"So?" Wyatt folded his arms across his chest. "Weren't you so sure of yourself a second ago?"
I hesitated. In that moment, Toby nuzzled gently against me from inside my arms.
I drew in a deep breath and slid the bracelet off my wrist, closing my fist around it.
"Fine. But if I pull this off, Dr. Dickerson apologizes to me publicly."
Wyatt let out a scoffing laugh.
"Deal."
Sienna nodded, choking back tears, and the livestream camera swung onto me.
Millions of eyes were watching.
Carrying Toby, I walked to the corner, grabbed a rag, and covered up every dog photo on every kibble bag in the hospital.
Then I moved the food bowl to the far end of the counter, well away from the bags.
Last, I set Toby down gently beside the bowl.
At first, nothing happened.
Toby lay there, his nose twitching, but he still didn't eat.
The live chat was howling.
"Hahaha, what'd I tell you? The intern crashed and burned!"
"How bad does it sting, getting shown up on camera?"
"Shame about that bracelet, though. It looks like it's worth a lot."
Wyatt stood there with his arms crossed, the corner of his mouth curling up.
"Well? Ready to admit you lost?"
The hand clutching the bracelet was shaking.
Then, the next second.
Toby lifted his head with everything he had.
Opened his mouth, and took a bite of kibble.
The whole stream went silent in an instant.
Then the live chat exploded upward like crazy.
"Holy crap! It ate?"
"No way, am I really seeing this right?"
"The intern's a beast!!"
Sienna covered her face and sobbed, lunging forward to wrap her arms around Toby.
"Baby, you ate! You finally ate!"
Toby rested a moment, then lowered his head for another bite, and started whimpering inside my head.
"It's good… after all these days, I finally got to eat… so does that mean I don't have to die? I couldn't bear to leave my mommy…"
Wyatt's face went ashen. He rushed over to inspect the food bowl, then pried open Toby's mouth.
"Impossible… did she use an appetite stimulant?"
"Dr. Dickerson, see for yourself. The kibble in that bowl came straight from your exam room."
I raised both hands. "I didn't add a thing."
The color in Wyatt's face flushed red, then drained white.
Sienna lifted her head, tears still hanging on her lashes, but she was smiling now.
"Thank you! Thank you so much! I'll wire you that million right now!"
The live chat turned on a dime.
"This intern's gotta be some animal-world miracle healer reborn. Dr. Dickerson's face is green, hahaha."
"So what's twenty years of practice even good for? She runs circles around him."
"Right? Somebody tell Dr. Dickerson to hurry up and apologize!"
Wyatt's mouth twitched, but he forced it out: "It's not necessarily the reason you're guessing. It could just be that the antidepressant shot I gave Toby earlier finally kicked in, and you happened to catch it at the right moment."
I was speechless.
How could anyone be this shameless?
Toby cussed him out for me, right inside my head.
"This guy's awful! It's totally my big sister's doing, and he's trying to steal the credit!"
I steeled myself, walked over, and yanked the rag off the kibble bags, revealing a bag printed with a Corgi.
Toby was happily eating away, but the second he saw that dog photo, his whole body jolted. He scrambled backward in terror, the kibble spilling out of his mouth, and started convulsing.
I quickly covered the bag again.
Only then did Toby slowly come back around, whimpering pitifully.
"That scared me half to death…"
Wyatt's face went ashen, and the live chat detonated.
"Ironclad proof now, right? What've you got to say?"
"Dr. Dickerson lost so bad, hahaha."
"Apologize, now! A deal's a deal!"
Wyatt clenched his teeth. In front of millions of livestream viewers, his face burned scarlet.
