Chapter 2
Ava looked at me instead of Dad.
“She told the lady you hurt Bruno.”
I gripped the back of the nearest chair.
“What?”
“She said you scared him,” Ava whispered. “She said you got angry and made him bite you.”
Vanessa’s face hardened. “Ava misunderstood.”
“I was there.”
“You were playing with your brother.”
“I heard you,” Ava said.
Milo wriggled in her arms. Caleb gently took him and carried him to the rug. Ava’s hands were free now, but she held them close to her chest.
Dad looked down at the surrender form. I could see more writing beneath the line about my safety. Vanessa had reported that Bruno had bitten me that morning.
That morning, he had eaten his breakfast beside my feet. I’d hidden his medicine in a spoonful of peanut butter and laughed when he licked the spoon clean. Before I left, he had followed me to the door.
“He never bit me,” I said.
“I told them you didn’t need medical attention,” Vanessa replied.
Dad stared at her. “You invented a bite?”
“I needed them to accept him. They were full.”
I felt sick. “What did they do to him because you said that?”
Nobody answered.
Dad took out his phone and found the shelter’s number on the paper. The recording said it closed at five. It was already past six.
“There’s an after-hours number,” he said, reading the form more closely.
He dialed it. I stood beside him while it rang.
A woman answered. Dad gave her Bruno’s intake number and explained that the surrender information was false. She asked who he was. He told her he owned Bruno and that the dog had been taken without his consent.
I could hear only his side of the call.
“Yes. I have his vet records.”
“No, he has no bite history.”
“He was surrendered today.”
Dad’s eyes met mine. He listened for a long moment.
“When can we get him?”
He put the call on speaker.
The woman introduced herself as Ms. Romero. She said Bruno was safe at the shelter for the night. Staff would review the report in the morning, and Dad could come when they opened. They would need proof that Bruno belonged to our family.
“What does the bite report mean for him?” I asked.
Ms. Romero paused. She told us they had separated him from the other dogs while they assessed what had been reported. She couldn’t decide anything over the phone, but she would add Dad’s call to his file immediately.
“May I speak to someone tonight?” Dad asked.
“The staff member who handled his intake has gone home. I’ll leave a message for the morning team. Please bring everything you have.”
When the call ended, I realized I had been holding my breath.
“He’s there,” Dad said. “We know where he is.”
I wanted to believe that was enough. I could still see Bruno following Vanessa’s car, thinking he was going somewhere and coming back with her.
“I want to go now.”
“I know. We’ll be there when they open.”
Vanessa reached for the paper. Dad moved it out of her reach.
“You don’t understand how hard it’s been,” she said. “Bruno has accidents. He barks when the puppy sellers come by. I do everything while you travel.”
“You bought Milo before Bruno was gone?” Dad asked.
She looked away. That answered him.
Caleb stepped forward. “Mom showed us pictures of Milo last week.”
Dad’s face changed.
“You planned this.”
“I planned to make the younger two happy.”
“And you told the shelter Nia hurt her dog.”
Vanessa folded her arms. “I said Bruno had become unpredictable around her.”
“That isn’t true,” I said.
She looked straight at me. “You know he growled when I tried to move him.”
“He was asleep in his bed. You grabbed his collar.”
Dad turned to me. “When did that happen?”
“Last Tuesday. I told her to leave him alone.”
“I was trying to clean,” Vanessa said.
I remembered Bruno lifting his head, confused and stiff. I had knelt beside him until he settled. Vanessa had walked away saying I treated that dog better than anyone in the house.
Dad asked Caleb and Ava to take Milo into the kitchen. Caleb went, but Ava stayed by the doorway.
“Is Bruno in trouble because I didn’t say anything sooner?” she asked.
Dad knelt beside her. “You told us as soon as I got here.”
“I wanted to tell Nia when she came in. Mom said to let her see Milo first.”
My stomach twisted. Vanessa had wanted me to find the empty bed myself.
Dad told Ava she could go with Caleb. This time she did.
I watched Vanessa pick up her phone from the sofa. She glanced at the screen, then slipped it into her pocket.
“Who are you calling?” Dad asked.
“No one.”
He didn’t press her. He turned to me.
“Get Bruno’s records and anything that shows he’s yours. Photos, his tag number, the vet paperwork.”
I went upstairs. Bruno’s food bowl was gone from my room. His toys had disappeared from the basket under my desk.
I opened the drawer where I kept his adoption papers. They weren’t there.
I checked beneath my school books, then inside my closet. Nothing.
Dad came up when he heard me pulling drawers out.
“The papers are gone,” I said.
“We’ll get the vet records.”
“She took everything.”
“We have years of pictures. We’ll start there.”
On my bed lay one thing Vanessa had missed: a small photograph of me at six, asleep on the floor with Bruno’s head on my arm.
I handed it to Dad.
He sat beside me and looked at it for a long time.
Then his phone rang.
It was Ms. Romero.
May you like
She said she had checked Bruno’s file. There was more to the report than the bite.
Vanessa had told the shelter that I had agreed Bruno should never be returned to me.
