Morning Chatter

The first thing Elliot learned about mornings in the Berkshires was that a child could wake up before the sun and still have more energy than a boardroom.

Bella stood on the kitchen stool in duck-print pajamas, a maple-syrup stripe on her cheek, gripping a plastic fork like it was a microphone. Naomi set a bowl of berries in front of her, then slid the pan of pancakes toward Elliot without looking up.

“Don’t burn them,” she said.

“I’m not touching the stove,” he said.

“You’re near it.”

That was as close as they had come to a joke in two days.

He flipped the pancake anyway, too early. It landed folded over itself. Bella clapped.

“Oops,” she said.

Naomi hid a smile behind her mug.

By nine, there were books on the rug, blocks in a line by the back door, and syrup on Elliot’s thumb. Bella followed him from room to room with a stuffed elephant tucked under her arm.

“Ellie,” she said to the toy, then to him. “Ellie man.”

He stopped in the hall.

“Is that my name now?”

Bella nodded hard. Her dark eyes fixed on him, solemn as a judge. She held out the elephant.

He took it carefully. The worn ear, the stitched tail, the smell of laundry soap hit him all at once. His throat tightened.

Naomi watched from the doorway, one hand on the frame.

“She named it that herself,” Naomi said.

Elliot looked at the toy, then at Bella’s face, then back again. “You picked a good one.”

After lunch, Bella went down for a nap. The house went quiet except for the old radiator ticking in the wall. Naomi stood at the sink rinsing berries, then dried her hands and folded her arms around herself.

Elliot leaned on the counter. “I missed everything.”

She didn’t answer at once.

The delay was small. It was also the worst thing in the room.

“You missed first steps,” she said. “First words. Fever nights. The part where she learned your face from a photograph.”

His jaw locked. He braced both hands on the counter so she wouldn’t see them shake.

“I know.”

Naomi turned, her mug under her fingers now. “You can’t get those back by standing here.”

“I know that too.”

Outside, a loon called from the lake. Wind pushed through the pines and moved the curtain by an inch.

Naomi looked past him, out the window, toward the water. “I kept her safe,” she said. “That was the only thing I knew how to do.”

He swallowed. “And now?”

Her thumb traced the mug handle once. “Now I need to know what happens when your mother comes back.”

He was still reaching for an answer when his phone started to buzz on the counter. Lucas. Three missed calls. Then a text that made the screen feel cold in his palm.

Board vote moved up. Two o’clock. Get to Boston. Now.

Lucas called twice before Elliot answered.

“Talk.”

“Don’t say that like you’re calm,” Lucas said. “They filed at nine.”

Elliot stood at the kitchen sink in the Berkshires house, one hand on the counter, phone pinned to his ear. Naomi was in the hall with Bella, getting shoes on. The house smelled like butter and toast. “Filed what.”

“An emergency proxy vote. Your mother, Rhodes, two outside directors, and a temporary injunction. They’re claiming you’re compromised.”

Elliot shut his eyes once. “By my daughter.”

“By the situation,” Lucas said. “They want a board freeze by two. They’re moving on the assumption you won’t show.”

Naomi appeared in the doorway with Bella on her hip. Bella had a smear of jam at the corner of her mouth and one sock sliding off her foot.

Elliot looked at them and felt his jaw lock hard enough to ache.

“I’m showing.”

Lucas was already moving. “Good. Don’t come alone.”

“I won’t.”

Naomi’s face changed. “What happened?”

Elliot covered the phone. “Board coup.”

She rested one hand on Bella’s back. “And that means?”

“It means they think they can take the company while I’m distracted.”

Bella pointed at the phone. “Uncle Lu?”

“Yeah,” Elliot said. “It’s Lucas.”

“Tell him bye.”

Lucas heard enough to huff a laugh. “I’ll meet you downstairs at headquarters. Car’s on the way.”

Elliot ended the call and turned to Naomi. “I need you there.”

Her arms tightened around Bella. “At your board meeting?”

“At the only one that matters.”

Naomi looked toward the front window. The gravel drive was already filling with black SUVs.

“You’re serious.”

“About all of it.”

She shifted Bella higher on her hip. “Then I’m not staying here while they decide what happens to us.”

He nodded once.