The Nanny Demanded a Child Betrothal, So I Sent Her to Hell

My daughter, Mindy Abbott, was home for summer break.

Work at the company kept me swamped, my husband had died suddenly of illness not long ago, and my parents were in poor health.

So there was no one at home to look after her.

That was why my father recommended his cousin's daughter, Kirsten Chavez, to come work as our live-in nanny.

I was eating dinner one evening when Kirsten sidled up to me, all smiles.

"Hey, so Sunday's my son's tenth birthday."

"I was thinking we could use the day to settle the match between him and Mindy!"

I was so stunned I nearly spat out my food.

Since she'd come to work for us, Kirsten had been lazy, and she always helped herself first to anything good to eat or drink.

She had no sense of boundaries at all.

She even carted off bags of our meat, fruit, and vegetables to her own home every single day.

Her excuse was that we could never finish it all anyway.

For the sake of the older generation, I put up with whatever I could.

But now what was she trying to pull?

"What match?" I asked.

Kirsten looked put out.

"The match between my son Brian Gray and your Mindy, of course!"

"Your uncle and the rest of them already agreed. Didn't he tell you?"

I quickly asked what on earth she was talking about.

Kirsten told me that forty years ago my father and hers had gone off together to find work in another city.

My father had accidentally lost the food and money he'd brought along.

Then he was in a car accident on top of it.

If her father hadn't done everything he could to help mine, my father would have died out there.

And to thank her father, mine had promised a child betrothal between the next generation.

Except they'd both ended up having daughters, so the match never happened.

"Now you've got a daughter and I've got a son, so it works out perfectly. We can join the families!"

Kirsten said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I shook my head at once.

"No. Mindy is only nine. I'm not arranging a marriage for her."

"And any child betrothal my father made with yours died out with our generation!"

There was another reason I didn't say out loud.

Her son, Brian, was ten this year and still wet himself in public all the time.

To this day he hadn't started elementary school.

He had a serious intellectual disability.

There was no way I'd ever betroth my daughter to a boy like that.

At my answer, Kirsten's brow furrowed instantly.

"Ursula Vance, so you're using your money to look down on my family, is that it?"

"They say a child pays the father's debts. If you won't own the debt your father owes, well, that's pretty ungrateful, isn't it?"

She stared me down, pushing hard.

I let out a cold laugh.

I went to my bedroom and came back with ten thousand dollars.

"This is your pay. You've worked ten days total, and I'm giving you a full month."

"Starting tomorrow, don't bother coming back!"

Kirsten hesitated, then took my money, her face dark.

"Fine, fine, fine. Ursula, you're heartless enough."

"But this isn't over. We'll see about that!"

With that, she gathered up her things.

Along with the bags of meat, fruit, and vegetables she'd packed up in advance.

She swaggered toward the door.

But on her way out she turned back and gave my daughter a strange, eerie smile.

"Mindy, oh Mindy, you just be a good girl and wait to be my daughter-in-law."

"This is your fate. You can't escape it!"

Mindy had been sitting frozen and silent, and now she burst into tears from fear.

I was furious and heartbroken all at once.

It took a good while of soothing before she calmed down a little.

That night, as we were going to bed, Mindy told me that Kirsten had been trying on my jewelry during the day.

And that she'd taken a necklace.

I hurried to check our home security cameras.

Sure enough, just as she'd said, Kirsten had made off with a necklace of mine worth over a hundred thousand.

That made me angrier still. I grabbed my phone to call her.

That was when a bullhorn started blaring from downstairs.

"Everybody come help me settle this!"

"That Ursula, Building Three, eighth floor, she's an ungrateful snake."

"My father saved her father's life back in the day, and she repays kindness with spite..."

It was Kirsten's voice.

I flew into a rage.

I told Mindy to stay put and went down.

Downstairs, I found Kirsten standing there yelling into a bullhorn.

A crowd had gathered around her.

The moment she spotted me, her eyes lit up and she jabbed a finger at me, shouting.

"Everybody look, this is the Ursula I was just telling you about."

"Her daughter's home for break with no one to watch her, and all this time I've been the one working my fingers to the bone helping out."

"And she turns on me just like that, throws me out, and won't even pay me!"

The neighbors turned to look at me one after another, their eyes mocking and amused.

"Isn't this Ursula some big boss? How could she do something so cold and thankless?"

"Rich and ruthless, that's how you get to be a big boss!"

"And to think her father's life was saved by that woman's father, and she can't even show a little gratitude..."

Kirsten watched me, smug and taunting.

"Well, Ursula? Everyone's on my side."

I frowned and looked her dead in the eye.

"You stole a necklace of mine worth over a hundred thousand. Should I call the police right now?"

Kirsten's face changed in an instant, panic all over it.

The neighbors crowding around were floored.

"So she stole from them! That's why she got thrown out!"

"A necklace worth over a hundred grand. That's years in prison."

"She pulls a stunt like this and still has the nerve to come out here and make a scene."

The way they looked at Kirsten now was pure contempt.

Kirsten's face went pale.

"She's slandering me. I only tried it on and forgot to put it back, that's all."

"You've got so much jewelry. What's the big deal if I wear it once? I'm your cousin, after all!"

"Don't blow this out of proportion and use it to fool everybody."

She sounded so convincing that the neighbors started to waver.

"Oh, so they're cousins. Then trying it on isn't such a terrible thing, I suppose."

"Could this Ursula have made up an excuse to run her off just to save on wages?"

Watching some of them fall for Kirsten's act, I was so angry I almost laughed.

"Then where's my necklace? You want to give it back to me right now?"

Kirsten panicked all over again.

"That, well, I accidentally left it at home for now..."

The moment she said it, the crowd erupted.

"So she took the necklace home. If that's not stealing, what is?"

I pressed my hands down, motioning for everyone to quiet down.

"First of all, I already gave her a thousand dollars."

"She worked ten days. I paid her a full month's wages."

"And I didn't throw her out because she stole the necklace. I only found that out just now."

"I threw her out because she kept insisting my daughter be betrothed to her son. She said her father saved my father's life, so my family owes hers."

"But my daughter is only nine this year..."

I wasn't even finished before the crowd blew up.

"That's outrageous. Who arranges a child betrothal in this day and age?"

"She's using the fact that her dad supposedly saved this woman's dad to guilt-trip them into it."

"So she's the one twisting everything around. That woman is shameless!"

Under the crowd's accusations, Kirsten's face turned a mottled purple.

Like a rat caught in the open, she slunk away.

She glanced back at me once, her eyes full of venom.

The others urged me to call the police right away.

Worried about Mindy alone upstairs and scared, I didn't linger long and went up.

"Mommy, I'm scared." The moment Mindy saw me, she burrowed into my arms.

"Don't be scared, Mindy. It's okay." I soothed her softly.

Mindy pouted, her whole face crumpling.

"That lady kept saying she wanted me to be her son's wife. I thought she was just joking with me."

I couldn't help but clench my fists.

So Kirsten had been up to no good all along.

By the time I'd settled Mindy to sleep, it was deep into the night.

I was about to go wash up when my phone suddenly got an alert from the door system.

Someone had been lingering outside the door for a long time.

I pulled up the camera outside.

Kirsten and her father, Oliver Chavez, were skulking around at my door.

Oliver was carrying a bucket of red paint.

Kirsten held a brush, dipping it in the red paint and smearing it across the door.

"Kirsten, your old man's got plenty of tricks. Don't you worry, they'll come around."

"Like they say, a man who can't be ruthless is no man at all. Back then, if I hadn't stolen her father's money and his food supplies"

"then staged the crash, and run him off the cliff"

"and turned right around and saved him, would he have spent his whole life bowing and scraping and letting me do whatever I pleased?"

Oliver said it with a smug look on his face.

Never once realizing every word was being recorded by the security cameras.

"So that's what really happened back then, Dad. I never knew."

Kirsten's eyes lit up.

Oliver let out a low grunt.

"That's a big secret. Right now only you and I know it."

"I just wanted you to understandif you want to get somewhere in life, you can't be squeamish about how."

"Once Brian and the girl grow up and marry, Ursula's whole fortune ends up his sooner or later."

Kirsten's eyes went brighter still, and she couldn't hold back a laugh.

"You're right, Dad. Word is Ursula's worth over a hundred million. One day it'll all be ours!"

When they'd finished, they left, satisfied.

By then I was grinding my teeth.

Fury burned in me.

Years ago my father went out of town to work with Oliver.

After the money and food he carried were stolen, he met with a freak car crash.

He was gravely hurt. He kept his life, but his left leg was left badly crippled.

It shadowed the better part of his years.

Now that he's old, he can only get around in a wheelchair.

All these years he's kept lamenting his bad luck.

But how lucky, he'd say, to have such a good cousin.

He gave Oliver almost anything the man asked for.

Never dreaming that the man behind it all was that good cousin of his.

I wanted to tell my father the truth right away.

But I was afraid, this late at night, of the shock to an old man.

So I forced it down.

I barely made it to morning.

I stepped outside and looked.

Two rows of big characters had been painted on the door in red.

"Repay a kindness with kindnessonly right and proper!"

"Betray the hand that fed youand heaven will strike you down!"

The walls on both sides of the door were smeared with great sweeps of red paint too.

It was a sickening thing to see.

I was shaking with rage.

But sense won out, and I took photos first to keep the evidence.

Right then my phone rang.

It was Kirsten.

I switched on the recorder first, then answered, to keep the proof.

"Ursula, I sent you a present. Go out and take a look."

I gave a cold laugh.

"The red paint on my doorthat was you, wasn't it?"

"That's right. Like it? Keep biting the hand that fed you and I've got plenty of ways to deal with you."

Kirsten's voice was full of provocation.

"Thank you. I like it very much." Instead, I went very calm.

Kirsten fell silent a moment.

She probably hadn't expected me to say that.

Then she gave a cold snort. "Fine, fine, still talking big. You just wait."

And she hung up.

I went back inside, thought it over, and started going through the last few days of home security footage.

Turned out Kirsten hadn't only kept trying on my jewelry and taking a necklace.

She'd actually opened my safe and taken things out of it.

I hurried to open the safe and check.

A one-kilo gold bar was gone.

So were three valuable pieces of jewelry.

Strangely enough, I felt a rush of excitement.

Kirsten, oh, Kirsten.

You're digging your own grave!

Once Mindy woke, we had breakfast and went to my company first.

I dealt with some urgent business, then asked a coworker to look after Mindy.

And got ready to go home and call the police.

But just as I reached the door,

I ran straight into Kirsten and her father Oliver.

Her son trailed behind her.

And so did my parents.

"Ursula, where do you think you're going?"

"Your parents are here now. Still trying to hide?"

Kirsten looked utterly smug.

But I couldn't help laughing.

Better to come at the right moment than to come early.

"You've still got the nerve to smile. Finally realizing you're in the wrong, are you?" Kirsten glared at me.

I ignored her and turned to my parents. "What are you two doing here?"

But my father was looking at me with pure displeasure.

"What's the matter with you? Why did you make Kirsten quit?"

"She was kind enough to help take care of the child, and you repay her by throwing her out like an ingrate!"

I kept my patience and explained. "She's insisting on a child betrothal between Mindy and her son, and she said you two agreed to it."

My father gave a cold snort and slapped the arm of his wheelchair hard.

"That's right. Your mother and I did agree to it!"

"Forty years ago, if it weren't for your uncle Oliver, I'd have died out there."

"No him, no you! So doesn't our family owe him everything we have?"

I couldn't hold back my anger.

"But Mindy is only nine!"

"And the two children don't even know each other."

Kirsten cut me off.

"So what if she's nine? It's just a betrothal for now. Nobody's marrying them off tomorrow."

"And not knowing each other is nothing. Let them spend more time together from now on and they'll warm up fast."

"Mommy, I peed!" Brian, drooling and picking his nose, suddenly cried out.

His pants soaked through in seconds, and urine ran across the floor.

Kirsten smacked him in irritation.

"You child, can't you hold it in for once?"

"I, I couldn't help it..." Brian's face crumpled.

My father cleared his throat twice.

"Enough. Kirsten says tomorrow is Brian's tenth birthday."

"We'll throw the boy a birthday party, and settle the engagement between the two children while we're at it."

"I've agreed to it, so that's how it'll be. Tomorrow you go book ten tables at a hotel."

"We've already told all the relatives and friends."

I was about to argue when my mother started wiping her eyes and crying.

"Ursula, just give in to your father this once."

"Otherwise we'll owe your uncle Oliver forever."

"Your father will never be able to hold his head up again!"

I'd been furious a moment ago, but all at once my mind went perfectly clear.

"Fine. I agree."

Tomorrow, in front of all the relatives and friends, would be the perfect time to settle both families' accounts in full.

With everyone there to witness it, there'd be no room for rumors afterward.

Then, swallowing my disgust, I pinched my nose and coaxed them with kind words until they agreed to head home for now.

Seeing that I'd finally caved, Kirsten and the rest left satisfied.

"You should've agreed sooner, sis, saved us all the trouble."

Kirsten couldn't resist tossing that in on her way out, chin high.

Once they were gone, Mindy burst into tears, still full of hurt.

She actually thought I was going to betroth her.

"I don't like him, he looks so stupid..."

I quickly gathered her close and soothed her gently.

"Don't worry. Mommy would never betroth you to him."

"There's a good show waiting for you to watch tomorrow."

After that, on top of handling company matters, I ran through tomorrow's plan several more times so nothing would slip.

Time passed quickly.

Eleven o'clock the next day.

With Mindy, my assistant Cliff Finch, and the six bodyguards I'd hired, I arrived at the hotel together.

The guests had mostly shown up already.

Kirsten's family had even invited a whole crowd of distant relatives.

The moment Kirsten saw me, she started complaining.

"Ursula, why are you only getting here now?"

"I called to hurry you along how many times, telling you to come early!"

I didn't answer her. I called over the hotel manager and had him connect me to the Bluetooth on the projector in the main hall.

Then I took a microphone and stepped up onto the stage.

Kirsten and the others followed me up.

Including my parents.

"All right, it looks like just about everyone's here, so let's get started."

But Kirsten reached out to snatch the microphone from me, her face full of displeasure.

"Sis, we're the hosts here. You can't go stealing our family's thunder."

I pushed her hand back.

I looked at my father. "Dad, do you know who stole your money and provisions all those years ago?"

"What?" My father's eyes went wide as he froze.

I raised my hand and pointed at Oliver. "It was this fine cousin of yours. And the one who ran you down on the bike afterward was him too!"

My father, Oliver, and all the rest went pale with shock.