“You intentionally let him out! You’ve been telling my husband for years that you don’t want ‘that animal’ near your grandchildren. You show up uninvited, with a suitcase, and the first thing that happens is my dog disappears?”
“Oh, calm down, Andrea. Listen to yourself.” She set her mug down gently. “You sound hysterical. Over a dog. I came to see my grandchildren without him under my feet.”
“You show up uninvited.”
I was terrified!
“I don’t want you in my house! Get out!” I said.
My MIL’s eyebrows lifted, almost amused.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me! I don’t want you here. Not today. Not with that suitcase. Not with that key you were supposed to give back.”
“Kenny will hear about this tone, young lady!”
“Good. I hope he does!”
“I don’t want you here.”
I grabbed my car keys off the hook, my hand shaking so hard they rattled. I was going to drive every street in our neighborhood. I was going to knock on Mrs. Alvarez’s door. I was going to find him.
I was reaching for the doorknob.
Before I could touch it, the door swung inward on its own!
Kenny was standing there, breathing hard, with mud streaked across the knees of his work pants.
I grabbed my car keys off the hook.
In his hand, my husband held a small, folded stack of papers.
The moment Diane saw him, she got up, pushed her chair back, walked over, and launched right in.
“Kenny, thank God! Your wife has completely lost her mind over that dog! She’s screaming at me in front of the children and trying to throw me out of the house!”
Kenny looked from me to her. Then his eyes found mine, and he gave me the smallest nod.
“Your wife has completely lost her mind!”
“Frankie’s in the truck,” my husband said quietly. “He’s okay. Tired, but okay.”
My legs nearly gave out. I grabbed the wall to steady myself.
“How did you…,” I started.
Kenny finally turned to his mother. His voice dropped into something icy that I’d never heard from him before — low, steady, and cold.
“Mom, I prepared a little surprise for you.”
Diane blinked.
“He’s okay. Tired, but okay.”
“What are you talking about?” my MIL asked.
Kenny set the papers on the kitchen counter and spread them out like cards.
Doorbell camera stills.
A tracking log with timestamps.
A little map with a red line drawn through our neighborhood.
“What are you talking about?”
“After you shoved Frankie with your purse last year, I put a GPS unit on his collar,” Kenny said. “I never told you. I never told Andrea either. I just had a feeling.”
I gasped as I stared at the map.
My stomach turned over.
“You purposefully clipped a leash onto him,” Kenny said, tapping the first still. “You walked him out the front door. You went two blocks down Maple. You left him at the corner by the elementary school, right where the cars come off the boulevard. Then you walked back alone and put the leash in the garage.”
“I never told you. I never told Andrea either.”
Diane’s mouth opened. But she had no defense.
