Dr. Miller’s gaze softened as it landed on her. “Scout is very sick, honey. But we’re doing everything we can to help him.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Ella’s voice was steady, but I could see her fingers digging into the armrests of her chair.
“The blood work shows signs of poisoning,” Dr. Miller said bluntly. “Specifically, antifreeze.”
Ella gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. “But how—we don’t even have any in the house!”
“It doesn’t take much,” the vet explained. “And it has a sweet taste that dogs find appealing. They’ll lap it up if they find a puddle.”
My mind was already racing. Antifreeze poisoning didn’t happen by accident, not in January when people weren’t changing their coolant, and not on a property as isolated as Ella’s.
“Could he have gotten into it somewhere else?” I asked. “Maybe on a walk?”
Dr. Miller shook her head. “Timing suggests it was ingested within the last 24 hours. And given how sick he is, it was either a substantial amount or a tiny bit over a period of time.”
Nora’s lower lip trembled. “Is he going to die?”
The vet didn’t sugarcoat it. “I won’t lie to you.Antifreeze poisoning is very serious. We’ve started treatment, but it depends on how much he ingested and how quickly we can flush it from his system.”
Ella pulled Nora close, her arm tight around the girl’s shoulders. “Can we see him?”
“Briefly. He’s sedated right now, and we’ve got him on IV fluids. We’ll be monitoring him overnight.”
We followed Dr. Miller to a treatment room where Scout lay on a padded table, an IV line running into his foreleg. His breathing was shallow but steady, his eyes closed. Nora pressed her face against her mother’s side, refusing to look.
“Oh, Scout,” Ella whispered, tears streaming down her face as she gently stroked his head. The dog didn’t stir.
I stood back, watching them, a cold knot forming in my gut. This wasn’t an accident or bad luck. Someone had deliberately poisoned Scout—someone who knew he was Ella’s first line of defense, her warning system against intruders.
The message was clear: You’re not safe, even in your own home.
After leaving Scout in Dr. Miller’s care, we drove back to Ella’s house in silence. Nora had finally given in to exhaustion, curled up in the backseat with tear tracks still drying on her cheeks. I kept checking the rearview mirror, scanning for headlights followingtoo closely, but the road behind us remained empty.
At the house, I carried Nora to her bedroom while Ella turned on the lights and checked the doors. The security system I’d installed earlier beeped softly as we moved through the rooms, a reminder that at least now we’d know if someone tried to break in.
After tucking Nora in, I found Ella in the kitchen, staring into an open refrigerator as if she’d forgotten why she’d opened it.
“You should eat something,” I said quietly.
She closed the door without taking anything out. “I’m not hungry.”
“Ella—”
“They poisoned my dog, Jake.” Her voice was flat, emotionless. “They came onto my property and poisoned my dog. What’s next? What if it had been—” She cut herself off, unwilling to finish the thought.
“We don’t know for sure it was them,” I said.
“Don’t.” She turned to face me, her eyes flashing. “Don’t pretend this is anything other than what it is. They’re sending a message. They want me to know they can get to us anytime they want.”
I stepped closer, close enough to see the fine tremor in her hands, the pulse hammering at the base of her throat.
“Then we send a message back,” I said. “We showthem they picked the wrong woman to threaten.”
A small, bitter laugh escaped her. “And how do we do that? I don’t even know who ‘they’ are anymore. Could be Mikhail, could be his father, could be hired thugs who don’t care about anything except a paycheck.”
“It doesn’t matter who they are.” My voice hardened. “What matters is that we’re ready for them.”
Ella looked at me for a long moment, something shifting in her expression. “We,” she repeated softly.
