My Ex Husband Wants Me Back

A Price for Everything

Mara stood in the sitting room with Noah’s blanket pressed against her chest while the house around her filled with the quiet movement of Michael’s men.

No one spoke to her unless they had to. They came and went through the front doors in dark coats, their faces serious, their phones held low against their ears. Outside, the rain had become heavier. It beat against the windows and turned the garden lights into blurred circles of gold.

Mara had not sat down since Michael left.

Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Noah at the school gate. She saw his small face looking around for her. She saw strangers leading him away while she was not there to stop them.

Sarah had arrived and tried to make her drink tea, but Mara could not swallow it. Her hands would not stop shaking.

When Michael came back into the room, he was wearing a dark jacket over his shirt. The softness he had shown her upstairs was gone from his face now. In its place was something colder. Something Adrian had forced him to become tonight.

Mara looked at him, her breath catching.

“You are going there.”

Michael stopped in front of her.

“I am.”

She moved closer before she could think about it. Her fingers closed around his sleeve.

“Please do not let anything happen to him.”

Michael covered her hand with his. His eyes softened when he looked at her.

“I will not leave that house without Noah.”

Mara tried to hold herself together, but her mouth trembled. Michael stepped closer and placed his hand against her cheek.

“I need you to stay here,” he said quietly. “I need you safe when I bring him back.”

She nodded, though tears were already falling again.

Michael kissed her forehead, then turned away.

Mara watched him walk out into the rain.

⸻

The Moretti compound stood behind high gates at the edge of Bellamy, surrounded by stone walls and dark trees. From the outside, it looked silent.

Inside, Adrian had doubled the guards.

He had ordered every entrance watched. He had told his men that no one entered the house without his permission. Still, the unease in the air had followed him from room to room.

Noah was upstairs.

Adrian had left him in one of the guest bedrooms with a guard outside the door. He told himself it was for the boy’s safety. He told himself Noah would understand eventually.

But every time he remembered the quiet way Noah had said, “I want to go home,” something inside him twisted.

He was standing in his study when a burst of gunfire cut through the estate.

Adrian’s head snapped toward the door.

Another shot followed from somewhere beyond the ground floor. Then came the sound of glass breaking, men shouting orders, and hurried footsteps striking the marble halls. The house that had been still only seconds earlier had become a battlefield.

His security chief rushed into the study, his face pale.

“Mr Moretti, Hart’s men are inside.”

Adrian’s expression changed.

A loud crash echoed from downstairs, followed by more gunfire. Somewhere in the house, an alarm began to scream.

He reached for the gun in the desk drawer, but before his hand touched it, two of Michael’s men entered the room, weapons raised.

Adrian stood slowly from behind his desk.

“Where is Michael?” he asked.

One of the men did not answer.

Outside the study, the fight continued through the halls. Adrian could hear his guards shouting, doors being forced open, and bursts of gunfire coming from different parts of the estate.

Then Michael appeared in the doorway.

Rain clung to his hair and shoulders. His face was calm, but his eyes were not.

Adrian stared at him.

“You brought a war into my home.”

Michael took one step into the room.

“You took my son from school.”

“He is my son,” Adrian said sharply. “You do not get to stand here and pretend otherwise.”

Michael’s jaw tightened.

“Noah has spent years calling you nothing because you gave him nothing. You do not get to take him now because you suddenly want to play father.”

Adrian moved around the desk, his anger rising.

“You think buying him books and taking him to school makes you his father?”

Michael’s voice remained low, but every word carried the force of a threat.

“No. Loving him does.”

The room went silent.

Adrian’s face hardened. “You have no right to him.”

“I have every right to protect the child you kidnapped.”

A loud crash came from the upper floor.

Adrian turned his head at once.

Michael’s men had reached the bedroom corridor.

Adrian started toward the door, but two men caught him before he could get past them. He struggled, fury breaking through the control he had held all evening.

“Get your hands off me!”

Michael did not move.

“Bring Noah down,” he ordered.

A moment later, Noah appeared at the top of the staircase.

One of Michael’s men walked beside him, keeping close without touching him. Noah’s face was pale. His eyes searched the crowded hallway until they found Michael below.

“Dad,” he said.

The single word broke through Michael’s anger.

“I am here,” Michael answered.

Noah came down the stairs quickly. When he reached Michael, he held on to him with both arms, pressing his face into his chest.

Michael wrapped an arm around him and held him close.

“We are going home,” he said, his hand moving over Noah’s back. “Mum is waiting for you.”

Noah did not answer. He only held on tighter.

Adrian watched them from the study doorway.

The sight of Noah clinging to Michael struck him harder than any blow.

“Noah,” he called.

The boy did not turn around.

Adrian’s face tightened with pain, then anger.

“He is confused,” he said. “He does not understand.”

Michael stood with Noah held safely against him.

“No,” he said. “He understands exactly who came for him.”

A gunshot rang out from the side corridor.

Everyone froze.

Claire had stepped out from the sitting room at the wrong moment. She had been trying to reach the rear exit when one of Adrian’s guards fired toward Michael’s men. The bullet missed its target.

It struck Claire.

For a second, she remained standing.

Then her hand went to her side. Her eyes widened as she looked down at the blood spreading through her dress.

Adrian’s face drained of colour.

“Claire.”

She fell before he reached her.

Adrian pushed against the men holding him, his voice breaking as he shouted her name again. But Michael’s men kept him back. The fighting around them stopped as everyone turned toward the woman lying on the marble floor.

Claire’s eyes found Adrian’s.

Her lips moved, but no sound came out.

Then her hand slipped from his.

Adrian went still.

The grief on his face was raw, but it did not change what he had done. It did not bring Noah back to the school gate. It did not erase the terror in Mara’s eyes. It did not make the house any less full of the consequences of his choices.

Michael held Noah closer and looked toward Daniel.

“Get him out of here.”

Daniel led Noah away from the hallway.

Michael waited until the sound of Noah’s footsteps disappeared upstairs before he turned back to Adrian.

Adrian was on his knees beside Claire’s body, his hands stained with her blood. He looked up at Michael with hatred burning through his grief.

“You did this.”

Michael’s face did not change.

“You brought all of this into your own home.”

Adrian tried to rise, but Michael’s men forced him back.

Daniel returned a few minutes later with a black case in his hand. Behind him, two other men carried boxes from Adrian’s private office.

They placed them on the desk.

Adrian looked at them, confusion cutting through his rage.

Michael opened one of the boxes.

Inside were files, ledgers, phones, and documents that would tie Adrian Moretti to every crime he had hidden behind money, power, and loyal men.

Adrian’s expression shifted.

“No,” he said.

Michael did not answer him.

His men dragged Adrian into the study and forced him into a chair. His wrists were bound behind him. He fought at first, shouting and twisting against the restraints, but the fight slowly left him when he saw the files being spread across his desk.

The phones were placed beside them.

The ledgers were opened.

The evidence was arranged where it would be found.

Michael stood near the door and watched Adrian understand.

“You cannot do this,” Adrian said, his voice rough with panic. “You cannot take everything from me.”

Michael looked at him for a long moment.

“You took your own life apart the moment you chose to take Noah.”

Outside, sirens began to rise through the rain.

Adrian’s eyes widened.

For the first time that night, real fear entered his face.

He sat tied to the chair in the middle of his study, surrounded by the proof that would destroy him, while the sound of the police grew closer.