“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I need to make a point Gabriel cannot argue with.”
“What kind of point?”
“He keeps saying this is his house. He says he’s the man of the house.”
“And?”
“I want him to understand exactly what this house is and what each of us contributes to it.”
“How?”
“I’m inviting someone to dinner.”
“Who?”
I told her.
Judith paused.
“Oh.”
Then she laughed softly.
“That is very elegant.”
“I thought so.”
My next call was to Patricia Greene, the real-estate attorney who had handled the purchase of our house nine years earlier. She knew exactly how the property was titled.
I explained what had happened.
“This is unusual,” she said.
“I know.”
“But it is legally straightforward.”
“I know.”
“You really want me at dinner?”
“He told me the house belongs to him. I want you to help me explain what the house actually is.”
