Mommy, Don't Touch the Dog

Daddy Gave Mommy a Golden Retriever. I Sold Her to Be Bred.

Prologue I woke up back on the day Daddy brought the golden retriever home, and I turned around and sold her to a dog dealer.

Because inside that dog's body lived the soul of Mommy's best friend, Clarissa.

She was bound to a lifeswap system: fortynine straight days close to Mommy, and she could take Mommy's health and Mommy's years away a little at a time.

In my last life, Mommy poured her whole heart into that dog and took her everywhere she went. In barely two months, Mommy was dead of suddenonset premature aging.

Mommy hadn't been in the ground a month before Daddy brought home Clarissa, who was supposed to be lying in an ICU, waiting to die. She wore Mommy's necklace.

She slept in Mommy's bed. She put her hand on my head and told me that from now on she was my mother. When I opened my eyes again, I knew all of it.

I didn't have enough evidence to put them in prison. But a bitch in heat, sent off to be bred. That's reasonable enough, isn't it?

Chapter 1 Daddy walked the golden retriever in through the front door and said she was a present for Mommy.

I threw myself at Mommy and locked my arms around her legs. "Mommy, I'm scared of dogs." The smile froze on Daddy's face. "Nika, don't start." He had the leash in his hand.

She was a beautiful dog, thick fluffy coat, a pink bow at her throat, round bright eyes looking straight at me. Anybody would have called her sweet.

Only I knew what was hiding under that coat. Clarissa. Mommy's best friend, and the one who killed her.

Mommy, Harriet, crouched down and pulled me into her arms. "Is Nika really scared?" I pushed my face into the crook of her neck and nodded hard. "Scared.

She glared at me." Daddy's face darkened. "Dogs don't glare at people. I went through a program to find this one for your mother.

A trained companion dog, the steadiest temperament they had." As if she understood him, the golden dropped to the floor, rolled over to show her belly, and made a soft whine in her throat.

She was so good at pretending. In my last life, that was the exact face that fooled Mommy. She reached out and stroked the dog's head. The golden licked the back of her hand.

That night, Mommy said she felt a little cold. The next day, she slept the whole morning. The third day, the color started going out of her face. I was too little then.

I just thought Mommy was sick.

It was years before I heard the truth, in the middle of a fight between Daddy and Clarissa. "If I hadn't used that dog to swap Harriet's life over to you, you'd have died in a hospital bed a long time ago." "Lawrence.

Are you sick of me now?" I ran out and demanded to know what they meant. Daddy looked at me the way you look at something broken. He said, "You're just like your mother.

In the way." Then I tumbled down the stairs. Remembering it, I held on to Mommy tighter. "Mommy, don't touch her. She bites." Mommy's hand, already halfway out, stopped.

Something cold flickered through the golden's eyes. Then she was pitiful again.

Daddy pinched the bridge of his nose, impatient. "Hattie, you can't spoil her like this." "The house is huge. What's wrong with a dog?

You're always saying it's too quiet while you're drawing." Pauline, our housekeeper, came out of the kitchen smiling, backing him up. "Mrs.

Thorpe, it's normal for little ones to be scared of dogs. Give it two days." Chapter 2 "You're shut up in that studio all day, ma'am.

A dog would be good company." Pauline was an expert at reading Daddy's face. In my last life, the minute Mommy was dead, she started calling Clarissa Mrs. Thorpe.

They sent me away to boarding school, and when I came home she put sleeping pills in my milk and said I was a problem child who had to learn to behave.

I wasn't going to forget a single one of them. Mommy looked down at me.

Her hand was warm. "If Nika's scared, the dog stays out of the house for now." Daddy's face changed. "It's damp and cold out there. She just had a bath.

She'll freeze." I started crying right away. A fiveyearold's crying is the best weapon there is. I yelled at the top of my lungs. "No dog! No dog!

She eats kids!" It broke Mommy's heart. She patted my back. "Okay. Okay. She's not coming inside." Daddy held his temper down. "Hattie.

It's a dog." Mommy looked up at him, her voice gentle and firm. "Nika is terrified.

We'll keep her in the backyard for now." "We'll see how it goes once she's used to her." Daddy opened his mouth again.

But the golden shuffled forward two steps, nose going straight for Mommy's ankle above her slipper. I timed it. I grabbed the orange juice off the table and dumped it over her head.

The gold fur clumped together, soaked. The living room went quiet. The golden's head snapped up. Her eyes said she wanted to tear me apart.

It came out of Daddy before he could stop it. "Clarissa, don't be scared!" Mommy went still. "What did you call her?" Daddy's face locked for a second. Then he laughed. "Claire.

I said Claire." "I'd been meaning to name her Claire. Claire means bright.

I wanted her to bring some light back into your days." I hiccupped and looked up at Mommy. "Daddy's lying." The golden stood there dripping, claws digging into the carpet.

She was rattled. I could tell. Because all day, she hadn't so much as touched one of Mommy's fingers. That night, Daddy still wouldn't let it go.

He had Pauline bathe the golden again and moved her bed to the door of the master bedroom.

Mommy had just gotten me to sleep when he came in carrying warm milk. "Hattie, Nika's asleep." "The dog just got here. She doesn't feel safe yet.

Let her stay in the room a while tonight or she'll get anxious." I kept my eyes shut and played asleep. Inside, I was going cold, degree by degree.

It went exactly like this last time. Every night Daddy brought Mommy her milk. Every night she was so sleepy after she drank it.

It was a long time before I knew he'd put something in it. Not a big dose. Just enough to make her drowsy and slow.

With the dog pressing up against her, she didn't have the strength to say no. Mommy took the mug. She didn't drink.

She glanced at me in the bed and said quietly, "Nika had a bad scare today.

I'll sleep in her room with her." Daddy's face went ugly. "You're going to throw away everything I put into this gift, for a kid? I'm your partner for life.

I'm the one who'll be with you until the end!" Mommy faltered. "Larry, that's a terrible thing to say." I opened my eyes and called out, thick and sleepy, "Mommy, I want water." Mommy set the milk down and came over to pick me up.

Daddy had to swallow the rest of it.

I hooked my arms around her neck and wouldn't let go. "Mommy, sleep with me." Mommy kissed my forehead. "Okay." Daddy stood at the side of the bed, his face dark. "Hattie, you used to have better judgment than this." Chapter 3 Mommy's face cooled too. "Nika is only five." "She's frightened and I'm staying with her.

What's wrong with that?" Daddy didn't answer. When he turned to go, the golden shot into the room, straight at Mommy's hand hanging over the side of the bed. I was ready.

I grabbed my little blanket and wrapped it around her hand. The golden's teeth closed on the corner of it. Something flashed in Daddy's eyes. "See?

She just wants to be near you." I stuck my own bare foot out from under the covers. "Doggy, lick me!" The golden let go at once, disgusted, and backed away. I smiled. There it was.

The lifeswap didn't work on just anyone she touched. She only wanted Mommy. Late that night, Mommy finally fell asleep. I stayed awake. I quietly set my kids' smartwatch to record.

From the back porch off the living room came Daddy's lowered voice, and a woman's voice, weak and sharp. "Not today.

Nika's been throwing fits all day." "But the system says close contact has to be built in the first seven days.

At least half an hour a day, every day, inside the fortynine days." "If the target doesn't trust the parasite, the swap slows down." "I know," Daddy said, irritated. "Just hold on.

I added more outofpocket at the hospital. Nothing can happen to your body." Clarissa's voice changed register. "Larry, I'm scared." Daddy's voice went soft immediately. "Don't be.

Hattie's softhearted." "She'll come around. She likes dogs anyway." I curled my small hands into fists. So that was it. Mommy's trust was what started the system.

So I had to make Mommy hate this dog. The more the better. The next morning, Mommy brought up Clarissa. "I haven't heard from Clarissa in days.

I want to go see her at the hospital." Daddy was cutting into a fried egg. The knife stopped. "No." Mommy frowned. "Why not?" "She's in the ICU.

They don't let anyone in who isn't family." "And you're not that strong yourself. Stay away from a place like that or you'll end up sick too." Mommy went quiet.

I leaned on the edge of the table and looked up at him. "Daddy, if Auntie Clarissa dies, will the doggy cry?" The blood went out of Daddy's face. The golden's head came up too.

That look wanted to spring at me and tear my throat out.

I burrowed into Mommy and burst out crying. "Mommy, she's glaring at me again!" Mommy held me, and when she looked at the golden this time, there was something guarded in her eyes at last.

I was too small. Too small to even reach the keypad on the front door. So I couldn't go to the hospital myself to check on Clarissa's own body.

The dog was the part I could handle first.

Outside the back service gate of our subdivision there was a frontage road, and off the road sat a scrap lot with a few beatup cargo vans parked there most days.

In my last life, when Pauline wanted to scare me she always said, "Kids who don't behave, the dogcatcher hauls them off along with the dog." It terrified me back then.

Thinking about it now, she wasn't lying about all of it. While Mommy was on a client call in her studio, I snuck out the old phone she'd retired.

No SIM card in it, but it was on the house WiFi. I put up a post in a local pet rehoming group.

I couldn't type much, so I talked into the phone and let it turn what I said into words. [We have a female golden retriever at home, very pretty, looking for someone to breed her, cheap.] It wasn't long before somebody messaged me.

The profile picture was a German shepherd. The name was Boone's Kennels. He sent a string of voice messages. [Little girl, are your folks around?] [Purebred golden? How old?

She got papers?] Chapter 4 [If she's got good conformation, I'll take her.] I sent a voice message back, pitching my voice down on purpose, playing a kid from Pauline's family. [The grownups want to sell.

The dog won't behave.] Boone perked right up. [Got pictures?] I snuck a photo of the golden and sent it over.

Boone came back fast. [Nice dog.] [Female?] I answered, [Female.] He dropped a pin. [If your people really don't want her, I can come take a look tomorrow.] I didn't say yes.

It wasn't time yet. I needed everybody to believe this dog couldn't stay. That afternoon, Pauline took the golden out for a walk in the neighborhood.

Earlier I'd taken a little packet of attractant spray out of the promo basket outside the pet store.

It was a sample the clerk had handed the older boy from next door, and he'd tossed it on a bench. I picked it up. I sprayed it on the golden's leash and her bed.

Before long, a few male dogs from the neighboring houses had circled in. The golden growled low, agitated. I stood at the upstairs window and filmed it on the old phone.

In the video, she was running circles on the lawn with dogs after her, her barking high and frantic.

I ran to find Mommy. "Mommy, the doggy's scary, so many dogs are chasing her, is she going to bite me?" Mommy watched it and her brows drew together. "Is she in heat?" Pauline jumped in. "I wouldn't think so, ma'am.

Mr. Thorpe said she's very gentle." I tugged Mommy's shirt. "Mommy, can we not keep her?" Mommy touched my head and didn't answer right away. She was softhearted. I knew that.

But the crack was there now. Daddy came home early that evening. He clearly knew what had happened that day.

He set down his briefcase, never once glanced at the red marks the golden had scratched into my arm the day before, and asked, "Where's the dog?" Mommy said, flat, "In the yard." Daddy looked at her. "Hattie, what exactly do you want?" "I went to a lot of trouble to find this trained companion dog.

The kid throws a couple of tantrums and you dump her in the yard?" Mommy put down her brush. "Nika is frightened. And she got chased by a pack of dogs today.

Her behavior isn't stable." Daddy took a few sheets of paper out of his briefcase. "This is the evaluation." "The behaviorist at the program says she needs reassurance from her owner.

Keep isolating her and she'll develop aggression." I got a look at it.

The letterhead looked freshly printed, and the signature and the program's logo were blurred in a way that wasn't right. Fake. But Mommy hesitated anyway.

Daddy pressed his advantage. "Let her sleep in the room tonight." "Once she feels safe with you, she won't frighten Nika anymore." I grabbed on to Mommy. "No!" Daddy scooped me straight up.

He was strong, and his fingers dug into my arm until it hurt. "Nika.

Daddy and Mommy need to talk." I kicked and screamed. "I want Mommy!" Daddy pushed me into my room and locked the door behind him.

I threw myself at the door and hit it. "Mommy!" "Don't hold the doggy!" Nothing came back from the other side.

The sound of the master bedroom door closing was the countdown to Mommy's death in my last life