Some people love you. Some people need you.

He has spent years making sure the difference never matters.

At forty-six, he is the man everyone calls when something goes wrong. He solves problems, opens doors, pays what needs to be paid, and makes other people's lives easier. Being indispensable has given him everything he thought he wanted: respect, intimacy, and a place no one can easily take away.

Then Mara begins to need him less.

Nothing dramatic happens. No betrayal. No ultimatum. Just small acts of independence?and a growing silence he cannot fix.

For the first time, he is forced to confront the bargain beneath his generosity: if people need him enough, perhaps they will never leave.

But recognizing the pattern is one thing.

Living without it is another.

The Price of Being Needed is an intimate, unsettling novel about love, desire, control, and the dangerous comfort of becoming indispensable.