Part 4 – The Brookline Condo

Margaret tried to turn the housing notice into a public scandal.

She gathered several residents in the lobby of the Brookline building and dramatically waved the notice in the air.

“Look at what my wealthy daughter-in-law is doing. She’s throwing a sixty-five-year-old woman onto the street over one disagreement.”

James and I arrived while she was still performing.

The building manager was already there.

A local officer had also been called to keep the argument from escalating.

James calmly presented the ownership records.

One of Margaret’s longtime neighbors, Mrs. Keller, adjusted her glasses and looked at her.

“Margaret, you’ve told everybody here for years that Nathan bought this condo. If that’s true, show them his name on the deed.”

Margaret had no answer.

Several weeks later, while the condo was being cleared out, I opened a closet.

Behind several boxes was Caleb’s porcelain tea set.

My stomach tightened.

“Nathan, why is this here?”

He looked down.

“I brought it to Mom after the party.”

I stared at him.

“Our son told you he didn’t want her to have it.”

“I thought eventually everybody would calm down.”

“You took a nine-year-old child’s gift against his wishes because you wanted to make your mother feel better after she rejected him.”

Margaret shrugged from across the room.

“He already bought it. Leaving an expensive tea set unused would have been wasteful.”

Mrs. Keller, who had volunteered to help supervise the move, shook her head.

“That is a miserable thing to say, Margaret.”

I picked up the box.

“You rejected the child, but you still wanted the expensive thing he brought you.”

I held the tea set against my chest.

“You don’t get to keep his gift or expect his affection simply because either one becomes useful to you.”

That was the moment Nathan finally stopped asking me to reconsider the divorce.