Late afternoon gave way to dusk at Paw-sitive Care. The gentle chime of the bamboo wind chimes outside the store mingled with the rustle of the evening breeze carrying the scent of rain. Wanda had just finished feeding several boarded cats in the grooming cages. A small pink towel still hung around her neck, framing her sweet face, which bore traces of exhaustion yet continued to radiate a pure warmth that never went out.
At the register, Adi was busy checking the invoices for cat litter and the weekly wet food delivery. “Ms. Wanda, tomorrow’s wet food shipment from the distributor will arrive at nine in the morning. I’ll handle the unloading, so you can focus on organizing the vitamins and helping customers who want to board their cats.”
“Thank you, Adi. You’ve always been so dependable,” Wanda said with a sincere smile, wiping the light sheen of sweat from her forehead with the tip of the towel. “If I didn’t have you, I wouldn’t know how to run this store by myself.”
Suddenly, a gleaming black sedan—the same car that had met Nana on campus earlier that afternoon—pulled to a stop in the parking area in front of Paw-sitive Care. The car door opened, and a neatly dressed man without a tie stepped out. He stood on the sidewalk for a moment, straightening his shirt, then stared at the wooden sign bearing the words Paw-sitive Care as he drew a deep breath.
The man stepped into the store. The wind chime above the door rang sharply, shattering the peace of the evening.
“Good afternoon. How can I help—” Wanda’s greeting came to an abrupt halt.
The plastic plate of cat treats in Wanda’s hand nearly slipped from her fingers and crashed to the floor. Her face turned deathly pale within seconds, as if all the blood had been drained from her head. Standing before her was Krisna—the man who had walked out of their home eight years ago without a trace of remorse, leaving behind shattered hearts, mounting debts, and two daughters who still desperately needed a father’s love.
“Wanda...” Krisna called softly, carefully shaping his voice to sound pleading, heavy, and full of manipulative warmth. “How have you been?”
Adi straightened instantly behind the register. His gaze sharpened like a blade when he realized who the man standing before the senior he regarded like a biological sister was. “Mr. Krisna?” Adi hissed, struggling to contain the emotion that had suddenly begun burning in his throat.
Wanda gripped the edge of the wooden register counter to support her suddenly weak, trembling body. The trauma of the past—when their house had nearly been seized and there hadn’t been a penny left for groceries—surged back like a flood. Yet beneath the shock and trauma assaulting her, Wanda’s protective instincts as a mother rose automatically. Her usually gentle eyes turned sharp, cold, and frozen as ice.
“What do you want here, Krisna?” Wanda asked without preamble. Her voice was flat, though it trembled violently as she fought the turmoil in her chest.
Krisna took one step closer to the register, raising both hands with his palms open in a hollow gesture of peace. “Wanda, please... don’t put up your walls right away. I came here with good intentions. I just want to talk about our children. About Noni and Nana.”
“Our children?” Wanda gave a bitter, scornful laugh that broke the silence of the store and made several cats in their cages prick up their ears. “After disappearing for eight years without a word? After letting Noni and Nana nearly drop out of school if it weren’t for all the sweat I wrung out of myself here every day? Now you show up in your expensive clothes and start talking about ‘our children’?”
“I know I was wrong, Wan!” Krisna cut in quickly, wearing an expression of forced regret. “I lost my way back then. I failed as a husband and a father. But my life is stable now. I own a construction engineering firm that’s doing very well. I’m only here because I want to take responsibility. Noni is about to graduate college and start working, and Nana has already entered college... Their expenses aren’t small, Wan. Let me cover all their needs from now on.”
“We don’t need your money, Krisna,” Wanda replied firmly, every word delivered with unshakable emphasis. “For the past eight years, God has never let us go hungry. We were raised on honesty and sweat, not on guilt money offered eight years too late.”
“Don’t be selfish, Wanda!” Krisna’s voice began to rise, revealing his true nature—he hated being rejected and had always believed money gave him power. “Are you thinking about your pride or Noni and Nana’s future? If I helped pay for things, your lives wouldn’t be this hard! You wouldn’t have to work yourself to the bone from dawn until your eyes were swollen every night here in this little store!”
“That’s enough, sir!” Adi interrupted loudly, stepping forward to stand right beside Wanda like a protective shield. “Don’t you dare raise your voice at Ms. Wanda in her own store. If you had even a little empathy, you would never have shown your face here again after what you did!”
Krisna looked Adi up and down with contempt. “This is a private family matter, Adi. You’re just a store employee. Stay out of other people’s marital affairs.”
“Adi is family to us!” Wanda declared without the slightest hesitation, staring straight into Krisna’s eyes. “He was here when you ran away! He, Riri, and Obin helped me get back on my feet when I was nearly broken by the gambling debts and your so-called business! So don’t you ever dare call yourself ‘family’ in this store again!”
Krisna clenched his fists at his sides, realizing that the walls Wanda had built were too strong to breach with sweet words alone. Yet a faint smile hid at the corner of his lips—a sly secret Wanda knew nothing about. Krisna knew he had already sunk his manipulative claws into Nana that afternoon.
“All right,” Krisna said softly, smoothing his collar. “You can reject me today, Wanda. But remember, my blood runs through Noni and Nana’s veins. You won’t be able to keep the girls away from me forever.”
Krisna turned and strode out of the store with an arrogant air. The glass door closed behind him, accompanied by the wind chimes’ ringing, which sounded like a slash through the heart.
Once the black car disappeared, Wanda collapsed into the wooden chair behind the register. Both hands covered her violently trembling face. The tears she had been holding back with all her strength finally broke free. Shadows from the past came surging back in, threatening the peace she had built with blood, tears, and years of sacrifice.
Adi knelt beside Wanda’s chair and offered her a glass of warm water with trembling hands. “Ms. Wanda... you’re not alone. You have me, Riri, and Obin. We won’t let that con man wreck your life and the girls’ lives again.”
Wanda nodded slowly through her tears, wiping them away with the towel around her neck. But deep in her heart, a mother’s ominous intuition whispered softly: Krisna would not stop here, and the greatest threat was aimed at her youngest daughter, who was still so innocent.