Chapter 4 - Kennel. Help.
The first time he locked Titan in the kennel as punishment, Emily cried.
Titan had knocked over a drink tray after a guest’s child pulled his tail.
Graham dragged him by the collar to the kennel and shut the gate.
“He needs to learn consequence.”
“He reacted because the child hurt him.”
“He embarrassed me.”
Emily stood in front of the kennel after the party, hand on the bars, while Titan panted inside.
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
Vivian passed behind her with a crystal glass.
“You are very sentimental about animals.”
Emily turned.
“I’m very concerned about cruelty.”
Vivian’s eyes sharpened.
“You should be careful using words you cannot afford.”
The second year of marriage was worse.
Emily’s phone began disappearing.
Only for an hour.
Then two.
Graham said she misplaced it.
Vivian said, “You always were scattered.”
Emily found it once in Graham’s desk drawer, battery drained.
He told her he had picked it up from the patio so it would not get rained on.
It had not rained.
She started hiding an old backup phone in the lining of her gardening tote.
Frank had taught her that too, long before marriage.
Always have a second line.
At the time, she thought he meant mountain roads.
Later, she understood fathers sometimes teach survival before daughters know they need it.
Three weeks before the kennel, Emily tried to leave.
Not permanently, she told herself.
Just a few days at Frank’s.
Just enough air to think.
She packed jeans, medicine, documents, and the backup phone.
Titan watched from the bedroom door.
He whined softly.
Emily knelt and pressed her forehead to his.
“I’m sorry, boy.”
He licked her wrist.
She made it to the garage before Graham appeared.
No shouting.
No dramatic blocking of the door.
Just Graham standing beside her car with the keys in his hand.
“Going somewhere?”
Emily’s stomach dropped.
“To Dad’s.”
“For what?”
“To breathe.”
He laughed softly.
“You live in a mansion and need air?”
“I need space from you.”
The smile vanished.
That was the first time she saw how little distance there was between Graham’s charm and violence.
He stepped close enough that she could smell whiskey.
“You think you can humiliate me by running home to a cripple with a cane?”
Emily slapped him then.
She would not later call it brave.
It was reflex.
The wrong one, maybe.
But after hearing him reduce her father to a limp, her body moved before fear could stop it.
Graham touched his cheek.
Then smiled.
“Oh, Emily.”
He did not strike back.
Not with his hand.
He took her keys.
Her phone.
Her wallet.
Her shoes.
He told Vivian she was “having an episode.”
Vivian told the staff Emily was resting and not to disturb her.
Emily spent that night locked in the guest suite with Titan outside the door, whining.
The next morning, Graham was tender.
Breakfast tray.
Apology voice.
Soft hands.
“You scared me.”
Emily stared at him.
“I scared you?”
“You were irrational.”
“I tried to leave.”
“Exactly.”
He placed her phone on the tray.
Battery at three percent.
“No more drama.”
She nodded because nodding got him out of the room.
Then she used the three percent to text Frank two words:
Kennel. Help.
The message did not send.
No service in the guest suite.
But the backup phone still sat inside the gardening tote in the mudroom.
May you like
That became her goal.
It took her two days.
