Fresh out of grad school with a hefty education degree and crushing student loans.
I tweaked my resume, dropping the master's, just to get a job as a domestic.
My first gig was for the ultra-rich Davis family.
I quickly discovered their nine-year-old daughter, Chloe, wasn't a "terror" but a traumatized child, neglected and abused.
Her parents, especially her mother, ignored her cries for help, then punished her for every slight.
I couldn't stand by.
I protected Chloe, showed her kindness, and slowly, a bond formed.
But the moment their cruel matriarch caught wind of it, she used my falsified resume as an excuse to destroy me.
I was fired, blacklisted from every wealthy family in the city, and left penniless, deemed a liar and a troublemaker.
How could showing a suffering child an ounce of compassion lead to me losing everything?
I was stranded, my career shattered, all for daring to care where others wouldn't.
The injustice burned, leaving me with nothing but despair.
Just when I thought this was the end, Chloe, the very girl I was accused of "manipulating," ran away from her gilded cage and found me.
Clinging to me as her last hope, she whispered, "I have a plan."