Multiple Subjects and confusing possession

Question

I have to clarify a sentence like this:

Betty told Anne she’d forgotten her key.

This sentence as it is can be interpreted in a few ways, such as:

Betty said she forgot her own key to Anne.

Betty is telling Anne, she (Anne) forgot her (Anne's) key.

What are ways to make this clearer?

I can think of "Betty told Anne, 'you forgot your key,'" but that's a big change of the sentence.

Any other ideas?

Answer 1

Assuming that Betty is the one who forgot the key, your example is correct.

Answer 2

"Annie didn't realize that she had forgotten her key until Betty told her."

"Annie was told by Betty that she had forgotten her key." (not the best clarification).

Those are a couple of clarifications, although I think the easiest and cleanest way to correct the statement is using quotations as you have done in your example.