“No,” I said. “Listen to me carefully. No. You are not moving anywhere. Do not pack anything. Lock your room if you want to. Stay home from school today. I’m coming back.”
“You are?”
“Yes.”
“What about work?”
“I’m coming home.”
There are moments when motherhood simplifies everything else in your life with such force that the simplification feels holy. That was one of them. Meetings, clients, flights, revenue forecasts, presentation decks—none of it survived contact with the sound of my daughter whispering from a pantry because she was afraid of being displaced in her own home.
By the time I got off the call I was already walking back to my room to book the earliest return flight. I called my attorney from the rideshare to the airport because I had used Naomi once before for an estate matter after my grandmother died and trusted that she would not waste my time with false delicacy.
When she heard the outline of what happened, she said, “Do you want emotional advice or structural advice?”
“Structural.”