Chapter 18 - maisie asked if owning a castle meant owning people
At five, Maisie came home furious.
Not crying.
Furious.
Audrey brought her into my office at Rosemere.
“What happened?”
Maisie threw her backpack onto the sofa.
“Evan said Nolan has to do what I say.”
Nolan happened to be standing in the doorway.
He immediately backed away.
Coward.
“Why would Evan say that?”
“His dad said I own everybody.”
My stomach tightened.
There it was.
The ugliest version of ownership.
I crouched.
“You do not own people.”
“I told him.”
“Good.”
“But he said his dad knows money.”
Audrey covered a laugh.
Maisie continued.
“If I own Rosemere, do I own Nolan’s job?”
That question was harder.
Technically, ownership influenced governance.
Governance influenced management.
Management influenced jobs.
But a five-year-old did not need corporate law.
“You’re part of something that owns Rosemere.”
“Okay.”
“But people who work here belong to themselves.”
Maisie looked at Nolan.
“You belong you?”
Nolan nodded solemnly.
“Most days.”
I glared.
He smiled.
Maisie thought.
“Can I tell him what cookies to make?”
“No.”
Nolan said:
“Absolutely yes.”
Traitor.
But later, Brooke helped me frame the idea correctly.
Ownership gave rights.
It also created obligations.
It did not create human superiority.
That distinction became part of Maisie’s education long before spreadsheets.
At six, she learned staff were paid.
At seven, she learned Rosemere paid taxes.
At eight, she discovered repairs cost astonishing amounts of money and accused the roof of theft.
Good.
The castle became less magical.
That was healthy.
The less Rosemere functioned as myth, the less likely Maisie would grow up believing ownership made her special.
May you like
She was special to me.
Rosemere had nothing to do with it.
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