The Unwanted Wife's Return (Ex-Husband Wants Me Back) novel Chapter 282

UNO Cards 

HANNAH’S POV: 

That evening, after dinner, after the twins had had their beach showers and their protests about bedtime and had eventually settled into the deep sleep of children who have used up every bit of energy they had in the water, Elijah and I sat on the porch. 

Dinner was good and Amelia had talked for twenty-two consecutive minutes about the water and what she had seen in it and the various things she planned to do tomorrow. Andrew had eaten steadily and contributed a factual note about the tide and then listened to Amelia with the patience of a brother who was in a good mood. Elijah had cooked. 

Afterward the twins had been somewhat reluctant about bedtime and somewhat easier about it than usual because the water had genuinely exhausted them and their bodies knew it even if they were not going to admit it. Amelia had said she was not tired and then fallen asleep in approximately four minutes. Andrew had said goodnight and meant it and gone without argument, which was his way of acknowledging that he needed sleep without making it anyone’s business. 

The house had gone quiet. 

Elijah produced the UNO cards from somewhere. I looked at them and then at him. 

“No,” I said. 

“Yes,” he said. 

“It is nine thirty in the evening on the first night of a holiday,” I said. “We could do anything.” 

“We are doing UNO,” he said, and began to shuffle with focused energy of a man who took card games seriously and wanted this to be known upfront. 

I watched him shuffle. 

And was thinking how far we have come. I have come. 

They had tried to burn it all down. The archive. The collection. The name. My mother’s name. My name. My family. 

Voros had sat in his house and watched thr views I was getting and picked up the phone to someone who could handle it and they had tried to handle it, and they had planted stories and resurfaced old photographs and done everything that men with momey do when they are frightened of a woman with success. 

But here we were. On a porch at the beach with the ocean going on in the dark and the twins asleep inside and the cards being shuffled. 

Elijah dealt the cards. 

I picked mine up and fanned them out and looked at them with attention of someone who was going to take this completely seriously regardless of it being nine thirty on a holiday evening. 

I had a Draw Four. 

I had it immediately, right there in my opening hand, which was either extremely lucky or the universe making a small comment on something. 

1 looked at my cards. 

I looked at Elijah, who was arranging his hand with the focused expression of a man who fully intended to win. 

I thought about Mirada at twenty-two, holding her designs, believing in something she was not going to see. I thought about Andrew on the arm of the park bench saying that is a big thing to be. I thought about Amelia on stage, spotting me in the third row, keeping her composure for exactly one second before the look on her face gave everything away. My beautiful family and I smiled. 

“Don’t even think about playing that Draw Four,” Elijah said, without looking up from his hand. He said it in the voice of a man who knew the very well. 

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