Mr. Caldwell looked up from his desk when I explained why I had come. Years ago, when Walter and I moved into this neighborhood, we had listed both our names on the community’s emergency contact and access file, the record that told the management office who was permitted to authorize work, entry, and repairs on our property. After Walter passed, I had never updated it. And somewhere along the way, Melissa had persuaded the previous manager to add herself as a secondary contact, “to help with Mom’s house.”

That was the one more thing I intended to change. I asked Mr. Caldwell to remove every name but mine, to strike Melissa’s authorization entirely, and to flag my address so that no contractor, no inspector, no one at all could schedule work without my written signature. He read the file, frowned, and told me something I had not known. A permit request for a full kitchen renovation had already been filed against my home three days earlier, submitted under Melissa’s name.