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They both looked happy.

Why wouldn’t they?

They were with each other.

They had no idea that hours later one of them would be dead and the other in a coma, hovering between life and death.

“Hey, Mom. Dad.”

She reached out and touched the frame with her fingertips.

“I miss you.” She let out a breath. “Ebi, the little shit, misses you.”

She smiled and shook her head.

“I know. I know. She’s a perfectly sweet cat. For you two.”

She could almost see her dad rolling his eyes at that.

Francisco DeLima was a doting husband who put up with the orange beast because his wife loved it so much.

But he also loved to wear shirts with designs talking about orange cats, making fun of them.

And Amy, her mother, couldn’t understand how anyone didn’t feel like her cat was the sweetest baby.

She was blind of every fault and loved Ebi like crazy.

Then again, she loved the same way with her husband and her daughter, so they both did their best to ignore the things that Ebi would do.

The cat could be an evil genius at times and a complete idiot the rest of times, but it was like having a bit of her parents around, so…

“Ow!”

Mari jumped back to escape Ebi’s claws.

“Damn it!”

She looked down and the little stinker was innocently grooming her paws.

Mari’s pants leg?

There was a pucker in the fabric and a loop pulled out.

“I guess I’m going to have a pair of capri pants now.”

Ebi tilted her head to the side and Mari swore she saw a catty little smile on that beast’s face.

“Ugh.”

As she spoke, Ebi walked away, her tail swishing in the air like a Las Vegas show girl’s feather boa.

The little devil only stopped when she reached her bowl.

As Mari stood there watching, Ebi placed a delicate little paw on the edge of the bowl and tipped it.

A moment later it smacked back down against the floor.

Ah, the dinner bell.