All Chapters of Seven Times He Chose Her Dog Over Us: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

Maisie woke up in the middle of the night. The first thing she said when she opened her eyes was, "Mommy, don't tell Daddy I'm in the hospital. I don't want him to get mad at me."Heath Renwick pushed the door open right at that moment. He heard every word, and by the time he reached her bedside, his voice was tight. "Maisie, I don't need to be with Prince today. I'll stay with you."Maisie looked at him for a long moment, then shrank back behind me. "Mr. Renwick."The color drained from Heath's face, leaving him paler than Maisie in the hospital bed. He opened his mouth to say something, but his phone rang.Celeste's voice came through, teary and loud enough to fill the entire room. "Heath, Prince threw up. Can you come look at him? I'm scared."He looked at his daughter in the bed, then back at his phone. "Wait for me. I'll be right back." Then he tucked the blanket around Maisie and said, "I'll bring you a strawberry cake later."Maisie didn't say anything. She'd had a

Chapter 2

Half a bread roll wasn't enough to keep the hunger away. That night, when I was in the shower, everything went black, and I collapsed on the bathroom floor.I woke up in the hospital. Maisie was slumped over the edge of my bed, her eyes red and swollen. "Mom, you were throwing up blood."She held up her small hand and touched the IV line by the bed. "I've been warming it with my hands so the medicine won't be so cold."It was acute gastric bleeding, and the surgery required a family member's signature. I had Maisie call Heath, but she dialed over a dozen times before he picked up, and the background noise was deafening."I'm at the vet. Prince is getting tests done, and I can't leave. Just have your mom sign it herself. She's not a child."Maisie held the phone and said softly, "Daddy, Mommy's bleeding a lot."Heath paused for a beat. "I'll come when I'm done."By the time he showed up, I'd already signed the forms myself and was hooked up to an IV. He stood at the foot of t

Chapter 3

That night, Prince tumbled down the stairs and broke one of his legs. Celeste clutched the dog and cried until she nearly passed out."It was Maisie. She said she hated Prince, and when I wasn't looking, she pushed him down the stairs! I don't blame her; she's just a child. This is all my fault… I never should have moved in."She started throwing herself at the wall, and it took people physically holding her back to stop her.Maisie's face went white. She'd dropped her pencil on the floor and was too scared to even pick it up, shaking her head over and over. "I didn't! I was in my room the whole time practicing my spelling. My teacher's checking it tomorrow!"Dad, I really didn't!"Heath looked at Maisie, then down at Celeste, who'd fainted in his arms. "Maisie. Apologize to Prince.""I didn't push him!"It was the first time Maisie had ever talked back to him. Heath raised his hand and slapped her across the face. Her head snapped to the side, and her cheek swelled up immed

Chapter 4

That afternoon, I cooked a whole spread. Maisie put on a new dress and secretly slipped a family photo into her pocket. "One last present for Dad!"By 3:00 pm, Heath still wasn't home. At 4:00 pm, Celeste's screaming echoed through the house. She was standing at the top of the stairs with Prince in her arms, his newly mended leg covered in blood."Maisie kicked him again! She waited until I wasn't looking and kicked his bad leg!"I can't even keep Prince safe. What's the point of me being alive?"She ran into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and dragged it toward her wrist before someone caught her and held her back. Heath rushed home to that scene, and his eyes landed on Maisie."I didn't! Dad, I was helping Mom set the table the whole time!" Maisie scrambled behind me, terrified.Heath closed his eyes. "Lock her in the storage shed out back. She can think about what she did for an hour. She comes out when she's ready to admit she was wrong."I thought I'd heard him wrong.

Chapter 5

When Maisie was loaded onto the ambulance, Heath was still holding her and wouldn't let go. The paramedic offered condolences three times before he finally placed her on the stretcher.He turned to look at me, his lips barely moving. "Raven."I walked past him in a daze, bent down, and picked up the crumpled napkin from the ground. The cake had been flattened, the jam smeared until the word "happy" was nothing but a blur. I wrapped it back up and put it in my pocket.I handled the funeral arrangements alone. Heath knelt in front of the refrigerated casket from dusk until dawn, and no amount of pleading could get him to stand. He said the same things over and over."Maisie, I'm here now…"Maisie, look at me."Eventually his voice gave out entirely. His mouth kept moving, but no sound came out.On the night of the vigil, something seemed to occur to him. He reached into his jacket and pulled out the flattened piece of cake I had kept. It didn't look or smell like anything a

Chapter 6

After I left, Heath slept in Maisie's room for half a month. Nothing in the room had been touched. Even her pencil still sat on top of the spelling workbook she'd been practicing in.Every night before bed, he took out the family portrait and looked at it. In the drawing, I was smiling, Maisie was smiling, and Heath was smiling too. He stared at his own face in the picture and couldn't remember the last time he'd smiled like that.The moment I was gone, Celeste moved back in with Prince. She was more attentive than ever, cooking something different for Heath every day, keeping her voice soft and sweet. But he'd take one bite and set it down. The taste was wrong.She tried to copy my recipe and made him pasta with a poached egg. Heath took a single bite. Anyone could make that dish, but some flavors could only come from one person.That night, he pulled the ring off his left hand and threw it in the trash. It was part of the matching set of three that Celeste had bought.

Chapter 7

Prince's fourth birthday party was even bigger than the one Heath had thrown for his third. Everyone who mattered in their social circle showed up. Celeste wore a custom gown and stood at the door with Prince in her arms, greeting guests with a flawless smile.She probably assumed that with Maisie gone and me out of the picture, the title of Mrs. Renwick was as good as hers.Halfway through the party, the emcee announced a special screening of Prince's highlight reel. The big screen lit up. The first clip was the swimming pool, and the second was a woman touching up her makeup in a hallway.The room went dead silent. Every drop of color drained from Celeste's face.Prince let out a yelp in her arms, and she flung him to the ground, then lunged at Heath and grabbed his hands. "Heath, let me explain. This is all a misunderstanding."Heath looked at her. "The pill bottle was a misunderstanding too?"She backed away from him step by step, and then, all at once, she stopped pret

Chapter 8

After I left Seaview, I settled in Havenport. It was a small city, and I buried Maisie's ashes on a hillside overlooking the ocean.I rented a place at the foot of the hill. During the day I volunteered at the foundation, and at night I came home and talked to her photograph.The Maisie Fund was dedicated to helping children with asthma, and it had been running for four years. Every time we saved a child, it felt like Maisie had come back, just for a moment.Everett Hale was the founder of the foundation. The first time I met him was at a free clinic in a rural school district. He was crouched on the ground, patiently showing a boy who was having an attack how to use a nebulizer. There wasn't a trace of impatience in him.I found out later that his sister had died of asthma too, and that he'd named the foundation after her.Everett was the head of the Hale Group and came from one of the most powerful families in the capital, yet there he was, kneeling in the dirt at a rural

Chapter 9

Heath didn't leave. He rented a place in Havenport and showed up at the foundation every day to wait. If I didn't see him, he'd stand on the other side of the street, from dawn until dark.On the third day, the receptionist came upstairs carrying a cake. "Raven, the gentleman downstairs sent this up. He said it's a belated birthday cake for your daughter."I opened the box. Written across the top in jam were the words "Happy Birthday, Maisie." The handwriting was neat, the kind of neat that came from practicing it over and over."Send it back. Tell him Maisie doesn't need a belated birthday from him."He stood downstairs until well past midnight. The receptionist felt sorry for him and asked, "Raven, do you want me to at least take him an umbrella?""No. The rain he's standing in isn't a tenth as cold as that shed was for Maisie."A month later, Renwick Corp issued a public announcement. Heath had resigned from all positions and donated 51 percent of his shares to the Mai

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