Would you delete the evidence? 📱

One file could save someone or ruin everything.

Hey, fellow plot-twist survivors!

You know that moment in a YA thriller when someone discovers a secret, and you think, obviously, tell someone!

Adorable. We’re so confident when it’s someone else’s fictional problem. Right!?😅

This week, the secret belongs to you.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Would you delete the evidence?

Here’s your scenario:

Someone at your school is about to take the blame for something they didn’t do. They could lose their scholarship. Their future. Maybe their freedom.

But you have proof.

One file. One conversation. One piece of evidence that could clear their name.

There’s just one tiny, catastrophic complication: it also exposes someone you love.

Maybe your best friend lied about where they were that night. Maybe your sibling was involved. Maybe your own messages reveal that you knew more than you admitted.

Then your phone lights up.

Please delete it. You don’t understand what will happen if this gets out.

You look at the file again.

Suddenly, that little trash-can icon feels very powerful.

What’s your next move?

🔎 A. Protect the truth.
Someone innocent shouldn’t pay for someone else’s choices. You’re handing over the evidence—even if the fallout follows you home.

🫣 B. Protect your people.
You know them. You love them. There has to be more to the story. You hesitate, wondering whether loyalty is becoming an excuse.

⏳ C. Find another way.
You won’t delete it, but you’re not ready to reveal it either. You want the full story first. Unfortunately, someone else’s future is already on the clock.

😱 D. Panic first.
You set down your phone, pace the room, and briefly consider becoming someone who has never encountered technology. An understandable opening move. A questionable long-term strategy.

The part that makes this thriller-worthy?

You don’t know whether that message is a warning, a threat, or someone begging you to protect them from the consequences of their own choices.

And being loyal doesn’t automatically mean you’re doing the right thing.

Neither does being certain you know the truth.

That’s what makes deleted messages, digital secrets, and morally messy mysteries so compelling: the evidence might be clear, but the decision rarely is. You can root for a character and still want to confiscate their phone before they make everything worse.

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📚 A Book Worth Sharing

This week’s book:

Salt Water Blood by Manuia Heinrich

An Indigenous teen who hears the sea's prophetic thoughts must rely on the gift she's always feared to save her brother, and her island home, in this “gripping Polynesian mystery laced with Indigenous cultural knowledge, for fans of Angeline Boulley and Ari Tison” (SLJ, starred review).

Eighteen-year-old Moe hears the sea’s prophetic thoughts—not just hears them…she feels them. That’s how she experienced her father’s death before he did and how she felt her mother’s relief when she abandoned Moe and her younger brother, Tao, months after.

So when the sea warns Moe that Tao will drown, she’s determined to get in fate’s way and secures them passage off their island home. But those plans are ruined when Tao’s girlfriend goes missing and Tao is found where she was last seen, with blood on his hands—and no memory of what happened.

Moe will do anything she can to clear her brother’s name, even if it means swallowing her pride and teaming up with her annoyingly clever school rival, Temanea. And even if it means relying on the sea’s prophecies. Because her dreaded gift may be the only way to save her brother—and uncover the truth behind the sickness poisoning her community.

Why I’m sharing it:

I loved the lore and mystery and couldn’t put it down. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐!

Read my full review and get the book:

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Your turn: Would you delete the evidence?

Would you protect the truth, protect your people, or panic first?

Hit reply with A, B, C, or D—and tell me what might change your answer.

Does it matter who you’re protecting? How serious their secret is? Whether the person taking the blame is someone you even like?

No spoilers needed. Just your best attempt at surviving a situation we would all prefer to experience in paperback.

Happy reading—and may your biggest phone emergency be a low battery.

Kim

Book Reviewer | Young Adult Author | Ask the Girl

P.S. Next week, we’ll be asking, “Would you switch identities with someone?” Because someone else’s life may be so much better than your own, right!?!