Euthanasia. Emilia’s stomach writhed at the thought. Death follows me everywhere. She shouldn’t have come. Perhaps if she had remained behind, the prognosis would be better for Olive. She knew the thought was superstitious. It didn’t change the clenched certainty inside her.

“I need to call my cousin,” said Abby.

Abby stepped away and pulled out her phone. Emilia studied the slump of her shoulders and felt Morgan’s hand on her back.

“You okay?” Morgan asked her.

No, she wanted to say. I am not okay. Instead, she nodded.

Stevie stroked Olive’s nose and crooned something into her ears. Olive’s flaxen mane mingled with Stevie’s blond hair. The sight tightened Emilia’s lungs.

When Abby returned, her face had turned from gray to a sort of pale mustard color, accented by two bright spots of anger in her cheeks.

“They don’t want to pay for treatment. They’ll turn her over to me, but Dr. Donovan, I can’t afford to have her hospitalized.”

“I understand.” Morgan and Abby stepped to one side and spoke in the low tones of people making funeral arrangements. Morgan nodded sympathetically as Abby gesticulated, but Emilia saw the set of her shoulders and knew Morgan was angry.

“I’m sorry,” she said to Stevie.

“It’s okay. She’s not mine. It’s not my call, is it, sweet girl?” The last words were for the horse.

“I get it, though.” She stroked Olive’s strong neck. “Sometimes we just click with them, and it hurts.”

Stevie looked up at her with overbright eyes. The jokester was gone. A woman in pain sat before her, and Emilia’s heart broke. They both knew the outcome. She saw the conflict twist Stevie’s face, and she knew what it was like to fall in love like this. It happened. Though she would never put it into words, she believed in soul mates. Not human soul mates, especially after Hannah, but animals sometimes reached out and touched a part of her that she could only identify as soul. That’s how she’d ended up with Nell, but there had been others: dogs and cats in her care who had wormed their way past her professional barriers. Animals she’d fostered and found homes for who still haunted her dreams. Animals she hadn’t saved. She rested her hand on Stevie’s shoulder as Stevie wiped at her eyes.

“Allergies,” Stevie said in an attempt at levity, but neither of them smiled.

“We don’t deserve them.”

“We really don’t.” Stevie shook her head and stared into Olive’s large brown eyes. Olive looked up at her with trust and pain and confusion.