Miguel could hear only pieces.
Found bracelet.
Federal Highway 45.
Newborn puppies.
Name Sofía Herrera.
No, not a prank.
No, we are not asking for money.
Then Lupita went silent.
Her face changed slowly, as if someone on the other end had opened a door she did not want to see.
“When?” she asked.
Miguel stood.
Lupita listened, her eyes fixed on the tile.
“Thank you,” she said at last, but the words sounded empty.
She ended the call and placed the phone beside the bracelet.
“They said Sofía Herrera left the hospital yesterday morning,” Lupita said.
Miguel waited for the rest.
“With a newborn daughter.”
The room became smaller.
The puppies whimpered under Canela’s body, and the refrigerator clicked loudly in the kitchen.
“What does that have to do with Canela?” Miguel asked, though the question felt too simple.
Lupita shook her head.
“They wouldn’t tell me more. But the nurse asked where exactly we found the bracelet.”
“And?”
“She asked if there was a dog with us.”
Miguel looked down at Canela.
The dog was staring at the door now.
Not at Miguel.
Not at Lupita.
At the door.
As if she had heard footsteps no one else could hear.
Lupita picked up her phone again, but her hand trembled before she could unlock it.
“We should call the police,” she said.
Miguel immediately thought of his truck.
The unpaid fine.
The expired inspection sticker he had promised to fix after the next delivery.
The hours he would lose, the questions, the suspicion, the way people like him were rarely believed first.
Then he looked at Canela’s paws.
