I bought my parents a $650,000 cottage by the ocean for their 40th anniversary so they could finally rest. A few months later, my mother called me sobbing because my sister’s husband had changed the locks, put the house up for short-term rent, and told my father, “Get out. This isn’t your home.”

Chadwick actually had the nerve to smirk at me as if we were merely two colleagues discussing a minor clerical error in a shared spreadsheet.

“It is a good thing you arrived, Gavin, because we really need to get this situation clarified for everyone involved,” he said.

My father looked at me once with eyes full of confusion before looking down at the humble bag of groceries in his hand.

“He claims he has a legal right to occupy this house,” my father muttered with a voice that lacked its usual resonance.

“A legal right?” I repeated while taking several slow steps toward the stairs. “On what possible basis would you make such a claim?”

Chadwick reached down to pick up a leather bound portfolio from a nearby wicker chair and tapped it against his palm with an air of unearned authority.

“Megan and I have been overseeing the logistics of this property, and it has become clear that your parents are becoming far too elderly for the upkeep,” he explained.

“Between the rising property taxes and the general liability of a coastal home, we have decided that it is much more practical to convert this into a short term rental,” he continued.