"Yep." She didn't even flinch. There was a note of pride in her voice. "He bit me. What did he expect? Besides, Lewis said I could. He knows I'm studying veterinary medicine, and my dissection skills need work. So he let me practice on it."
Practice.
The word drove into my chest like a poisoned needle.
I snatched a wooden stick off the ground and swung it at her, my vision blurred with rage. "Yolanda! I'll kill you!"
The stick never reached her. A large hand caught it mid-swing.
"Letitia. Are you done?"
Lewis's voice was cold as ice.
I looked at him. The hand gripping the stick trembled.
"Lewis, you let her kill Mochi? Are you even human? Do you have a heart at all? How could you do that to him?"
Lewis swept his gaze over the wreckage on the floor. Something flickered in his eyes—a flash of pain, gone almost instantly, buried beneath that familiar cold mask.
"It was just a dog."
Just a dog.
A dog.
My hand shot out, pointing at the remains scattered across the floor, my voice trembling. "She was with us for fourteen years! Fourteen years, Lewis! And you call her just a dog?"
A sharp sting lanced through Lewis's chest.
His jaw tightened. "I'll buy you another one. Identical."
I laughed. The sound that came out of me was hollow, broken, and my eyes were burning red.
"Don't bother. Even if it looked exactly the same... it wouldn't be her."
I turned around. Slowly, I crouched down and began piecing Mochi's scattered body back together, fragment by fragment.
When my fingertips touched that tiny head, the tears fell without warning.
I slipped off my coat and wrapped her up with all the care I had left, cradling the bundle against my chest.
"Come on, Mochi. Mama's taking you home. We're never coming back."
Lewis watched my retreating figure until it disappeared. His heart clenched, one stab after another, beyond his control.
