The servant’s grip on Snowball grew rougher and rougher.
His paws scraped helplessly across the floor, leaving faint marks behind, his terrified howls stabbing into my eardrums like needles.
I lost it.
I tried to lunge forward, but two servants pinned my arms in place so hard I could barely move.
“Let him go! Let him go!” I screamed, my voice breaking. A metallic taste flooded my throat.
“Liam, have you forgotten what you said? You can’t do this to him!”
Liam stood by the master bedroom door.
He turned back to look at me, his gaze full of annoyance — like I was some hysterical stranger he’d never met.
“What I said?” He let out a short laugh.
“You mean the crap I told you to keep you happy? You actually believed that?”
His eyes dropped to Snowball, struggling in the servant’s arms. “It’s just a dog. If it dies, we can always get another one.”
Just a dog.
Just things he’d said to “keep me happy”.
All those memories I’d cherished, hoarded, replayed on my coldest nights… shattered in an instant.
My mind flew back to the first time I met Snowball.
It was not long after I’d been brought back to the Foster family.
My parents were distant. Vanessa made a sport of tormenting me. Even the servants looked down on me.
Most nights, I went to bed hungry.
So I’d sneak to the kitchen after everyone was asleep, looking for leftover scraps.
That night, at the alley behind the villa’s back door, I saw him.
A tiny white puppy, curled in the corner.
His hind leg was broken. He was covered in bruises and old wounds, so thin it was a miracle he could stand at all. He was gnawing on a moldy piece of bread, trembling, while a few older kids threw rocks at him and laughed, calling him “stray trash.”
Something inside me snapped.
I rushed forward, yelling at them until they scattered, then knelt down beside him.
When I reached out, he shrank back in fear, his whole body shaking.
I broke my half of a hard, stale bun — the one I’d hidden away for myself — and put it in front of him.
He hesitated. Then devoured it.
Looking at him hunched over that tiny piece of food, something inside me softened and broke at the same time.
We were both strays.
Both unwelcome.
Both trying to survive on scraps.
After that, I saved part of my own food every day and snuck out to feed him.
I named him Snowball. His fur, under the dirt, was white — so white it reminded me of the snowdrifts I used to dream about.
I’d sit in an old cardboard box with him in that alley, hugging him to keep us both warm, whispering all the things I couldn’t say to anyone else — how Vanessa bullied me, how I missed the caretakers from the orphanage, how badly I wanted a real home.
Snowball would rub his head into my palm and look up at me with those wet, trusting eyes, as if saying, *I’m here. I hear you.*
Then Liam appeared.
He told me he’d seen me secretly feeding the dog. Said he thought I was kind and strong.
He offered to help me take Snowball in.
He drove us to the animal hospital, paid for treatment, bought the best dog food and toys.
That day, on the grassy lawn outside the clinic, he was holding Snowball in his arms while I leaned against his shoulder in the sun.
“Clara,” he’d said gently, “we’re a family now.”
“I’ll treat Snowball like my own child. I’ll protect you both. I won’t let you be hurt or bullied ever again.”
He had looked me straight in the eyes and said,
“As long as Snowball has us, he has a home. And as long as you have me… you have a home too.”
I remembered those words for three years.
In those three years, Snowball grew up. His leg healed. He followed me everywhere.
Liam played the part of a perfect “dad” — bathing him, walking him, sending me videos of Snowball when I was away on trips.
“He misses you,” he’d say on video. “I miss you too.”
I truly believed we were a family.
I truly believed I’d finally found a person I could depend on.
A place I belonged.
Now look at us.
The same man who promised to protect us was standing there with his arm around my greatest enemy, watching my dog being dragged away to its death.
The man who said he’d give me a home…
had not only betrayed me, but was now destroying the last piece of warmth I had left.
“Liam, don’t you dare forget who you were back then!” I shouted, struggling so hard my wrists burned under the servants’ grip. Tears and sweat blurred my vision.
“When Snowball first came home and couldn’t sleep from the pain, you held him all night! When he learned to shake hands, you were happier than anyone! You said he was the proof of our love — part of our family—”
“That’s enough.”
Liam cut me off, his expression turning dark.
“That was in the past,” he snapped.
“Now Vanessa is pregnant with my child. She’s the priority. A dog will never compare to my kid.”
Vanessa peeked out from behind him, clutching her slightly bleeding arm, her voice full of fake softness.
“Don’t be like that, sis,” she said.
“Snowball bit me. Of course he has to be punished. Besides…” she let out a light laugh, “being made into soup to nourish my body — that’s a blessing for him, isn’t it?”
“A blessing?” I stared at her, shaking with rage.
“Vanessa, don’t you dare forget — you’re the one who threw him into the river!”
Last summer.
Just because I refused to give her the scarf Grandma had knitted for me…
she’d stuffed Snowball into a bag and thrown him into the water.
By the time I realized he was missing, he was already drowning.
I jumped in after him. We both almost died.
Liam had scolded her afterward, yes — but it was nothing more than a casual,
“She’s young, she doesn’t know any better.”
And then the whole thing was swept away like it never happened.
Vanessa’s face paled for a moment, but she recovered quickly and smirked.
“So what?” she sneered.
“Liam loves me now. I make the rules here. Whether a dog lives or dies is up to me.”
She stepped closer, leaned in so only I could hear, and lowered her voice.
“Clara, did you really think Liam ever loved you?” she whispered.
“He only approached you for my sake.
You and that dog? You’re both our toys.
Now that we’re bored, it’s only natural to get rid of you.”
Her words blew out the last weak candle inside my chest.
I looked at Liam’s cold profile.
At Vanessa’s triumphant smile.
At Snowball, trapped in the cage now, scratching desperately at the bars.
Something deep inside me gave way and collapsed completely.
“Let me go!” I yelled, wrenching my arms free with a burst of strength I didn’t know I still had.
I bolted toward the kitchen.
I couldn’t let Snowball die. I couldn’t.
He was the only real warmth I’d ever had in this house.
The only part of those years that wasn’t a lie.
I’d barely taken two steps when Liam caught my wrist.
His grip was so strong it felt like he was going to crush the bone.
“Clara, try this again,” he said, his voice razor-sharp, “and I won’t be so nice.”
His eyes were full of ruthless threat.
“Your grandmother’s medical bills are still waiting on my signature, remember?” he added quietly.
“If you want her treatment stopped… if you want her to die in that hospital bed… by all means, keep making trouble.”
Grandma.
The word hit me like a hammer.
I stopped dead.
Every bit of strength I had drained out of me.
He meant it. I knew he did.
Grandma was still lying in that hospital.
She still needed more treatment.
More money.
I couldn’t lose her.
For Grandma, I could endure Vanessa’s abuse, Liam’s betrayal, being pushed into that damp guest room, losing the master bedroom, losing my dignity.
But I couldn’t lose her.
She was my only real family.
The one place in this world where I’d ever felt truly loved.
“I’ll stop…” I whispered at last, lowering my head. My voice sounded like broken glass.
“I won’t make trouble. I’m begging you — just spare Snowball. I’ll move to the guest room. I’ll apologize to Vanessa. I’ll do anything you want… just don’t kill him.”
Liam studied my pathetic posture for a few seconds.
Enjoying it.
“Too late,” he said finally, releasing my wrist with a cold smile.
“He bit Vanessa. He pays the price.
Be a good girl and stay in the guest room. Don’t make me regret my patience.
Otherwise, I’ll make you watch him die.”
He turned and walked into the kitchen.
The door shut with a dull thud.
A moment later, Snowball’s screams grew sharper, more desperate.
Metal clanged against metal.
I crumpled to the floor, pressing my hands over my ears — but I could still hear everything.
Vanessa walked over, looking down at me from above, that same poisonous smile at her lips.
“Hear that?” she asked lightly.
“That’s your Snowball. He’ll be a nice pot of soup soon.
Do you think his meat will be tender?”
I lifted my head slowly and looked at her.
Something ugly and wild moved through my chest.
“Vanessa,” I said, my voice low and shaking,
“You will pay for this.”
“Pay?” She laughed outright, bending down to tap my cheek lightly like I was a child.
“Look at me,” she said.
“I have Liam. I have the Foster family’s money. I have a baby on the way.
And you? You have nothing.”
She straightened, smoothing her clothes, then turned and walked away with elegant steps — leaving me alone on the cold floor, listening to Snowball’s last cries and feeling my heart tear apart piece by piece.
I don’t know how much time passed.
The kitchen door opened.
Liam walked out carrying a steaming bowl of soup.
He went straight to Vanessa and set it in front of her with care.
“Baby,” he said softly, “have some. Fresh dog meat soup. It’ll be good for your body.”
Vanessa giggled and took a sip, deliberately glancing my way.
“It’s delicious,” she said sweetly. “Liam, you’re so good to me.”
My stomach lurched violently.
Bile burned in my throat.
I shot to my feet, stumbled into the guest room, and slammed the door behind me.
Leaning against it, I slid weakly to the floor.
Tears streamed down my face, unstoppable now.
I thought of Snowball when he first came home.
Of him curled up in my arms, nudging my chin, begging for pets.
Of Liam’s gentle promises.
Of the three of us on the lawn, laughing like a real family.
Every happy moment I’d held onto…
dissolved into nothing in the span of one night.
Liam.
Vanessa.
You didn’t just betray me.
You didn’t just lie to me.
You killed Snowball.
You crushed the last piece of dignity, the last bit of warmth I had left.
What you owe me —
what you owe Snowball —
what you owe Grandma —
I will make you pay back,
with interest.
