He opened the folder and removed several documents. Then he explained that twenty years earlier, my grandmother had created a trust after discovering my parents had secretly taken money from my college fund.

The trust had purchased my penthouse and placed it entirely in my name. Legally, it had never belonged to my parents.

But there was more.

The trust contained a clause stating that if either of my parents pressured, manipulated, or forced me to surrender the property, they would immediately lose every monthly payment my grandmother had left them-