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“Braxton, sweetheart,” Mom cuts in, squeezing my knee in an attempt to calm me. I place my hand on hers but shake my head.
“No, Mom. If you guys brought me here to get my permission to do this, you don’t have it. I knew I shouldn’t have come here today, but I did anyway. Total mistake on my part. I’m not going to listen to this same bullshit from Dad. You can live with the guilt of knowing how much this hurts me. It’s been eight years. You need to get over it, Dad. Madd—” I stumble over his name and swallow it back down. “He’s happy. He’s successful. Do what you told me to do when I moved away and get over it,” I finish.
Dad pushes away from the desk and narrows his eyes on me. “He’s a mess! Have you not seen the news? Maddox Hutton is a violent addict and a self-entitled snob. His contract hasn’t been signed yet for next season, and hopefully, now it won’t be. If Vancouver doesn’t sign him, nobody else will.”
I drop my eyes to the floor and laugh under my breath. For the first time in a long time, I force myself to say his name. “Maddox was born to play for Vancouver. Nothing—not even you and your stubborn idea of revenge—will be able to change that. He didn’t deserve what happened. Neither of us did.”
The reason my mom has to work herself to the bone is because her husband refuses to try and find another career path. He’s so obsessed with the idea of revenge and redeeming himself in the hockey world that he’s found himself lost at sea, too far from land to call for help.
“I stood by you back then when I shouldn’t have, and I won’t do it again.”
With my words hanging in the air, I get up and leave, ignoring Mom’s plea for me to stop as I exit the room.
I’ve forgiven her for not stopping what happened all those years ago, but I don’t think I will ever forgive my father for what he did. It doesn’t matter how much time passes, the guilt and regret weighs heavy on me.
They say time is supposed to heal all wounds, but I’ve begun to accept that this one will remain raw and vulnerable for the rest of my life.
6
BRAXTON
Wednesday morning,I’m sitting on the floor of Hades’ kennel, giving him a good scratch under his chin when his thick, pink, slobbery tongue swipes across my cheek.
The two-year-old, eighty-pound American bulldog is as beefy as they come, but the only scary thing about this big boy is the amount of drool he produces. Hades is my favourite dog at the shelter and the one I spend the most time with. By far.
When I was first looking for potential locations for my clinic, I had wanted a blank slate. An empty building that screamed at me with potential. Of what could be with a bit of hard work. So, when my Realtor showed me what used to be Danver’s Animal Clinic and shelter, I wasn’t sold on the idea. Not only was it already a running business with old patients, but there was a full animal shelter attached to the back.
Running two businesses was never the plan—even one was stretching it—but as terrified as I was at the idea, one look at the adorable faces in the pens was all it took to have me signing the papers.
I’ve always loved animals. Even growing up without any pets—my sister is allergic to anything with fur—I always found a way to feed my obsession, whether that was spending my weekends in high school working at a horse ranch or staying too long after class cuddling the librarian’s emotional support cat.
A career where I get to spend hours upon hours every single day with animals was a no-brainer. Having this small piece of heaven attached to my clinic is just a bonus.
“He almost got in the pool today,” a soft voice says. I look up to find Sadie, the shelter manager, staring down at Hades and me from outside the kennel. Her brown eyes are warm as she takes in our position.
Sadie has been taking care of the shelter for as long as the place has been open, so when I bought it, I made sure she got to keep her job. Nobody knows these animals better than she does.
I move my hand behind Hades’ ear and give him a kiss between the eyes. “That’s a good boy, Hades.”
“He’ll get there eventually. I know he will.”
“Has anyone shown any interest recently? I know we haven’t had a chance to chat in a few days.” Hope leaches from every word. Hope that he’ll finally find a family who wants him and that one day the tortures of his past won’t haunt him so deeply.
“No. Not yet. He’s been through too much,” she sighs.
My stomach rolls at the reminder of everything my boy has lived through in only two years of life. He was brought to the clinic on my second official day as owner by a teenage boy who said he found him broken and bleeding on the side of the road only a few streets over from what the police later found to be a dog fighting ring. The extent of his injuries had me struggling to keep my breakfast down as I got to work.
Despite the depth of his physical injuries, his trauma was almost worse. For the first few days after I fixed him up, he wouldn’t move from the corner of his kennel and growled at the first sign of human life. Of course, that didn’t stop me from personally bringing his meals in every morning and evening and trying like hell to prove that I wasn’t going to hurt him. Finally, after a couple of weeks, he started to warm up to me. Each day is a new opportunity to prove my loyalty and show that he is safe here—something I put my everything into.
Unfortunately, even though he trusts and seems to care for me, it won’t be easy to find a family that would be willing to put in the kind of work that I am. Even if beneath all of his battle wounds and big teeth, he’s just a puppy who wants to be loved.
I try not to let myself dwell on that, though. When the time is right, Hades will find a family that will doanythingto see his tail wag and those chops spread into his all-too-doggie grin. Instead, I focus on the small win of him considering jumping in the pool today.
He’s not ready to play with the other dogs yet, and he might never be, but knowing that he’s trying to overcome his fear of water makes me proud. We figure he was punished with water sometime in his life, which has led to his fear of it now, so we’ve never pushed. But gosh, he’s thinking about trying. I’m grinning when he takes another swipe at my face, and his tongue slips into my mouth.
I crinkle my face in disgust and use the neck of my shirt to wipe at my face. “You’re gross, Hades. And your breath stinks.”
He cocks his head at me as Sadie laughs. “Feel free to try and give his teeth a brush. Sparkling white teeth will give a good first impression to the people coming by soon.”
