The next morning I asked Elena to review the situation from the personal side.

She reminded me that owning the property through a company gave me no special authority to punish former occupants, threaten them, or interfere with any lawful transition period.

“You should go only if you can behave exactly as you would with strangers,” she said.

“I can do that.”

“Are you certain?”

I thought of the note Brenda had left, the stripped rooms, my mother’s exhausted face.