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Chapter 1 - Anna
The red silk slides between my fingers as I loop it around my neck. The ends hang down between my perky breasts as I free my straight, midnight-black hair from the fabric.
I glance in the mirror and bring the ends of the scarf together, twisting them until they are taut. I carefully make a small rosette over my pulse and tie off the silk.
The phone on my chipped white vanity beeps, reminding me that I have to be at work in an hour.
I step into the red heels that Ritson Charter Planes requires of its flight attendants. It only takes me a moment to sweep my hair back and form it into a bun at the nape of my neck.
As I put the matching red cap on my head, my phone starts ringing.
Please don’t be Dad’s doctor.
I grab the phone, easing up when I see my boss calling. The last thing I need right now is the hospital administration's call about another bill being overdue.
Sliding my thumb across the screen, I cross the room and shut my small suitcase. “Hello?”
“Anna, you need to get to the Ritson hangar as soon as possible.” Clancy barks out his words as he always does. “We’ve received a last-minute booking; it’s urgent and you’re needed. There will be a considerable bonus to your pay.”
An urgent booking?
The charter jet already charges a high fee to fly on a normal schedule. If someone booked a flight that had to leave as soon as possible, I can only imagine what they were charged.
With one hand, I yank the zipper shut. “I’ll be there in twenty.”
“Make it fifteen,” he snaps before the call ends.
I sigh and tuck the phone in the jacket pocket of the tight black pencil skirt suit. Clancy is short with his words, but in the few months that I’ve worked at Ritson Charter Planes, he’s been nothing but a good boss.
It’s nice to have someone who doesn’t mince their words with me.
After spending too many months having doctors try to soften the blow of Dad’s diagnosis and treatment, my blunt boss is like a breath of fresh air.
A shiver rolls down my spine at the thought of spending any more time in the hospital.
When Dad first got sick years ago, I spent every spare moment I had in his room. I was determined to fight the battle with him.
I was in that hospital so often that I still have clothing that reeks of antiseptic.
For Dad, I would do it all over again.
It’s been just the two of us for years. He is the parent of every important event in my life. He is the one who supports me in my dreams and drives me to chase after what I believe in.
He’s also the one person I know I can’t bear to lose.
If I have to work myself into an early grave to keep him alive and with me, then that is what I’m going to do.
Rushing off to an urgent job is nothing when I know the money is going to go toward paying the debt he took on to pay his hospital bills.
Without that loan, I wouldn’t have my father right now.
I take a deep breath, gathering my emotions and locking them into a steel box in the back of my mind.
Nobody wants to spend their trip watching a zoned-out flight attendant. People on charter planes want to be taken care of.
And that’s me. Always taking care of everyone else.
I step out of my bedroom and shut the warped door, only to be met with Dad’s hacking cough. He wheezes as I hurry down the hall and stop outside his room.
