Rosalyn turned around carefully to look at the child. “And were you taking those drops before you came into the hospital?”
“Yes, Brenda always told me to open my mouth because I was clever and might try to fool her,” Chloe explained quietly. “Then her phone rang one night, so I quickly poured them away, and that was the first night my belly didn’t hurt at all.”
Chloe leaned closer and lowered her voice into a whisper. “I think they’re magic vitamins, only backward.”
Rosalyn opened the nightstand drawer beside Chloe’s bed. Hidden between a pair of pink socks, a juice box, and several colored markers, she noticed a small dark glass bottle with a built-in dropper.
The front label described it as an ordinary liquid supplement for children, but the sticker looked noticeably crooked, exposing sticky traces from another label underneath.
The doctor immediately put on a pair of latex gloves and lifted the bottle. “I’m going to bring this down to the lab so we can examine it.”
