Chapter 2
I didn’t know how to answer.
“You don’t have to compete with anyone,” I said, wiping her tears. “Your father is the one who did something wrong.”
It was the first time I hadn’t made an excuse for Ryan.
The cake melted on the table. Chloe never blew out the candles or opened the rest of her presents. She carried her Scout comic book upstairs and shut herself in her room.
Ryan sent me a photo soon afterward.
Ava sat in the car with Scout in her arms, smiling.
See? She’s already doing better. It’s just a dog. Don’t turn this into something ugly.
I didn’t respond. I contacted Scout’s training organization and reported that he had been removed from his assigned handler without permission.
I had barely submitted the report when I heard footsteps upstairs.
Chloe stood at the top of the staircase, white as a sheet. Her comic slipped from her hands.
“Mom, I smell it again.”
She began rubbing the fingers of her left hand together.
I dropped my phone and ran.
“Sit down, Chloe!”
If Scout had been there, he would have warned her before she reached the stairs.
But Scout was with another child.
Chloe reached for the railing. Her fingers had already gone rigid.
I was only a few steps away, but I was too late.
She fell down the stairs.
I reached her, protected her head, cleared the area, and watched the time.
The convulsions stopped in under a minute.
Blood ran from her temple. When she opened her eyes, her first question was, “Why didn’t Scout come?”
I held her and called 911.
Before the ambulance arrived, I called Ryan more than a dozen times. He didn’t answer once.
At the hospital, the doctor diagnosed a mild concussion and a sprained wrist. Chloe was lucky. Nothing was life-threatening.
After reviewing her chart, he asked, “Where is her seizure-alert dog?”
“Her father gave him to another child.”
“Does he understand what the dog does?”
“He watched Scout alert to a seizure tonight.”
The doctor documented it.
“If the dog had been present, this fall might have been prevented.”
I asked him to leave that statement in the record, then called Ryan again.
This time, he answered.
“Chloe is in the hospital. She fell down the stairs.”
“Is it serious?”
“A concussion and a sprained wrist. Bring Scout back.”
“I can’t. Ava just fell asleep.”
“Your daughter is lying in a hospital bed.”
“And she’s safe now, isn’t she? Ava made it through the night without waking from a nightmare for the first time.”
I looked at Chloe. She was awake, watching me in silence.
“So you’re still choosing Ava?”
Ryan lowered his voice.
“She needs me more right now.”
I hung up.
Chloe turned her back to me.
“Daddy isn’t coming, is he?”
“No.”
“Then don’t tell him next time I’m in the hospital. He won’t come anyway.”
Scout’s training organization responded to my complaint.
Scout had been trained specifically for Chloe. Under the service agreement, Ryan could not transfer him to another child. If he refused to return the dog, the organization could suspend the placement and take Scout back for reassessment.
Almost immediately, Ryan texted me.
Withdraw the complaint. I’m coming to the hospital.
He wouldn’t come when Chloe was hurt.
The moment Scout might be taken from Ava, he arrived in twenty minutes.
The hospital-room door opened.
Chloe sat up, hope rushing back into her eyes.
“Daddy?”
Ryan didn’t go to her.
He walked straight to me and shoved his phone in front of my face.
“Withdraw it. Now.”
Then he glanced at his daughter.
“Scout belongs to Ava now. Stop teaching Chloe to take things from other people.”