NOT ENOUGH
781 Words
Lydia's POV
The payment notification popped up on my phone three days later.
I sat on my bed, a calculator in one hand and a mountain of bills in the other. I did the math once. Twice. Ten times. I moved the numbers around like a puzzle that refused to fit.
Rent: $1,200. Meds: $850. Utilities: $180. Food: $300. Hospital arrears: $600. Total Salary: $2,100.
The math was a death sentence. I threw the calculator across the room. It hit the wall with a satisfying c***k, but the relief lasted only a second. Now I couldn't even afford to replace a ten-dollar calculator.
I called Doris. I needed to hear a human voice before the silence swallowed me whole.
"We’re all drowning, Lydia," Doris said, her voice sounding thin over the line. "We’re just doing it quietly so we don't wake the neighbors."
"I can't keep doing this, Doris. I’m failing her."
"You're breathing, aren't you? Then you're winning. That’s all we get."
The next day at the mansion, I was a ghost. I moved through my chores with mechanical precision, my mind a storm of "past due" notices.
I was staring into the kitchen sink when a presence shifted behind me. I didn't need to turn around to know it was him. The air always felt different when Karl entered a room, charged, heavy, and strangely still.
"You haven’t eaten," he said. It wasn't a question.
I jumped, turning to see him leaning against the doorframe. He had his sleeves rolled up, revealing tanned, muscular forearms. He looked like a man who had never known the cold bite of hunger, yet there was a weariness in his eyes that felt familiar.
"I’m fine, Mr. Karl," I said, fixing my eyes on his tie.
"You’re lying," he said softly. He moved into the kitchen and, to my shock, began plating a meal himself. "Sit. Eat."
"I really shouldn't…"
"Lydia. Sit." It wasn't a command; it was an invitation.
I sat. The food tasted like ash at first, but then my hunger took over, and I ate with a desperation that made my cheeks flush with shame. Karl sat across from me, sipping coffee. He didn't look away. He watched me as if I were the most interesting thing in his multi-million dollar home.
"Your daughter," he said suddenly. "How is she?"
I froze. "How did you..."
"Mrs. Hale mentioned the emergency. I want to know the truth, Lydia. Not the polite version."
I looked at him then, and the wall I’d built finally cracked. "She has leukemia. She collapsed because her body was giving up. And I... I don't have enough to save her."
The confession hung in the air, raw and ugly. Karl didn't offer pity. He didn't give me a Hallmark quote. He just nodded, his gaze intense. "Strength isn't about not being afraid, Lydia. It's about holding it together when the world is screaming at you to fall apart."
A week later, my world shifted again.
I checked my bank account and gasped. The deposit was nearly double what it should have been. I marched to Karl’s study, my heart hammering.
"There’s a mistake," I said, bursting in. "The pay, it’s too much. And my hours were cut."
Karl looked up from his laptop, his expression unreadable. "No mistake. I reviewed your contract. You were being underpaid for the level of care you provide my mother."
"But I’m working less! I can't take money I haven't earned."
Karl stood up, walking around his desk until he was standing directly in front of me. He was so close I could smell the cedarwood and rain on his skin.
"You need to be with your daughter," he said, his voice dropping to a low rumble. "And I need you focused when you are here. Consider it a retention bonus. I don't want to lose you, Lydia."
The way he said my name, not as an employee, but as a woman, made my breath hitch.
"Why are you doing this?" I whispered.
He reached out, his thumb grazing my jaw for a fraction of a second before he pulled back. "Because for the first time in a long time, there is someone in this house who isn't made of stone."
He turned back to his desk, the moment broken but the air still humming. "Go home, Lydia. Your daughter is waiting."
I left the room with my head spinning. I had my miracle, but as I walked past a glowering Mrs. Hale in the hallway, I realized I had also gained something else.
I had gained Karl’s attention. And in this house, that was the most dangerous thing of all.
- Writer
