Chapter 6 - The Woman Nobody Saw
Joe showed Damon the photograph.
He wanted her somewhere safe.
She refused to leave the shelter.
“There are thirty-eight dogs here.”
“Joe.”
“They don't have somewhere else to go.”
Damon stared at her.
“You are possibly the most stubborn person I've ever met.”
“Tank likes me.”
“Tank has questionable judgment.”
The Rottweiler looked up from the floor.
Joe smiled.
“Tell him.”
For the first time in days, Damon laughed.
The anonymous photograph turned out to be Victor's final attempt to frighten Joe into silence.
Investigators traced the print through surveillance footage from a nearby photo shop.
Within forty-eight hours, Victor was arrested on financial fraud and related charges.
No dramatic confrontation.
No revenge.
No bloodshed.
Just evidence.
Records.
Witnesses.
And a woman everyone had underestimated.
Positive Second Chances changed almost overnight.
Trent was gone.
The board appointed an interim director.
The missing money was gradually recovered.
Adrian agreed to testify.
Damon and his brother began the much harder work of speaking honestly after four years apart.
Joe watched them one evening from the shelter hallway.
Tank lay exactly between them.
Damon noticed her.
He always did.
“Joe?”
She stepped inside.
Adrian smiled.
“I've heard I'm supposed to thank you.”
“For what?”
“My brother.”
Joe looked at Damon.
“I didn't fix him.”
Adrian raised an eyebrow.
Damon muttered, “Don't encourage her.”
Joe laughed.
Later, Damon walked her outside.
Snow had begun falling over Boston.
“You know what people said about you?” he asked.
Joe remembered their unfinished conversation.
“What?”
“That you were nobody.”
She looked away.
Damon continued.
“They were wrong.”
Joe swallowed.
“Damon—”
“I've spent most of my life in rooms full of people who know exactly who I am.”
He stepped closer.
“You were the first person who cared whether my dog was afraid before you cared who owned him.”
Joe looked at him.
“And now?”
“Now I'm trying to figure out how to ask you to dinner without making it sound like an order.”
Joe smiled.
“That does seem difficult for you.”
“Extremely.”
She let him suffer for three seconds.
“Friday.”
His expression softened.
“Friday.”
Then the shelter door opened behind them.
Kayla came running outside.
“Joe!”
Joe turned.
Kayla was holding an envelope.
But this time she was smiling.
“You need to see this.”
Inside was a letter from the shelter board.
Joe read the first sentence twice.
Then a third time.
Damon looked over her shoulder.
The position was:
Director of Animal Rehabilitation and Behavior.
Full time.
Benefits.
And a salary almost three times what Joe had been earning.
Joe looked at Kayla.
“Why me?”
Kayla shook her head.
“Joe.”
For once, she didn't sound sarcastic.
“Because everyone finally saw what you were doing while none of us were paying attention.”
Joe looked down at the letter.
Then she heard Damon quietly say:
May you like
“I was.”
And for some reason, that was the sentence that almost made her cry.
