Chapter 7 - He Heard My Voice
The receiving facility was outside the city, behind a chain-link fence and a row of repair shops.
I insisted on coming.
Luca started to object.
“Don’t,” I said. “If he’s frightened, he needs someone he knows.”
“He knows me.”
“Then we’re both going.”
Tessa drove.
At the front desk, a man with a shaved head kept pointing to the surrender form.
“It’s signed.”
“Not by me,” Luca said.
“The representative said the owner didn’t want contact.”
“I am the owner.”
The man looked at the name on Luca’s identification.
Then looked again.
His confidence thinned.
I heard barking behind the wall.
Not Bruno.
Another dog.
Then a heavy impact against a metal door.
My throat closed.
“Bruno?”
Something scraped.
I raised my voice.
“Hey, big guy. It’s me.”
A single bark.
Deep.
Desperate.
The man reached for his keys.
“He’s been difficult.”
“He’s been stolen,” Tessa said.
Luca remained at the desk, arranging the release and demanding copies of every document.
Tessa went with me down the kennel corridor.
Bruno stood in the last enclosure.
When he saw me, his whole body shook.
I couldn’t kneel.
I couldn’t even get through the gate fast enough.
He pressed against my legs, whining with a sound I had never heard from him.
“I know,” I whispered into his fur. “I know. I’m sorry.”
He smelled like disinfectant.
There was a small scrape on his nose.
The kennel worker said he’d rubbed it against the gate.
I wanted to scream at everyone.
Instead, I held his collar until my hands stopped shaking.
Back in the car, Bruno put his head in my lap.
Luca sat beside us.
The surrender form listed Victor as the authorized representative.
The emergency contact was Isabella.
“That’s enough,” Luca said.
“For what?”
“For her to leave my life.”
“And Victor?”
“He won’t step onto the property again.”
I stroked Bruno’s head.
“Does that bring back the hour he spent thinking we abandoned him?”
“No.”
It was the first answer Luca gave me that didn’t sound like a promise he could purchase.
My phone rang as we reached the estate.
Nora.
“I heard about the dog,” she said.
“Who told you?”
“Mrs. Alvarez.”
She took a breath.
“I’ll meet you. But there’s something you need to understand before you decide Luca is the good one.”
May you like
“What?”
“He signed the letter that destroyed my life.”
