Chapter 3
I held out my hand for the phone.
Dad shook his head gently and put the call on speaker instead.
“Why would that matter?” he asked Ms. Romero.
“Because the surrender form says Nia is Bruno’s primary caregiver,” she explained. “Our staff asked whether she knew he was being brought in. Mrs. Hale said she did.”
I looked at Vanessa, who stood at the bedroom door.
“You told them I wanted this.”
“I told them you understood,” she said.
“I didn’t even know.”
Ms. Romero said the morning manager would review the form with us. She asked Dad to bring identification and any records he could find. Before she hung up, I asked whether Bruno had eaten.
“He had dinner,” she said. “He’s resting in a quiet room.”
That was the first full breath I’d taken since I got home.
Dad called our veterinarian next. Her office was closed, but the emergency line could send Bruno’s vaccination history and a record showing Dad’s name on the account. Dad also found the email from the day we adopted Bruno. There were hundreds of photographs on his phone, going back eight years.
I had pictures, too. Bruno in a paper birthday hat. Bruno asleep on my school bag. Bruno with his gray muzzle pressed against my knee last Sunday.
I sent them to Dad while he saved the records.
Downstairs, Caleb was feeding Milo a few pieces of puppy food. Ava sat beside him, watching the stairs.
“I’m sorry,” Caleb said when I came in.
“You didn’t take Bruno.”
“I knew Mom was looking at puppies. I thought she’d wait until Dad got home.”
Ava climbed to her feet. “I asked where Bruno was going. Mom said you’d be sad for a while, then you’d like Milo, too.”
Milo looked up at me and wagged his tail.
I wanted to hate him because he was there and Bruno wasn’t. He was too little to know what had happened. I reached down, and he sniffed my fingers.
“I don’t blame him,” I said.
Ava began crying. Caleb wrapped an arm around her.
Vanessa came into the kitchen. “You’re frightening them over a dog.”
Dad had followed me downstairs. “They heard you lie about their sister.”
Her expression turned cold. “I was trying to keep peace in this family.”
I looked at her. “Bruno was part of it.”
She didn’t answer.
Dad asked her to give him the adoption papers and Bruno’s things. She said she had thrown them out. When he asked where, she pointed toward the garage.
We went together. The bin was nearly full. On top of the trash lay Bruno’s blanket, his red leash, and a bag of his medicine. His worn tennis ball was caught under a box.
I pulled them out. The blanket smelled faintly of him.
Dad found the adoption folder beneath the bag. Vanessa had thrown away the papers but left them where we could recover them.
“I’ll wash the blanket,” Dad said.
“No.” I held it against my chest. “Leave it like this.”
He nodded.
We kept looking until we had his food bowl, too. Then Dad photographed where he had found everything and brought it inside.
Vanessa waited by the garage door.
“You went through the trash to make me look awful.”
“I went through it because Bruno needs his medicine,” Dad replied.
She glanced at the bag in my arms. “The shelter has vets.”
“He has a prescription they need to know about.”
Dad called the after-hours line once more to tell Ms. Romero the medicine’s name and dose. She thanked him and said she would note it for the morning staff.
That night, Dad made dinner. Nobody was hungry. Vanessa stayed upstairs. Caleb asked whether we could keep Milo away from Bruno if Bruno came home.
“If he comes home,” I said.
“When,” Dad replied.
He didn’t sound as certain as I wanted him to. I loved him for saying it anyway.
Ava slept in Caleb’s room. Milo slept in a crate in the laundry room, whimpering softly until Caleb sat beside him. I stayed awake with Bruno’s blanket beside my pillow.
Just after midnight, I heard Dad on the phone in the hallway. I opened my door.
He was speaking to his sister, Leah.
“I need someone to stay with the kids in the morning,” he said. “Vanessa and I can’t keep having this conversation in front of them.”
There was a pause.
“No. Nia’s coming with me.”
I stepped into the hall. Dad saw me and finished the call.
“Aunt Leah’s coming at seven,” he said.
“Is Vanessa coming to the shelter?”
“I’m asking her to stay here.”
“What if they believe her?”
“Then we show them what she got wrong.”
I looked down at the blanket in my hands.
“She knew he was all I had when you were away.”
Dad leaned against the wall beside me. He didn’t rush to tell me that wasn’t true. We both knew why it felt true.
“I should have listened when you said things were getting harder at home,” he said.
“I mostly stopped saying it.”
“I noticed. I should have asked why.”
From downstairs came Milo’s small bark. I thought of Bruno in a strange room, waiting for somebody he knew.
Dad stayed with me until I went back to bed.
In the morning, Leah arrived before sunrise. She hugged me, then carried a cup of coffee into the kitchen for Dad. Vanessa came down as we were getting ready to leave.
“I’m going, too,” she said.
Dad held up the form. “You can come if you’re ready to correct everything you told them.”
Vanessa’s eyes moved from him to me.
“I told them what I thought was best,” she said.
