Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge Read Free Page A

you two . . .” She tapped her forefingers together before entwining them.
    Josephine had closed her eyes and looked as though she was praying for her painkillers to work.
    â€œWhy are all of you here today? Are you having a business meeting?”
    â€œAunty Lee, you’re so . . .” Cherril started, and stopped. Being called kaypoh was generally an insult but one Aunty Lee embraced cheerfully. After all, knowing everybody’s business was necessary if she wanted to feed everybody good food, and surely there was nothing wrong with that. It surprised Aunty Lee that more people did not feel that way.
    Josephine’s eyes remained closed as she said, “Allison Fitzgerald is filing a lawsuit against the three of us for breaking up her marriage. She found an American lawyer who got his last client nine million U.S. dollars on a similar lawsuit. She’s coming to meet us here.”

2
    Puppy Killer
    â€œAlienation of affection? This Allison woman got divorced and wants to sue you all?” Aunty Lee’s eyes darted between Cherril and Josephine before settling on Josephine. “She thinks you stole her husband? What did you do with him?”
    â€œAunty Lee! It’s nothing like that!” Cherril did not give her friend a chance to answer. “This woman and her husband adopted a dog—a puppy—from us when we were running the Animal ReHomers. Now she claims that dealing with the Animal ReHomers stressed her into a nervous breakdown and led to the breakup of her marriage. Since the ReHomers organization doesn’t exist anymore, she’s suing the three of us because we’re the ones she dealt with.”
    Aunty Lee looked puzzled. “She didn’t like the dog?”
    â€œShe agreed to return it to us if she couldn’t keep it. Butinstead she had it put down and then lied that she had given it to a friend.”
    â€œI remember her now! The puppy killer!” Aunty Lee thumped her stick against Josephine’s chair in delight at remembering the case. “The puppy killer! It was in the newspapers!”
    It had also been all over social media and even international newspapers. After all, nothing unites Singaporeans like getting really angry at something or someone, especially when they can feel self-righteously patriotic about it.
    â€œBut I didn’t know you all were involved. Tell me all about it!”
    Josephine smiled and excused herself to make a call as Cherril began.
    Five years ago, Allison and Mike Fitzgerald adopted a small mixed-breed puppy from the Animal ReHomers, a volunteer society dedicated to improving the lives of Singapore’s abandoned and unwanted dogs. In Singapore only one dog of an approved (small) breed is permitted per Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat under threat of a S$4,000 fine. Given the tendency of new puppies to appear and dogs to grow, and the fact that 80 percent of Singapore’s population lives in HDB flats, finding new homes for dogs is a constant process. The adoption agreement signed by the Fitzgeralds for the puppy, Lola, stipulated it would be returned to the Animal ReHomers should the adoption not work out.
    Allison Fitzgerald would later say to reporters, “I thought that was just to make sure they would take the dog back. Idon’t know what I signed. Who reads all those damned papers they make you sign?”
    Allison called the ReHomers two months later.
    â€œI was the on-duty that day and I took her call. She said she wanted to return the puppy she’d taken. I looked up the records and said sure, but asked if she would be willing to keep Lola a few more days or help with boarding costs till we found another home for her. It’s the standard response we were supposed to give. They were always short of money and space at the shelter. And quite often people changed their minds. I mean, you get fuming mad when a puppy pees on your Persian carpet or chews the heels off your