I WON $89 MILLION IN THE LOTTERY, BUT KEPT IT A SECRET. MY SON SAID, “MOM, WHEN ARE YOU FINALLY MOVING OUT OF OUR HOUSE?” I LEFT QUIETLY. THE NEXT MORNING I BOUGHT THEIR DREAM HOUSE. BUT NOT FOR THEM.

“Can we come in?” Daniel asked.

“Of course,” I said.

I set down the photograph of the fish. They came in and sat on the edge of the bed side by side. I took the desk chair and turned to face them. My hands were folded in my lap. The packing box was half full behind me.

Renee spoke first.

“Margaret, we want to start by saying we’re sorry. Both of us. This last year, and especially the dinner, it was wrong. Daniel should never have said that.”

She looked at my son.

“I shouldn’t have,” he said. He met my eyes, and I could see he meant it, at least partly. “Mom, I don’t want you to leave like this. I don’t want this to be how things are between us.”

I waited.

“We’ve been thinking,” Renee continued, and here her voice shifted almost imperceptibly from warm to careful, “that maybe everything’s happened so fast. You found a house, you’re packing, but it doesn’t have to be like this. If you need more space here, we can convert the study. Or…” She paused for effect. “If you want your own place, we could help you look together as a family. We have contacts in the market. We know the neighborhoods. We could make sure you end up somewhere safe and close.”

Safe and close.

She wanted to know the neighborhood. She wanted to be part of the transaction.

“We just feel,” Daniel said more quietly, “that going through all of this alone with attorneys we’ve never met, financial advisers… Mom, that’s a lot to manage by yourself. We want to help. We’re your family. That’s what family is for.”

I looked at my son, then at Renee.