My husband, Leon Hobbs, calls me to tell me that his grandma, Phoebe Reid, has forgotten to bring her blood pressure medication, so he wants me to deliver it to her.

"Hurry up, Elsie! Grandma's blood pressure is spiking again! You're the one who's closest to her right now!"

With the medication in hand, I've just reached the corridor when comments pop up on my phone out of nowhere.

"Don't go! The old lady will die in the living room ten minutes after you enter the apartment!"

"The blood pressure medication has been swapped out for poison, and your prints are on the bottle! Everyone will think that you're the one who poisoned the old lady!"

"Your husband and your mother-in-law have left the apartment purposefully so that you'll be the only one facing the old lady's corpse! Then, they'll use the assets that you and the old lady have left behind just to buy a new home for your husband's pregnant mistress!"

I remain rooted to the spot as I stare at the bottle of medication.

Leon had passed it to me last night, claiming that it was a bottle of newly prescribed medication. He wanted me to keep it for Phoebe for the time being.

My fingerprints are all over the bottle at this time.

Three seconds later, I turn on my heel and head toward the nearest pharmacy. Then, I place the bottle of pills on the counter.

"Please help me check whether or not this bottle of medication fits the label."

The pharmacist took the pill bottle I slammed onto the counter, turning it over in his hands.

"Miss, I can't find this batch number anywhere in our system. Where'd you get it?"

I replied, "I didn't buy it. Someone in my family gave it to me."

"Well, if you're worried, I'd suggest taking it to a hospital pharmacy to get the ingredients tested."

As I stared at the bottle, the comments I saw earlier echoed in my head.

"The blood pressure meds were swapped for poison! Your fingerprints are all over the bottle!"

The batch number couldn't be traced, meaning its origin was unknown. And my fingerprints had already been on it since last night.

I wrapped the bottle in a tissue and shoved it into my bag.

Then I turned around, walked into the chain pharmacy next door, and bought a brand-new bottle of the exact same blood pressure medication.

Whether the comments were real or not, I had to keep my grandmother-in-law, Phoebe Reid, safe first.

As for this bottle of questionable medicine, I'd keep it for now.

When I got to Phoebe's house, the front door was unlocked.

Stepping inside, I found her slumped on the couch, pale and drenched in sweat.

"Grandma!"

I rushed over to support her, pulled out the new bottle of medicine, and shook out a pill. "Here, take this first."

She swallowed it with some water. Ten minutes later, the color finally started returning to her face.

"I feel much better… Oh, Elsie, I was so scared."

I held her hand, my heart hammering with delayed panic.

If I had given her the bottle my husband, Leon Hobbs, gave me…

I couldn't even bring myself to finish the thought.

Once Phoebe was settled, I texted Leon. "I'm here. I gave Grandma her meds, and she's doing much better."

Leon replied instantly, "Good. Be careful on your way back."

His tone was completely normal, even caring.

If it weren't for the warning in the comments, I would never have suspected him.

Leaving Phoebe's, I hailed a cab straight to the downtown general hospital.

I headed to the pharmacy department and handed over the bottle. "Doctor, can you test the ingredients in this for me?"

The pharmacist opened the cap, took a sniff, and frowned. "Hold on. I need to send this to the lab."

"How long will it take?" I asked.

"Two hours if they're fast."

I sat on a bench in the hallway and waited.

Those two hours felt like two years.

During that time, Leon texted again. "What do you want for dinner? I can pick something up after work."

I replied with a brief "Whatever".

Two and a half hours later, the pharmacist called my name. He looked dead serious. "Miss, the pills look like blood pressure medication, but the chemical composition is wrong. A large dose would cause cardiac arrest."

I asked, "What if an elderly person with high blood pressure took it?"

"Within 10 to 20 minutes, it would cause an irregular heartbeat, followed by cardiac arrest. The outward signs look almost exactly like a heart attack brought on by high blood pressure. Without a specific toxicology test, it's impossible to detect it."

I sat frozen on the bench, completely numb.

The comments were right.

This bottle was poison.

My husband was trying to use his own grandmother's life to frame me for murder.

I didn't go home.

Instead, I took the lab report straight to the police station and laid out everything for the officers.

They told me they needed to run their own forensic tests to confirm the findings and warned me not to tip Leon off in the meantime.

But I couldn't stop worrying about Phoebe. The moment I left the station, I rushed back to her house.

"Grandma, don't take any of the other pills in the house for the next couple of days. Only take the ones from the bottle I bought you earlier. Don't touch anything anyone else gives you."

Phoebe looked at me, slightly confused. "Elsie, what's going on?"

"I saw on the news that there's a batch of counterfeit medicine going around. The bottle I got you is from a licensed chain pharmacy, so it's the safest bet. Just stick to that one."

She nodded. "Alright. Whatever you say."

I thought about taking her to stay at my place or with my best friend, Willow Francis, for a few days.

But Phoebe's legs were bad. She twisted her knee just last week and could barely manage a few steps, let alone a sudden move. Besides, if I abruptly moved her, Leon would definitely get suspicious.

All I could do was wait for the police lab results and for them to officially step in. It shouldn't take long.

That night, I stayed at Willow's place. I texted Leon, telling him I had to go on an unexpected business trip.

He replied with a quick, "Okay, stay safe", followed by a kissing emoji.

As I stared at the screen, my stomach churned.

The next morning at 10:00 am, I received a call from the police.

"Ms. Spencer, the forensic results are back. We've confirmed the medicine has been tampered with and have officially opened a criminal case."

I let out a massive breath of relief.

"We'll be coordinating our next steps shortly. Until then, please act as normally as possible and do not—"

Before the officer could finish, a call-waiting tone cut in. It was Leon.

His voice was frantic and breathless. "Where are you? Get to the hospital right now! Something happened to Grandma!"

I froze completely.

"What?"

"Grandma was found collapsed in her living room this morning. By the time they brought her in… she was already gone."

That was impossible.

I gave her the untampered meds yesterday. She was getting better. I even explicitly told her to only take pills from the bottle I bought.

How could she…

"Who went to check on her this morning?" My voice was trembling.

"My mom went over early to drop off breakfast. The second she walked in, she found Grandma on the floor."

My head started spinning.

My mother-in-law, Sophie Pearce, went.

But Phoebe was already dead by the time Sophie got there. Logically, she wouldn't have had the time to do anything to her.

And the only meds on Phoebe's coffee table were the new ones I bought. That bottle came from a legitimate pharmacy. There was nothing wrong with it.

Could Phoebe really have died of natural causes?

By the time I rushed to the hospital, a crowd had already gathered outside the emergency room.

Sophie was slumped in a chair, sobbing hysterically, while Leon paced back and forth down the hallway.

The moment he saw me, he lunged forward and grabbed my arm. "Grandma's gone! She was already dead when Mom got there!"

My legs gave out, and I slid against the wall for support.

I had tried so hard to protect her. I explicitly warned her to only take the medicine I gave her. How come she still died?

Just then, the doctor stepped out of the operating room. "Family of the patient? Initial signs point to sudden cardiac arrest from a heart attack.

"However, given her age and prescription history, we strongly advise a formal toxicology screening. We've already notified the authorities as per standard protocol."

Sophie snapped her head up, her eyes locking onto me. "It was you."

Her voice was sharp, dripping with absolute certainty.

"You went to give Mom her medicine yesterday! You're the one who poisoned her!"

I froze, completely blindsided. "Mom, what are you talking about?"

"Don't you call me that!"

Sophie pointed a finger at me, her voice hysterical. "Mom was doing perfectly fine. You're the only one who visited her yesterday, and now she's dead! It must be you!"

Leon stood right beside her, not saying a single word. His silence cut far deeper than Sophie's wild accusations.

Two police officers appeared at the far end of the hallway and walked toward us. "Who are the family members of the patient? We received a report from the hospital and need to look into the situation."

Sophie immediately lunged at them. "Officers! It's her! My daughter-in-law! She went over to give my mother-in-law medicine yesterday! She murdered her!"

The officers turned their gazes to me. "Miss, did you deliver medicine to the deceased yesterday?"

"I did, but—"

"Where is the pill bottle now?"

Leon finally spoke up, his voice chillingly calm. "Officers, the bottle should still be on the coffee table at my grandma's place. It's bound to have my wife's fingerprints on it, since she's the one who was taking care of it."

He didn't even look at me when he said it.

I understood what he was doing. He was trying to have all the evidence point toward me.

One of the officers left to secure the evidence from Phoebe's house and returned shortly after. He was holding a plastic evidence bag containing a bottle of pills.

I recognized it instantly. It was the new bottle I had bought at the chain pharmacy. The label and batch number printed on it were perfectly legitimate.

A wave of relief washed over me.

I had bought that bottle with my own two hands from a licensed pharmacy. The pills inside should be standard blood pressure medication.

Once the test proved the composition was normal, my innocence would be guaranteed.

"The preliminary lab results are in."

A forensic analyst walked over, his expression grim. "The residue from the pills remaining inside the bottle shows abnormal composition. They contain lethal doses of a compound that causes immediate cardiac arrest."

The blood in my veins turned to ice.

That was impossible.

I bought that bottle myself. I personally twisted the cap off to give Phoebe her pill. I had looked at the pills with my own eyes. They were fine.

Unless…

Someone had opened that bottle after I left and swapped the pills inside.

The bottle was the same, and the fingerprints on it were still mine. But the contents had been replaced.

The analyst continued, "We retrieved a set of clear fingerprints from the surface of the bottle. A quick cross-match confirms…"

He glanced at me. "They belong to Ms. Spencer."

Beside him, Sophie was sobbing so hard that she could barely catch her breath. "I told you it was her! Officers, why aren't you arresting her?"

Leon finally "broke down". His eyes turned bloodshot. "Officers, I-I don't want to believe it… but the evidence is right there. My grandma raised me since I was a boy…"

His voice cracked, and his shoulders trembled slightly.

The onlookers in the hallway began throwing pitying glances his way.

"That poor guy. His wife murdered his grandma."

"Karma will catch up to her. A toxic woman like that deserves to rot in prison."

The police officer turned back to me, his tone strictly professional. "Ms. Spencer, the evidence we have now is heavily stacked against you.

"The pill bottle recovered from the scene bears only your fingerprints. You were the last person to give medicine to the deceased, and the lab report has confirmed chemical tampering. Please come back to the station with us to cooperate with the investigation."

He unclipped a pair of handcuffs from his belt. The sharp, metallic clinking echoed through the hall.

Leon finally turned to look at me.

There was no anger or sympathy in his eyes. There was only a subtle, heavily suppressed look of absolute relief.