Chapter 17

The next time I saw Richard was in a hospital bed.

The condo he'd put every dollar he had into had collapsed. The developer had gone bankrupt. The pre-construction became a half-built shell with no buyer protection.

Every cent of Richard's savings was gone.

Aside from his Social Security check, Richard was now indistinguishable from any other retiree.

Ethan had no job. Richard had no money. There was no second condo coming.

Which meant there was no exit from Vivienne's apartment.

And Vivienne, with no hope of them moving out, stopped being able to tolerate them.

The fighting escalated. Eventually it got physical. Richard was admitted to Mass General with cardiac symptoms triggered, the ER doctor told Ethan, by stress.

Ethan texted me. Said Richard wanted to see me one last time. I didn't want to go.

Then he threatened to jump off the roof of my building if I didn't come.

I didn't think he had the guts. But — my property value aside — if he actually landed on a neighbor, I couldn't live with that.

So I went. Thinking of it as going to look at the end of him. Nothing more.