Chapter 3
The hospital room went silent.
The light slowly disappeared from Chloe’s eyes.
“I didn’t take him,” she whispered. “Scout was mine.”
“Ava needs him now.”
“I need him too. I fell down the stairs today.”
Ryan finally looked at the bandage on her forehead.
“That was an accident. Your mother should have been watching you.”
Chloe hid her injured hand beneath the blanket.
I stood and blocked his view of her.
“Get out.”
“Withdraw the complaint first.”
“You haven’t asked her once if she’s in pain.”
“I already know she isn’t dying.”
“So that makes it acceptable to keep her medical-alert dog with someone else?”
Ryan’s voice dropped.
“Ava watched her father die in a car crash. Chloe sprained her wrist. Are you really going to force me to choose between two children?”
“You already chose.”
My phone rang.
After reviewing the report, the training organization had ordered Ryan to return Scout immediately under the placement agreement.
I ended the call.
“Bring him back tonight.”
Ryan gave a cold laugh.
“And what happens after the dog comes back? Without me, how are you going to take care of Chloe? Who pays the hospital bills, the medication, the mortgage?”
Once, that threat would have terrified me.
But our daughter was lying behind me.
The home I had fought to keep whole had become the place hurting her most.
I took off my wedding ring and placed it in Ryan’s palm.
“Then we’re getting divorced.”
His hand went rigid.
“You’re angry. You don’t mean that.”
“I’ve never meant anything more.”
“Take her and go, then. The house is mine, and I paid for the dog.”
Chloe’s small voice came from the bed.
“Mom, can we really leave?”
I took her uninjured hand.
“Yes. Wherever we go, you’re coming with me.”
After Ryan left, a new post from Natalie appeared on my phone.
The photo had been taken inside Chloe’s bedroom.
Natalie and Ava were emptying the closet. Chloe’s clothes, comics, and toys had been stuffed into boxes.
Ava sat on Chloe’s bed with Scout in her arms.
The wooden name sign that had hung on the door was gone.
Thank you, Ryan, Natalie had written. Ava finally has a room where she feels safe.
Chloe saw the picture.
She didn’t cry. She only sat up slowly.
“Mom, Scout is still there.”
The training organization called again.
“If Mr. Carter still refuses to return Scout tonight, we’ll have to remove the dog for a full reassessment.”
“How long?”
“At least two or three weeks. Scout cannot work for either child until it’s complete.”
Chloe had been without him for only a few hours, and she had already fallen down the stairs.
Their field representative was on the way. We had forty minutes before they reached Ryan’s house.
Chloe gripped my sleeve.
“Can we go get him, Mom?”
“Yes.”
I helped her into her coat and pressed the nurse-call button.
This time, before Ryan could give away Scout, Chloe’s room, and the last trace of her place in that family—
I was taking back everything that belonged to my daughter.