The Unwanted Wife's Return (Ex-Husband Wants Me Back) novel Chapter 245

HANNAH’S POV: 

She was just there. 

I walked into the warehouse at seven twenty-two on a Wednesday morning with my coffee in one hand and the notebook of mother-memories tucked under my arm because I had been awake since five thinking about the closing piece and I wanted to get some thoughts down before the day picked up and took over. The security guard gave me his usual nod. I pushed through the glass door into the main space. 

And there was Maya. 

Standing in the middle of the warehouse floor with her coat still on, like she had just arrived and had not yet decided where to settle herself. She was thinner than the last time I saw her. I noticed that first because it was hard not to. Her face had that particular hollowed quality of someone who had been running on not enough of everything for too long. Not sick exactly. Just worn through. But her eyes were clear and she was standing straight and whatever she had been through had not taken the posture from her. 

We looked at each other across the empty warehouse. 

Neither of us said anything for a moment. The warehouse was very quiet that early. Just the light and the racks and the smell of the place that had become mine over the past weeks, fabric and chalk and coffee and work. And Maya, standing in the middle of it like she had needed to find her way here specifically. 

I noticed she did not apologize or explain or try to fill the silence first. She just stood there and let me look at her and waited. That was also very Maya. She had always had a quality of patience in her that most people mistook for reserve. She was not reserved. She was just willing to wait for the right moment. 

I put the coffee down on the nearest table. 

I crossed the floor and I put my arms around her and I did not do it gently. I held on the way you hold someone when you have been genuinely frightened for them and now they are here and your body needs to confirm that they are real and solid and truly present. And Maya, who I had never once in the years of working together seen cry. 

She cried for a solid few minutes and I held on for all of them and I did not say a word because there was nothing to say yet. She needed the hug to do what it was doing and words would just get in the way of that. 

When she finally pulled back her face was a complete state and she caught her own reflection in the glass of the door nearby and said, with genuine horror, “I look terrible.” 

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