Proxy Vote

The call came before breakfast finished cooling.

Elliot stood at the kitchen island in the Berkshires house, one hand on a mug, the other pressed to the phone. Lucas’s voice came fast enough to clip itself.

“Proxy vote. Tomorrow morning. Richard’s pushing an injunction and a press leak.”

Naomi looked up from Bella’s high chair. Bella had syrup at the corner of her mouth and a plastic fork in her fist like a tiny baton.

Elliot set the mug down. “Tell me what they’re doing.”

“Trying to freeze your voting rights long enough to force a settlement. They’ve got two outside funds lined up. Plus reporters.”

Naomi wiped Bella’s fingers with a napkin. “Can they do that?”

Lucas exhaled through the speaker. “For a day, maybe two. If Elliot sits still.”

Elliot’s jaw tightened. “I’m not sitting still.”

“No,” Lucas said. “You are coming here. Now. And bring Naomi if she’ll go.”

Naomi’s hand paused on Bella’s wrist. “Why me?”

“Because they’re already selling a story,” Lucas said. “They’ll use the child. Better if you walk in with him.”

Bella kicked her heels against the chair. “Ellie go?”

Elliot crouched beside her. “I have to work, kid.”

She reached up and smacked his cheek with syrupy fingers. “Go.”

The SUV was already waiting by the gate when they came outside. The driver held the rear door open. Naomi kept one arm around Bella as Elliot got in beside them, the morning road wet from last night’s rain.

By the time they hit the city, the sky had gone pale over the Charles. The motorcade turned into the downtown tower garage, where cameras flashed behind the glass doors.

“Head down,” Elliot said.

Naomi adjusted Bella on her hip and lifted her chin anyway.

The elevator ride was silent except for Bella sucking her thumb. At forty-two floors up, the doors opened onto polished stone and men in dark suits moving too quickly to pretend calm. Lucas was waiting outside the boardroom with a folder under his arm.

He took one look at Naomi and nodded once.

“Good,” he said. “If they want a family scandal, we give them one they can’t survive.”

Inside, the room was all glass and city light. Richard Rhodes sat at the long table with his silk tie loose at the collar. Eleanor was on his right, winter-eyed and still, as if she had arrived already certain of the outcome.

“Take your seats,” she said.

Elliot did not move.

Lucas dropped the folder on the table. Papers slid over the glass.

“Short-sale positions. Hidden transfers. Two shell entities tied to Rhodes Capital,” he said. “Plus the draft injunction. It’s a bluff with a paper trail.”

Richard leaned back. For one second his hand went to his tie again.

Naomi kept Bella against her shoulder. Bella watched the room, then pointed at Eleanor.

“No,” she said.

Elliot’s mouth twitched once.

He set his palms on the table. “You wanted a board vote. Here’s mine.”

He looked down the line of faces, then back at his mother.

“You don’t get to use my daughter to steal my company.”

Eleanor’s jaw tightened.

Elliot opened the top page of the folder and turned it so the board could see.

“Remove Rhodes. Remove my mother from all interim authority. Refer both to counsel.”

One hand rose.

Then another.

Lucas lifted his first. A woman at the far end followed. The room changed shape in real time, every chair turning toward the new center of gravity.

Elliot reached for Naomi’s free hand. She took it.

Bella leaned across Naomi’s shoulder and touched Elliot’s cheek with syrup still on her fingers.

“Ellie man,” she said.

His grip on Naomi’s hand tightened.

Outside the glass, Boston kept moving. Inside, the board began to fall apart.