“Built my empire in concrete from a small start-up I began in my late twenties. I don’t know anything about investing, but you don’t have to be that smart to understand property value. So any spare money I had went into buying up whatever real estate bargains I could find. I never needed much for myself, so I had a lot to spare.”

I will swallow Gary’s concrete tycoon story…for now. “You were never married?”

“Oh, I have two ex-wives. One from before I started my business and one from after. Neither one stuck around for more than a few years. I work and I drink and that’s about it. Women don’t like that too much.”

At least he is honest. “No kids?”

“A son. He died thirty years ago in a freak accident. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about him, thus the drinking.”

“I’m sorry,” I say, looking down. I feel a smidgen of guilt for interrogating this broken man. If nothing else, I think that Gary is kind to my mother. I realize I appreciate that. She may infuriate me, but I don’t want anyone to hurt her. This sense of protectiveness toward her is new to me. It feels itchy under my skin, like cells generating where there were none.

“We all have our crosses,” he sighs. “You’re too young for yours. I’m sorry about your grandmother, Cat. I know Mary is beside herself to have you here, but there’s no reconciling the how. I wish it had come about differently, for your sake.”

“Thank you.” I’m genuinely touched that this stranger has shown more empathy and compassion within a few seconds of meeting me than my mother has been able to since this whole thing began.

“You would have liked her,” I say, feeling that to be true.

“I’m sure I would have.”

I am just about to tell him about Moony, about her clockwork church attendance and the sweet, earthy smell of chicory and her round, plain face, when the front door opens.

My mother takes two steps into the room and freezes. Her face hardens in an instant like the chocolate shell I used to put on my ice cream. Her eyes slide from Gary to me as though she is putting the pieces of a very elaborate puzzle together in the space between us. “What the hell is going on here?”

Gary and I fall silent for a long moment, as though we have been caught in a monstrous act and not light conversation.

“Mary, we’ve been waiting for you. I was just telling Cat that we would try to find something a little more suitable for the two of you now that she’s moved in.”