Toward the end of my appointment, there was a pause in the conversation. The afternoon light had lowered and now streamed through the wooden venetian blinds that adorned the windows behind Larwin’s desk. Its pattern was mesmerizing.

“There’s one stipulation I want to be understood,” I said.

He had been writing something on his blotter, but my tone made him look up. He folded his delicate hands and leaned in, giving me his full attention.

“I want full privacy. There will come a point where I will only be reachable by landline telephone, and even then I will be the one to reach out to you. I will let you know when this time begins. Hopefully we will be able to solidify everything by then.

“But I want to prepare you. After that point, when I tell you to stop contacting me, you must stop, or else I will cut off all communication and take my business elsewhere.” I slid forward to the edge of the leather chair I’d sunk into and leaned toward him. My fingers rested on the edge of his high-polish desk. I spoke rapidly, just above a whisper, as if I were uttering a rosary. “I have a project in mind. It’s a major project. I’m not going to tell you about it unless absolutely necessary, because I want to keep it to myself. But once it’s completed I want to be left completely alone. It’s not anything illegal, so don’t worry about that.” I licked my lips. “If I need to, I can make this part of our business contract. I’m going to trust you with my finances, and I want to know they’ll be in good hands. I want you to make sensible choices. But most of all, when the time comes, I want to make sure that I will not be disturbed. Is that acceptable to you?”

Mr. Larwin didn’t blink an eyelash. He was probably used to dealing with rich brats, old eccentrics, perverted barons of industry with their velvet-walled abattoirs—secrets darker and more tawdry than whatever he imagined mine was, if he bothered imagining it at all.

He said, “When the time comes, just say the word.”

We wrapped up our business with promises to speak by phone to tie up loose ends, but by the end of my visit my finances were in order, and several solid investments promised to multiply my money, and, most importantly, I was reassured that preparations for my project could go forward. I walked out of the glass building and into the waning afternoon feeling like a queen. The world felt different. It was full of possibility for the first time in a long while. A future was visible. Even the cold air seemed cheerful. And Mr. Larwin had been so patient and diplomatic toward me, like a real professional. He had even been kind.

That’s when I realized what money can really get a person: respect they didn’t earn. I briefly felt disgusting, then free.