Zoe descended the stairs, Rex quietly following her, and froze when she saw two police officers standing in the living room, their eyes fixed on her. A shiver ran down her spine, and a knot of nerves tightened in her stomach. She turned to George, her voice trembling:
“What’s happening? Is this about the man at the door?”
George’s response left her reeling. Disbelief washed over her like a tidal wave. Her mind struggled to process what he was about to say—it seemed impossible.
“No, Zoe,” George said, his voice shaking. His hands trembled as he struggled to maintain composure. “I called the police… because of you.”
“What?!” Zoe gasped, her heart skipping a beat.
“I know what’s going on, Zoe. I know everything,” George continued, his tone a mix of sternness and uncertainty. He avoided her gaze. “It’s time to stop lying.”
George recounted the suspicions that had plagued him: Zoe’s strange late-night trips, the cryptic text message on her phone, and Rex’s peculiar behavior. The revelation that Rex had once been a drug-detection dog, combined with his obsessive reactions toward Zoe, had planted seeds of doubt in George’s mind.
“Are you involved in something illegal, Zoe?” His voice trembled, blending disbelief, fear, and anger.
One of the officers stepped forward. “Ma’am, is there something you’d like to tell us?”
Zoe felt a rush of hurt and indignation. Betrayal burned in her chest. “So, you invade my privacy and accuse me of being a criminal… based on a dog’s behavior and a text message?” Her voice quivered with emotion. Overwhelmed, she sank into a chair, struggling to gather herself.
“Alright, George, since you’ve made such a scene, here’s the truth,” she said, pain and anger mingling in her words.
Zoe took a deep breath, explaining everything. She had recently read an article about how dogs can sense their owner’s pregnancy, which sparked a curious thought. Could Rex’s strange behavior be linked to that? She had texted an old friend who had recently been pregnant to confirm the possibility—and her friend verified that she had experienced similar signals from her own pets.
Driven by this intuition, Zoe had gone to the gas station to buy a pregnancy test. Her heart raced as she waited for the result. And sure enough, her hunch was correct—she was pregnant. Fear had gripped her heart; a history of early miscarriages in her family had made her hesitant to share the news too soon. She wanted to wait until the pregnancy was safely past the precarious early stage before telling George.