Chapter 4: Debts and Favors

Jenna may have been the housekeeper’s daughter, but she’d grown up with me—eating at my table, living in my world of privilege. All because her father had once risked everything for my family.

He’d saved my life, but paid for it with his own. Now, he was bedridden, paralyzed, his breathing shallow, eyes full of pain. I remembered sitting at his bedside, the scent of antiseptic sharp in the air.

“How do you want me to repay you?” I’d asked softly.

Jenna’s father had looked at me, voice thin but steady: “I don’t want anything, Miss Natalie. Just make sure my wife and daughter are taken care of.”

Only later did I realize—he’d risked it all because he had nothing left to lose. The cancer had already spread. He put everything on the line to give his family a shot at something better.

He’d succeeded, and because of that, even knowing Jenna was plotting behind my back, I couldn’t just cut her loose. The town would crucify me if I did. Jenna knew that, too.

The next day, she showed up at my door, eyes red, trying her best to look contrite. “Miss, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way yesterday.”

In the past, I’d have let her off with a wave, but this time, I kept my voice cool: “And?”

She hesitated, hands twisting in her skirt. “…And I shouldn’t have assumed I knew what you were thinking.”

I shook my head. “Wrong.”

Jenna’s face went stiff.

I leaned forward, tapping her cheek lightly. “Jenna, your father saved my life, and I’ll always be grateful. But you’re still my housekeeper’s daughter. You don’t get a say in who I love. You work for my family. Don’t forget that.”

Her cheeks flushed, lips parting as if to argue, but she stayed silent. The social line was drawn in the sand, and she knew better than to cross it.