Chapter 2: What the Little Bottle Knew
Detective Ruiz stopped walking.
She turned back slowly, her eyes moving from Poppy to Preston.
"What bottle, sweetheart?"
Poppy hugged her rabbit tighter.
"The little one.
From the kitchen.
Daddy put it in his pocket when the loud people came."
The loud people.
The paramedics.
Madeline felt something cold move through her chest.
Preston had been there when they arrived.
He had been the one who called them.
He had also been the one standing closest to the kitchen counter.
"Preston." Detective Ruiz's voice was quiet but flat.
"I'm going to need you to empty your pockets."
He didn't move right away.
Just long enough for Madeline to notice.
Then he reached in and placed a small glass bottle on the bedside table.
"It's nothing.
I didn't want Poppy to get into it."
Detective Ruiz picked it up without touching the cap.
She read the label.
Her expression didn't change, but she didn't put it back down.
"Who does this belong to?"
Preston said, "Serena brought it."
Madeline looked at her daughter.
Poppy was staring at her father with the kind of stillness only a child who has learned to be very careful can manage.
She had seen that look before.
She just hadn't known what it meant until now.
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What Madeline realized in that moment was only the beginning.
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The full truth — and what Preston had been hiding for much longer than one afternoon — is in the link below.
Read the complete story before Part 3 is gone.
