They Gave My Cousin a Car, I Built an Empire novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Sick Puppy

By April, Good Dog Supply had a credit union loan, two part-time employees and a regular on Fridays who brought us homemade biscuits.

PupPalace had two stores, and a sign on Wilmington Pike that lit up at night.

I still had a six-month-old dollar-store balloon tied to our door.

It had gone soft and wrinkled, but Ben said it was a landmark.

On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, a woman pushed through the door with a towel bundled in her arms.

She was crying so hard she couldn't talk.

"Please," she said. "Do you have a vet? Do you know a vet?"

I came around the counter.

The bundle was a tiny golden retriever puppy with its eyes half shut, and it was limp.

"What happened?"

"I bought her Saturday." She wiped her face with the back of her wrist. "Across the street. They said she was twelve weeks old and fully vaccinated. She stopped eating Sunday. She's been throwing up all night."

"Did you take her back to them?"

"I went this morning." Her voice broke. "The manager said all sales are final, and I should have fed her better."

I looked at Ben.

He was already holding up the truck keys.

"Go," he said. "I've got the store."

The vet's office was ten minutes away, and I drove the whole way with one hand on the puppy's side, feeling her breathe.

The vet took her straight into the back, with the woman following.

I stood in the waiting room with a stranger's umbrella in my hand and my heart going too fast.

Twenty minutes later, the vet came out, pulling off her gloves.

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