His Twenty-Four House Rules Only Trapped Me

That was the moment I should have understood. The Weiss family rules only ever bound me. Beside us, Agatha Weiss let out a scoff. "You live in my family's house, you eat my family's food, and you've still got the nerve to ask for money?" I opened the billing app on my phone. "I transfer your mother five thousand a month for living expenses. I pay the utilities and the building fees. The eight thousand for your exam prep course — that was mine too." Agatha's face went red. "Wasn't that my brother who asked you to help out?" I looked at Irvin. "Are you paying it back?" His face darkened. "Do we really have to settle every cent today?" "Weren't you the ones who started calling me the maid?" I pulled up my notes. Phyllis's medical checkup, thirty-six hundred. John Weiss's blood-pressure medication, twenty-one hundred. Agatha's interview outfit, eighteen hundred. The relatives who came to stay, the grocery money I covered, twenty-four hundred. And two years of housework. I used to think family didn't keep accounts with each other. Now they'd reminded me I wasn't family. Phyllis was shaking with rage. "Irvin, look at her. She isn't even married in yet, and already she's like this!" Irvin took a deep breath. "Kayla, apologize to my mother." I lifted my head. "Why?" "Today is her birthday." "So she gets to give the bracelet that was meant for me to someone else, call me petty in front of everyone, and let Marie call me the maid?" He paused. "No one ever actually said that bracelet definitely had to go to you." When those words landed, something in my chest took the hit. Marie lowered her head. "Maybe I should just go. It seems like I'm causing trouble between you two." Phyllis grabbed her arm at once. "Go where? You stay and keep me company. It makes me happy." Irvin looked at me. "Just hold your tongue. No one's throwing you out." No one was throwing me out. But every word they said told me to get lost. I went back to the room for my coat. Outside the door, Phyllis was still cursing. "She's banking on the wedding, that's all. Now she thinks she can put on airs." Marie murmured something soothing. "Auntie, maybe Kayla's just tired." Irvin said, "Let her cool off. She'll come out on her own tonight." I stood in the room, looking at the red-covered booklet on the nightstand. The Twenty-Four House Rules. On the first page was Irvin's handwriting. "Don't be afraid. You have me." I stared at those words for a long time. Then I picked up a pen and wrote a line beneath them. "Maid's wages billed separately." At six the next morning, Phyllis called through the door. "Kayla Swanson, where's breakfast?" I didn't move. Ten minutes later, Irvin knocked and came in. "My mom's stomach is bad. She can't go without food in the morning." I said, "You can make it." He frowned. "I don't know how." "Then learn." He blinked, and his tone went soft. "My mom spoke too harshly yesterday. We're going to try on the wedding dress today. Haven't you been looking forward to that for a long time?" In his hand was a tube of hand cream. The brand I always used. "I saw your hands had cracked again last night. Picked it up on the way." Something in my chest stirred. Irvin wasn't completely incapable of being good to me. When I worked late, he came back to pick me up. When a relative said I had no family behind me to back me, he'd once said, with a cold face, "Kayla is going to be my wife." It was these small scraps of kindness that made me find excuses for him, over and over. I told myself maybe he just didn't know how to handle his mother. Maybe things would get better after the wedding. I took the hand cream. "Let's go." But the car didn't pull up at the wedding-dress shop. It stopped in front of a tearoom. Marie was standing under the sign, wearing a pale moon-white qipao. "You're here. The photographer's been waiting." "Weren't we going to try on the wedding dress?"

He said, "Let me take a few opening photos with Marie first. It won't take long." I looked at the dress on Marie James. The crabapple embroidery at the collar—I had chosen it myself. That dress was my toasting gown. My voice went tight. "Where did the clothes she's wearing come from?" Irvin paused. "That toasting gown of yours—I lent it to her for a while. You lent her my wedding outfit so she could take photos?" "It was only taken in a little. We'll let it back out after." Taken in. I stood where I was, and the cold crept through me inch by inch. I'd tried seven shops before I settled on that dress. I had no mother to help me pick out a wedding gown, no family to fill the room on my behalf, so I treasured it all the more. It was the dignity I'd given myself. And now Marie was wearing it, standing in front of the camera. Irvin said, "Clothes are dead, favors are alive. Marie's opening photos can't go wrong today." I let out a small laugh. That line again. The rules are dead, the clothes are dead, and only my grievance is something I deserve. Marie came over, her face full of apology. "Kayla, don't blame Irvin. I told him I couldn't find anything suitable on short notice, and that's when he thought of you." She touched the crabapple at the collar. "Though the photographer did say this dress really suits me." Irvin cut her off quietly. "Marie." She fell silent, but the smugness in her eyes didn't quite hide. I asked Irvin, "Did I agree to this?" He said, "You wouldn't refuse." I went still. So in his eyes, refusing wasn't even a possibility for me. The photographer called out, "Miss James, let's do this set by the door first." Marie looked at Irvin. "Should I go over, then?" Irvin nodded. He waited until she was far enough away, then lowered his voice. "Don't embarrass her in front of everyone." I asked, "And me?" "What?" "My fiancé gave my wedding dress to another woman to wear. Where does that leave me?" He was quiet for a moment. "No one knows it's yours." That was worse than being cursed at. No one knows, so I can be sacrificed whenever it's convenient. I turned and went to the bridal shop. The clerk saw me and looked a little awkward. The clerk said, "Mr. Weiss says the wedding might have to be downsized." I asked, "Why?" "He said the bride's side has few family members, and an elaborate ceremony would just feel empty." The bride's side has few family members. That meant me. My father died young, my mother rarely contacted me after she remarried, and the only person who ever loved me, my grandmother, was in a nursing home in the small county town. I was afraid the Weisses would think I had no family behind me, so I asked for no bride price, no procession, no three pieces of gold jewelry. I thought that was me being considerate. It turned out to be their excuse to trim me down. My phone chimed. Marie had sent a photo. She stood in my toasting gown in front of the tearoom. Irvin was steadying the frog buttons at her waist for her, his touch very gentle. The caption read: "Kayla, you have such good taste. Lending me the dress to start things off well—don't be upset, okay?" I looked at the photo, then looked at the hand cream in my bag. He remembered that my hands crack. But he also remembered that Marie was short one good dress for her opening. What he gave me was a few dollars' worth of comfort. What he gave her was my dignity at my own wedding. I dropped the hand cream into the trash. Back at the Weiss house, Phyllis was sitting on the sofa, flipping through an almanac. "The wedding gets pushed back three months." I stood in the doorway. "Why?" "Marie's tearoom just opened. Irvin needs to help her more. There's no rush for the two of you." Agatha rolled her eyes. "Besides, after the scene you made yesterday, getting married now would just be bad luck."

I looked at Irvin. He looked away from me. "A delay's not a bad thing. Everyone needs to cool down." I nodded. "Fine." They all froze. They must have expected me to cry, to argue, to beg him not to postpone it. Instead I took out my phone and, right in front of all of them, deleted the wedding countdown. Irvin frowned. "Kayla, what's that supposed to mean?" "Cooling down," I said. "That's the one thing I'm good at." On the morning Marie's tearoom opened, Phyllis knocked on my door at four. I'd worked late at the hotel the night before, gotten home close to one, and had barely fallen asleep. She was holding an apron. "Get up. Go help Marie." I glanced at my phone. Four-oh-six. "I have a morning meeting at eight." "Irvin already called in for you." That woke me all the way up. "Who told him to call in for me?" Irvin came down the hall. "Marie's opening today, she's short-staffed. You run banquets. You're steadier than the part-timers she hired." I looked at him. "So my job doesn't matter." He sighed. "It's half a day. Don't make it into such a big deal." Phyllis sneered. "Aren't you waiting on people at that hotel too? You wait on people somewhere else for a day, what's the difference?" The words landed like a slap. At the hotel I was a banquet supervisor. However tired I got, there was a paycheck, a chance at promotion, people who called me Supervisor Swanson. In the Weiss house, all I was good for was being the help. The tearoom's back kitchen was small, and the pastry chef hadn't shown up. I worked from before dawn until ten in the morning. Out front, Irvin took the flower baskets for Marie as they arrived. A customer teased her. "Ms. James, your boyfriend's so attentive." Marie didn't deny it, just ducked her head and smiled. Irvin didn't explain either. The knife in my hand stalled, and the blade nicked my fingertip open. The part-time girl jumped. "Hey, your hand's bleeding." Before I could say anything, Marie came in. She glanced at my hand. "Kayla, do me a favor and take this pot of hot syrup out first, the customers are waiting." The syrup had just come to a boil, and the pot was filled to the brim. "Split it up," I said. "It'll spill like this." She smiled. "No time." I lifted the pot and headed out. Just as I reached the doorway, Marie suddenly turned back. Her shoulder slammed into my elbow, and the whole pot of scalding syrup tipped over. It poured from my forearm down to the back of my hand. The pain blacked out my vision. Marie screamed. "Irvin!" Irvin was the first one through the door. He saw the syrup on the floor, then saw Marie standing there, white-faced. "Did you get burned?" He was asking her. Marie's tears came fast. "I didn't, but Kayla got burned, I think. It's all my fault—" A customer couldn't watch anymore. "This girl's hand is bright red. Get it under water, quick." Only then did Irvin look at me. His face changed, and he crossed the room in a few steps and grabbed my wrist. "How did you burn it this badly?" He pulled me to the faucet. When the cold water hit, I was shaking all over from the pain. "Hospital," he said. In that moment, I'll admit I wavered again, because the worry on his face didn't look fake. He wrapped his jacket around me and drove me there himself. Halfway there, Marie called. I don't know what she said, but Irvin's face changed. "The client's arriving now?" He glanced at me. "I'll be right back." I turned my head slowly. He pulled the car over to the side of the road. Up ahead was a neighborhood clinic.

"Kayla, deal with it for now. I'll be back in ten minutes." I looked down at my hand. The blisters were already swelling up. "You're going back?" "Marie's client decides half a year of the tearoom's revenue." "And my hand? Is it not as important as her client?" He gripped the wheel tighter. "Don't say things you don't mean. I'll be quick." I got out. The instant the car door shut, he was already turning around. The clinic doctor took one look and frowned. "This needs a hospital. The burn covers a fair amount of skin." I took a cab to the ER myself. While the doctor cleaned the wound, he asked, "Where's your family?" I said, "Busy." The doctor sighed. "Change the dressing on schedule, keep it away from water, or it'll scar." I looked at my bandaged hand, and suddenly thought of Rule Nine in the Twenty-Four House Rules. A woman's hands and feet must be clean, no scars, nothing that costs her dignity. What a joke. They wanted my hands to look dignified, but didn't care whether they hurt. That evening, Irvin finally came to the hospital. He had medicine in his hand. "What did the doctor say?" "It'll scar." For a moment, guilt crossed his face. "I'm sorry. That client this afternoon was just too important." I said nothing. He set the medicine down. "Marie asked me to buy this. She was scared out of her mind too." I looked at the bag. Two tubes of burn cream. One already opened, one new. On my phone, Agatha had just posted to her feed. Marie James, sitting on the tearoom sofa, the same brand of burn cream by her hand. The caption: "Marie was so frightened her face went pale. My brother brought her the medicine first. So sweet of him." I stared at that line, and suddenly even the pain felt like more than I needed. Irvin was still talking. "Marie says she didn't do it on purpose. When you get home, don't bring it up with my mom. It's opening day. Don't make things unpleasant for everyone." My phone rang right then. It was the aide from the nursing home. I picked up. Her voice was urgent. "Miss Swanson, your grandmother had a fall today. The doctor says it doesn't look good. You'd better come back tomorrow." I bolted upright. "How is she now?" "Still under observation. She may have to be transferred to the county hospital." The next morning, the aide called again. This time her voice was shaking. "Miss Swanson, the old lady passed out again last night. We're moving her to the county hospital now, and the doctor says we need to pay a deposit first." I called Irvin immediately. "Transfer me the eighty thousand I left with you." That was the emergency money I'd set aside for Grandma, the money I'd meant to use after the wedding to hire her a better aide. Irvin had said the interest was higher in his investment account. His voice dropped a little. "That money. I lent it to Marie for a while, to cover her cash flow." For a second my mind went blank. "What did you say?" "Her tearoom just opened. The payments to suppliers are tight. I figured the wedding's been pushed back, so we wouldn't need that money for now." I laughed out loud. "Irvin, that's my grandmother's life-saving money." "I know. I'll figure something out." "When?" "Maybe not today. Tomorrow…" I cut him off. "My grandmother is in the hospital right now." Marie's voice came through from his end. "Irvin, the supplier's here." Irvin lowered his voice. "Kayla, I really can't get away right now. Put it on your credit card for now, or borrow from a friend." I closed my eyes for a moment. "Then drive me back to the county town." "I have to be with Marie to sign the contract." "Give me the car keys." "I drove the car out." The rain pounded against the window. I listened to the faint voices on his end, and felt nothing but how absurdly pitiful I was.

Two years. I cooked for his mother, bought medicine for his father, pressed his sister's interview clothes. But when my grandmother was lying in a hospital bed, he wouldn't even lend me a car. Because Marie had a contract to sign. I hung up. In a downpour like that, a cab was almost impossible to find. I waited forty minutes at the roadside before one finally came that would take me to the county town. The traffic was brutal. The caregiver called me three times on the way. The last time, she was crying. "Miss Swanson, please hurry. The old lady keeps calling for you." I said, "I'm almost there. Almost." But I was still too late. By the time I reached the hospital, Grandma was already under a white sheet. The caregiver stood in the doorway, her eyes red. "Before she went, she said you were busy with work. Not to rush you." I dropped to my knees on the floor. The gauze on my hand scraped the ground, a pain that went straight through me. But I couldn't feel it anymore. When I was little, no one looked after me. Grandma sold vegetables to put me through school. In winter her hands split open and bled, and she still tucked a hot boiled egg into my schoolbag. After I started dating, she asked me once. "That family, do they treat you well?" I said yes. I didn't want her to worry. Now, thinking back, I never even got to tell her one last honest thing. After the funeral, I went back to the Weiss home. No one was in. On the coffee table sat the pastries Marie's tearoom had sent over. Phyllis couldn't bear to throw them out. She'd even wrapped them in cling film. I walked into the bedroom and pulled out my suitcase. I didn't have much, really. Phyllis didn't like a woman keeping too many things. Clothes could fill half a closet. Skincare got one shelf. No more than three pairs of shoes. She said it was the rule. Made it easy to pack now, at least. I took out that book, the Twenty-Four House Rules, and went down it line by line, marking each one again. Rule One: breakfast on the table before six. Two years. Seven hundred and thirty times. Billed at the going rate for an hourly breakfast service. Rule Two: the younger generation handles the whole family's laundry. Two years. Hand-washing, pressing, and dry cleaning billed separately. Rule Seven: family shame stays in the family. So every time they humiliated me, I swallowed it. Rule Sixteen: Weiss family matters come first. So my work, my injuries, my grandmother's life, all of it could wait. On the last page, I wrote one line. "I've kept the house rules to the end. Now it's your turn to keep the contract." I laid it all out in the entryway together: the itemized list, the transfer records, the wedding cancellation slip, and a copy of Grandma's death certificate. The keys went on top. In the evening, Irvin came home. The first thing he said walking in was, "Kayla, is dinner ready?" No one answered. Changing his shoes, he noticed one slot in the shoe cabinet was empty. My slippers were gone. The kitchen was cold. The living room was cold. Phyllis sat on the sofa, her face dark. "She's still not back? Call her right now. Look at the state of this house." Irvin dialed my number. Powered off. Then he finally saw the documents in the entryway. The list of debts, the wedding cancellation notice, and Grandma's death certificate. And last, the copy of the Twenty-Four House Rules. After every line, an amount and a date in my handwriting. His fingers froze. His phone buzzed. A text from the wedding company. "Hello, Mr. Weiss. Ms. Kayla Swanson has canceled all wedding-related services. The refund will be returned to the original payment account." Right after it, a bank alert popped up. I'd transferred him the cash value of the engagement ring. The note was just one word. "Even." Then a system message came up on his messaging app. "Kayla Swanson has removed you from the wedding planning group." I'd changed his contact label to: "Debtor, Irvin Weiss." Irvin stared at those words, the color draining from his face. From this moment on, to me he was no longer a fiancé. Only a debtor.