The most damning piece of evidence did not come from Grace’s testimony, but from Melanie’s own device.

While they were bickering in the hallway, Melanie dropped her phone and the screen stayed illuminated on an open chat window.

I managed to read a sentence before she scrambled to pick it up.

“If she waits until tomorrow, Leo is going to think it was her own fault.”

The detective had seen the message as well.

“Hand over the phone,” the officer commanded.

Melanie turned white as a sheet, and my mother began screaming that they had no legal right to look at her daughter’s private things.

Detective Jenkins was unmoved by their outbursts.

“We have every right,” she replied coolly.

Just then, the doctor emerged from the nursery area with a grim look.

“Leo, your son is stable, but we need to know exactly what he was fed because he has ingested something that a newborn should never have.”

Grace opened her eyes in pure terror.

“They gave him tea,” she whispered, clutching the sheets. “Chamomile tea with sugar, and even though I told them it was dangerous, they forced it on him.”

My mother went completely rigid.

Before she could invent another story, the detective discovered an audio recording on the device that shifted the entire trajectory of the investigation.

The audio was less than a minute, but it captured the reality of our nightmare.

We heard Sam’s muffled, weak cries, and Grace’s voice begging for help.

“Please, Josephine, just take him to a doctor, he is burning up,” she pleaded.

Then my mother’s voice rang out, cold and sharp.

“If you wanted to be the lady of the house so badly, then deal with the situation like a woman, because maybe then you will learn not to mess with what is mine.”

Melanie’s laughter could be heard clearly in the background.

“And if Leo asks, we will just tell him that she refused to feed the baby,” Melanie added.

The silence in the room was heavier than a scream.

My mother lunged for the phone, shrieking that the recording had been edited, but the officers quickly restrained her.

“Do not move,” the detective ordered.

Melanie began to panic and started babbling that it had all been my mother’s plan, that she was just following orders and never meant for the baby to get that sick.