Chapter 6 - Megan Had Stayed Because Arden Court Still Felt Like Her Grandmother
Megan had enough money to move.
That was another truth nobody enjoyed.
Not enough to buy a luxury home.
Enough for:
a decent rental,
possibly a small townhouse eventually.
She earned:
$84,000
as communications manager for a regional healthcare nonprofit.
Tom paid:
child support based on their parenting schedule.
They shared:
school costs,
medical costs,
activities.
Megan was not trapped financially.
So why had she fought so hard to remain in Arden Court?
Partly:
capped rent.
A major benefit.
Partly:
school district.
Mostly:
memory.
Margot had lived in Unit 1A until her death.
Ryan and Megan spent:
summers,
weekends,
snow days
running through the hallways.
The basement laundry room used to contain:
Grandma’s folding table.
The backyard held:
a pear tree Margot planted.
After Megan’s marriage broke, Arden Court felt less like:
subsidized housing
and more like:
returning to the last place in her childhood where adults seemed reliable.
The five-year rider gave that longing:
legal structure.
Megan told herself:
“I am using what Grandma designed.”
True.
Then year three ended.
She considered moving.
Did not.
Year four.
Market rent rose.
The children loved:
Mrs. Keane,
their rooms,
the neighborhood.
Megan started talking as if Unit 3C was:
their home indefinitely.
Not:
through next March.
That contributed to Gordon’s panic.
It did not justify his accounting.
It explained why he believed:
no ordinary conversation would move her.
During mediation he said:
“Every time I mentioned the five-year limit, you acted like I was threatening the children.”
Megan looked at him.
“Because of how you said it.”
“How should I say:
you eventually need to leave?”
“Like a family member.”
“I tried.”
“No.”
Ryan listened.
Then realized:
he had been absent enough that he could not honestly tell which version was more accurate.
Megan finally said:
“I didn’t want to leave.”
Gordon replied:
“I know.”
“Not because I believed I owned the unit.”
“I know.”
“Because this was Grandma’s.”
Gordon’s face softened slightly.
“It was my mother’s too.”
Megan had forgotten that.
Margot was not only:
Grandma.
She was:
Gordon’s mother.
He had spent fourteen years managing her building partly because selling it felt:
disloyal.
Then, when he finally wanted to sell, Megan’s attachment looked to him like:
another demand that he remain caretaker forever.
Same building.
Different grief.
That recognition changed the tone.
Not the accounting.
May you like
But the people inside it.
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