He Came Back Running (Maya and Mason) novel Chapter 117

Chapter 117

Maya’s POV

I woke up at seven.

The house was quiet. Alex’s door was closed. The baby monitor light on the nightstand, I had started keeping one of the portable ones, the habit of someone who needed to know what her body was doing at two in the morning…. showed nothing unusual.

I lay still for a moment.

Thought about last night’s closing line…… I don’t even know what place I really have in your life anymore, and How he had looked at me after it. Not with hurt. With the specific, steady quality of someone who had heard something and was deciding how to address it and had decided that the middle of the night was not the moment.

He had made me eat something

Had walked me to the guest room door.

Had said goodnight in the voice he used when he was managing everything he felt into four syllables.

I had slept better than I expected.

I dressed quickly….

The five days started today, technically, but the dinner with Victor Ashworth was tonight and Carter needed briefing and the investigator’s thread was still open and there were two governance items that genuinely required my attention before Lila could manage them.

Not work. Necessary things….

I picked up my bag.

Went downstairs.

Crossed the entrance hall

Put my hand on the front door.

It didn’t open.

I tried again….

The handle turned. The mechanism engaged. The door did not move.

Deadbolted from the inside, which required a key I did not have, in a house where I had not needed a key because the door had never been locked during the day.

I stood at the closed door for a moment.

Then I turned around.

Alex was at the bottom of the stairs

He was dressed. Coffee in hand. The expression of someone who had been awake longer than me and had made decisions during the additional hours.

I looked at him.

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He looked at me

“The key,” I said.

“You’re not going in today,” he said.

“Alex….”

“Five days.” His voice was the same voice as last night….. the patient, non-negotiable version. “We agreed.”

“We agreed on five days starting from a point that gave me time to handle the urgent items…..”

“There are no urgent items that Lila and Rivaldi can’t handle.” He crossed to the kitchen, which was the move of someone who had decided the conversation was happening at the kitchen table rather than the front door. “Come and have breakfast.”

I looked at the door….

At the handle I had already tried twice.

I went to the kitchen.

He had made eggs.

Not the quick version… the full one, with the herbs and the specific attention of someone who had decided the meal mattered. The second cup was already beside the machine.

I sat down….

He put the plate in front of me and sat across.

“I need to tell you something,” he said.

“You’ve locked me in the house,” I said. “I’d like to start with that.”

“It’s not locked. The deadbolt requires a key. You don’t have one yet because you moved in without a formal move- in process, which is something we should address.” He held my gaze. “I can give you the key. I’d prefer you have breakfast first.”

“Alex.”

“Maya….”

I looked at the eggs

They smelled good.

I picked up the fork.

“What did you want to tell me?” I said.

He set his coffee down

“My mother called this morning,” he said. “About the posts. The venue, the date.” He paused. “She got ahead of herself. She knows that. She’s apologised.”

I looked at him….

“She means well,” he continued. “She has been waiting for this for a long time…. longer than you probably

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understand yet, and she ran ahead of the conversation.” He held my gaze. “I should have talked to you before the family knew anything was finalised. I didn’t, and that’s on me.”

I set the fork down.

“The date,” I said. “Is it real?”

“It’s a date my mother wants,” he said. “It’s not a date that exists unless you say it does.”

I looked at my hands.

At the ring.

“Alex.” I kept my voice level. “I need to ask you something….”

“Ask.”

“The photograph. Carter’s confirmation. You being at that meeting nine years ago.” I looked at him. “Richard being connected to the phantom account the night before my father died.” I paused. “What do you know that you haven’t told me yet?”

The kitchen was very still

He looked at me for a long moment.

“More than I’ve said,” he said. “Not because I was hiding it. Because I was trying to understand it fully before I said it, and it’s still not fully understood.” He held my gaze. “I can tell you everything I have. It won’t be complete. But if you want everything I have….. I’ll give it to you.”

“Tonight,” I said. “After the dinner with Ashworth. Together.”

“Together,” he agreed.

I picked up the fork.

Ate.

He watched me eat with the expression he used when he was satisfied that something was happening correctly.

After breakfast I put my plate in the sink and turned around.

“The key,” I said….

He looked at me.

Then he reached into his pocket and held it out.

I took it.

Looked at it in my palm.

“The family house,” he said. “My mother is expecting us.

I’d like to go. Not for the wedding planning…” he held up one hand before I could respond, “…for the rest. So she

can apologise properly. So you can have a few days somewhere that isn’t this house with its blast marks and its locked files and its…..” he stopped. “Somewhere with fewer variables.”

I looked at the key.

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At the ring.

At him.

“The investigation doesn’t pause,” I said.

“Carter is running it. It doesn’t need you in this house to run.”

“The dinner tonight….”

“Still happening. We go tomorrow.”

I looked at him.

“I need my own room,” I said.

“You’ll have your own room.”

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