PAIGE: Is she still drinking it?
GREGORY: Every day.
PAIGE: Then why is this taking so long?
That message changed the investigation.
It did not, by itself, answer exactly what Paige knew.
Her attorney argued the conversation concerned a nutritional regimen
Gregory had described to her.
Investigators examined context rather than treating one sentence as
magical proof.
More messages followed.
Some were ambiguous.
Some were not.
Gregory had complained that I was “too stubborn to get sick properly.”
Paige responded:
You said the doctor would think it was autoimmune.
That was difficult to explain innocently.
I read none of these messages casually.
Every page felt like being introduced to strangers wearing familiar
faces.
My marriage had been seven years.
Not seven bad years.
That was one of the hardest things to accept.
There had been birthdays I loved.
Trips I remembered warmly.
Nights Gregory held me after nightmares about my parents.
