We’ll move on this soon. Until then, keep everything normal. Don’t—”

Another call cut in.

Derek.

His voice was wild, shredded. “Where are you? Get to the hospital—it’s Grandma. Something happened.”

I went rigid.

“What?”

“She was found this morning collapsed in her living room. By the time she got here she was… she was already gone.”

No. That couldn’t be right.

I gave her the new pills yesterday. She was fine after she took them. I told her only to use the bottle I bought.

How could she—

“Who found her this morning?” My voice shook.

“My mom went over to bring her breakfast. She walked in and found Grandma on the floor.”

My brain went white.

My mother-in-law showed up. But as soon as she walked in, Grandma was already down.

By that timeline, she wouldn’t have had time to do anything. The only pill bottle on the coffee table was the one I bought at CVS.

That bottle was clean. It had to be.

Did Grandma just… die naturally?

When I reached Fairview General, a crowd was already clustered outside the ER.

My mother-in-law Patriciaricia Foster was slumped in a chair, sobbing. Derek paced the corridor.

The second he saw me, he grabbed my arm. “She’s gone. They brought her in this morning and she was already gone.”

My knees buckled. I caught the wall.

I had tried to protect her. I had warned her to stick with the pills I gave her.

Still, she was dead.

The attending walked out of the resuscitation bay. “Family—preliminary cause appears to be cardiac arrest, but given her age and medication history, we’re running a full toxicology panel. We’ve already notified the police. Standard procedure.”

Patriciaricia’s head snapped up. Her eyes pinned me.

“It was you.”

Her voice was high and unspooling.

“You were the one who brought her pills yesterday! You did something to them!”