Chapter 7 - Eleanor's Forty-Five Percent
Naomi Ellis arrived at Adrian's office carrying a leather portfolio that had belonged to his first wife.
Adrian recognized it immediately.
Eleanor had bought it at a flea market for twelve dollars.
The clasp was crooked.
She'd refused to replace it.
Naomi set it on his desk.
"I was hoping we wouldn't need this conversation."
Adrian looked up.
"That makes two of us."
Naomi was fifty-nine, an estate attorney with a reputation for being both extremely competent and impossible to charm.
Eleanor had adored her.
Adrian had always found her intimidating.
Today he was grateful for that.
Naomi opened the portfolio.
Inside were copies of the operating agreement for Vale Maritime Holdings and the trust Eleanor had established for Lila.
"Before we get into the numbers," Naomi said, "how's the little one?"
"Sleeping badly. Asking for her boat."
"Did you find it?"
"Yesterday."
Naomi smiled sadly.
"Ellie would be pleased."
Adrian looked toward the window.
"I keep thinking about her."
"Of course you do."
"I married someone who hurt our daughter."
Naomi let the words sit between them.
"You don't know everything yet," she said. "But you know enough to keep Lila safe while people find out."
He nodded.
Naomi turned to the documents.
"Now, about West Pier."
Vale Maritime Holdings owned several waterfront properties and marine service businesses along the Rhode Island coast.
The company had begun as a modest repair yard Adrian inherited from his father.
Eleanor had helped build it into something much larger.
She had been an architect, not an accountant, but she understood shorelines, permits, and public access better than most people in the industry.
When the company reorganized four years earlier, Adrian retained fifty-five percent ownership.
Eleanor held the remaining forty-five percent.
After her death, her interest passed into an irrevocable trust for Lila.
Naomi served as trustee.
The company operating agreement required holders of at least eighty percent of the ownership interests to approve a sale of substantially all the company's waterfront assets.
Adrian couldn't sell West Pier without Naomi's approval on behalf of Lila's trust.
And Naomi had no intention of approving a bad deal.
"Reed Sloane's proposal is eighty-eight million dollars," Adrian said.
Naomi nodded.
"Yes."
"Martin thinks it's generous."
"Martin is paid to think about the company's finances. I'm required to think about Lila's interests."
"That isn't the same thing?"
"Not always."
Naomi slid a valuation report across the desk.
"West Pier could be worth significantly more after the environmental work and the public access agreement are finalized."
Adrian frowned.
"Reed says those issues make the property less valuable."
"Reed is trying to buy it. He's hardly a neutral observer."
Adrian almost smiled.
That sounded exactly like Eleanor.
Naomi continued.
"There's something else. Ellie left specific instructions with me."
She removed a handwritten page from the portfolio.
Adrian recognized his wife's handwriting.
Don't let anyone rush the West Pier sale before the subsurface reports are independently verified.
He read the sentence.
Then read it again.
"When did she write this?"
"Three months before she died."
"Why didn't you show me?"
"I did."
Adrian looked at her.
Naomi opened another folder.
There was a copy of an email she'd sent him in September 2024.
He remembered receiving it.
He remembered marking it to read later.
He hadn't.
Naomi watched his face.
"Ellie thought one of the old contractor reports was incomplete. She was worried someone had underestimated the cost of cleaning up the eastern basin."
"Who prepared the report?"
"An outside consultant Martin recommended."
Adrian leaned back.
"Martin."
"She didn't accuse him of anything. She wanted a second assessment."
"Did she get one?"
"She arranged it."
"And?"
"The preliminary findings were delivered shortly before she died. The final report was never put before the board."
Adrian stared at her.
"Where is it?"
"That's what I've been trying to find."
He thought of Corinne meeting privately with Martin.
Of the maintenance request made through his tablet.
Of the insistence that West Pier be sold quickly.
Naomi studied him.
"Adrian, has someone been pressuring you to sign Reed's offer?"
He hesitated.
"My wife."
Naomi's expression didn't change.
"How hard?"
"Hard enough that we fought about it last week."
"What did she say?"
Adrian remembered the argument.
Corinne standing in the study with a glass of wine.
Corinne telling him that Eleanor had been dead nearly two years and he needed to stop letting her make decisions from the grave.
Corinne saying he was keeping a failing company alive because he couldn't bear losing one more piece of his old life.
He looked at Naomi.
"She said selling was the only way I'd ever be free."
May you like
Naomi closed the portfolio.
"Well," she said, "that depends on what she's trying to free you from."
