Chapter 7: The Search
The next morning Patrick drove me to the first of the ground-floor units on the short list the bank officer had helped me assemble. It was a modest one-bedroom in a quiet complex twenty minutes from his apartment—wide doorway, step-free entry, a bathroom that did not require negotiation with a cane. The manager walked us through without hurry or condescension. I signed a short-term lease that afternoon, paid the deposit and first month from the account my husband had protected, and arranged for the black bag of clothes to become the first items in a place that answered only to my name.
Patrick stood in the empty living room after the manager left and looked at the bare walls the way a man looks at a load that has finally been set down. He did not ask whether I was certain. He only asked whether I wanted help moving the few pieces of furniture the previous tenant had left for sale. I said yes. Samantha offered to bring Samuel the following weekend so the boy could see that his grandmother now had a door of her own.
