My Ex Husband Wants Me Back

The Promise

Mara was sitting on Noah’s bed when Michael came home.

She had not changed out of the clothes she had worn to the school. Her wet coat was folded over the chair near the door, though she could not remember taking it off. Noah’s room was too quiet around her. His schoolbag rested beneath his desk. One of his books lay open on the floor beside the bed, as though he had left it there that morning expecting to return before dinner.

Mara stared at the book until the words on the page disappeared behind tears.

When Michael stepped into the room, she looked up immediately.

His tie was gone. His hair was damp from the rain. There was something tightly controlled in his face, something that made her chest ache before he had even spoken.

“Did you find him?” she asked.

Her voice was barely audible.

Michael crossed the room and sat beside her on the bed. He did not answer at once. He took her cold hands in his and rubbed his thumbs over her knuckles.

“We found where Adrian took him,” he said quietly.

Mara’s breath caught.

Michael held her gaze because he knew she deserved the truth, even when it hurt.

“The van went to Adrian’s estate in Bellamy. My men saw Noah being taken inside.”

For a few seconds, Mara did not react.

Then her face crumpled.

She bent forward, both hands covering her mouth as a sob tore out of her. Michael pulled her against him at once. His arms closed around her, firm and warm, holding her while her body shook against his chest.

Noah was afraid.

The thought would not leave her.

He had been waiting at school with his bag on his shoulder. He had trusted that she would come for him. Instead, strangers had taken him away before she got there.

Mara clutched Michael’s shirt in her fists.

“He must be terrified,” she whispered.

Michael lowered his face into her hair. His jaw tightened, but his voice remained calm for her.

“I know.”

She cried harder at the gentleness in his answer.

For a long time, Michael did not try to make her stop. He only held her, one hand moving slowly over her back while she broke apart in the room Noah should have been sleeping in that night.

When her breathing finally began to settle, Michael drew back enough to look at her.

“Adrian did this,” he said.

Mara’s wet eyes lifted to his.

She did not need to ask how he knew. Adrian had stood in front of them two days earlier and looked at Noah as though he had a right to take back every year he had abandoned. The memory of his face at the reading centre made something cold move through her stomach.

“He said Noah belonged to him,” she murmured.

Michael’s expression darkened.

“Noah is not something Adrian can claim when it suits him.”

A knock came at the door.

Daniel entered after Michael gave a short nod. He looked from Mara to Michael, then spoke carefully.

“Our people are watching the estate,” he said. “Adrian has increased security at every entrance. We have confirmed Noah is still inside.”

Mara gripped Michael’s hand again.

Michael stood, though he did not let go of her until the last second.

“Keep the house covered,” he told Daniel. “No one goes in until we know exactly where Noah is being kept. I will not have anyone taking a risk near him.”

Daniel nodded. “Understood.”

Michael turned back to Mara.

Her eyes were red. She looked exhausted, but there was no sleep waiting for her. Not while Noah was in another man’s house, frightened and alone.

Michael knelt in front of her.

“Sarah is coming over,” he said. “You will not be alone tonight.”

Mara shook her head before she could stop herself. Her lips parted, but the words would not come. She looked toward Noah’s pillow and then back at Michael, panic rising in her face again.

Michael took her face gently between his hands.

“I am bringing him home,” he said.

Mara’s tears spilled over.

Michael pressed his forehead against hers for a moment, then stood and walked out with Daniel.

She heard their voices downstairs after that. Quiet at first. Then firmer. Men moving through the house. Doors opening and closing. Cars arriving outside.

Mara remained in Noah’s room.

She pulled his pillow into her arms and held it against her chest. It still smelled faintly of his shampoo.

“I am coming for you,” she whispered, though he could not hear her. “Mummy is coming.”

———-

Noah sat at the far end of a long dining table, his feet not quite reaching the floor.

A plate of food had been placed in front of him, but he had not touched it. The house was too large and too quiet. Nothing in it felt familiar. There were no drawings on the fridge, no sound of Michael moving around the kitchen, no warm light from the sitting room where Mara would usually be waiting for him.

Across from him, Adrian watched him.

He had removed his suit jacket, but that did not make him seem less unfamiliar. Noah had seen him before, in photographs and once at the reading centre. But sitting across from him now felt different. Adrian’s eyes stayed on him too long.

“You will get used to being here,” Adrian said.

Noah kept his gaze on the table.

Adrian leaned back in his chair. For a moment, his expression looked almost uncertain. Then it hardened again, as though he had convinced himself that what he had done could still be made right.

“Your mother will come too,” he continued. “I will bring her back, and we will be a family again.”

The room fell silent again.

Adrian looked at Noah as if he expected the boy to understand what he had done, as if being blood was enough to erase all the years he had spent away.

“You will understand one day,” he said. “This is where you belong.”

Noah’s fingers tightened in his lap. He had been silent since they brought him there, but now he lifted his eyes.

“I want to go home.”

Adrian went still.

Something painful passed over his face, but it did not make him let Noah go.

“You are home, Noah,” he said.