Gilded Cage

A professor's recommendation is what puts Mandy in front of Kris, who operates at a level of wealth she has no reference for. What catches his interest is an old sachet from her hometown, worn out and worth nothing, and what it stirs in him is not affection so much as the wish to own something. He presents himself as a mentor. From there he lays out a path she has no reasonable way to turn down: a position at the top of her field, an apartment she could never afford, a place at Harvard. Each thing arrives looking like generosity. Mandy is grateful and works to deserve it, and underneath the gratitude there is something she cannot name that will not settle. She adapts to the world he has built for her without seeing that it was built, and that every door he opened was placed there by someone who had already decided how this ends.