I should have been the person who recognized trouble long before a doctor had to say those words.

A police officer named Elena Ruiz arrived twenty minutes later.

She spoke to me first, then explained that a trained interviewer might speak with Hailey later so she would not have to repeat her account unnecessarily.

She asked me to save every message Brenda had sent.

I gave her the video Warren had exported, the messages, and the photographs from the clinic.

When she asked whether Brenda was Hailey’s mother, I shook my head.