I could not help but laugh.

Then he grew serious.

“I will not turn the enormous debt I owe you into some kind of transaction,” he said.

“If you truly wish to leave, I will gladly help you set yourself up wherever you want to go, and ask nothing in return.

If you wish to stay and work, I will give you a proper contract, fair pay, ordinary hours, all of it above board.

But I will not buy your presence out of guilt, and I will not have you stay because you feel you owe me.