The meeting ended in a tense hush, eyes trailing Mira as she stepped out of the boardroom. Every executive had watched her hold her ground, answer with poise, and command attention like she was born to do it. Even Claire had no clever remarks to throw this time.
But Mira's confidence began to fray the moment she reached her office and found a familiar envelope waiting on her desk—beige, unmarked, with her name written in elegant ink. Only one person in the world used that script.
Her mother.
She hesitated before tearing it open.
"Your uncle is not doing well. He asks to see you. Come home if you still care."
Mira sank into her chair, heart spiraling. She hadn't seen her uncle in years. After her father's funeral, they had drifted apart—just like everything else tied to her hometown.
She didn't realize Noah was watching her through the glass until he gently tapped and entered.
"You look like you've seen a ghost."
She didn't try to hide the letter. "I might have."
He read it in silence, then looked at her. "You don't have to go alone."
"I do. It's family."
"You're not alone, Mira. Not anymore."
The vulnerability in her chest stirred again. "If I go back, I'm not sure I'll come back here."
"Then I'll come find you," he said simply.
---
Three days later, she stood before the crumbling gates of her childhood home in Nigeria.
The air was heavy with memory—fried plantains, burning firewood, the hum of insects. The kind of air that reminded you of where you started… and how far you had run.
Her uncle looked older than she remembered—thinner, frailer, but his eyes still held the same spark.
"You look just like your father," he said when he saw her.
She tried not to cry. "That's what everyone says."
They spoke for hours—about grief, about legacy, about all the broken bridges Mira had tried to leave behind. It was cathartic, painful, necessary.
But what she didn't expect was to run into him again.
David.
Her ex.
The man she thought she'd marry before life shattered her path and turned her into someone else.
"Mira," he said, stunned. "You're… back?"
She froze.
He looked good—too good. And the look in his eyes wasn't surprise. It was hope.
Before she could speak, her phone buzzed.
Noah.
"Call me. I miss your voice."
Her heart twisted.
David took a step forward. "Can we talk?"
And just like that, Mira found herself in a place she never expected: caught between a man from her past… and one from her future.