Page 161 of The Yoga Teacher

It made her sick.

That she couldstillwant that.

After everything he took.

How could she want a man who shattered her from the inside? Who chose someone else over her, not because they meant something—but becauseshehad started to feel too familiar?

How could she ever trust herself again if the thing she wanted most was the one who’d betrayed her worst?

The divorce papers were still unsigned. Still folded in the bottom drawer of her desk, tucked under old tax forms and expired insurance cards.

She told herself it wasn’t hesitation.

Just logistics.

Justtiming.

But maybe—

Maybe some part of her wasn’t ready to sever the cord entirely.

Maybe some part of her still wanted to believe he could become a man she’d choose again. Not because sheneededhim.

But because she didn’t.

Because she was whole now.

And if she ever loved him again, it would be from that wholeness. With eyes wide open.

Hannah exhaled, sharp and uneven. She sat on the bench, leaned forward, elbows on her knees, hands clasped loosely between them.

She didn’t cry.

She didn’t scream.

She just sat there with the truth:

That shewanted him.

She could live without him, she’d proved that to herself. But she couldn’t un-love the version of him she used to believe in.

And, damn her, she was beginning to believe in that person again.

------------------

The house was quiet in a way it hadn’t been before.

Not empty. Just... quiet.

Hannah stood barefoot in the hallway, mug warm in her hands, her breath fogging faintly on the rim. The floor still creaked in the same spots. The baseboards still had that scuffed-up edge where the couch used to scrape against the wall. Everything familiar—but also irrevocably changed.

Herhouse now.

He’d signed the papers. Paid off the last of the mortgage without ceremony. Transferred the deed into her name. A clean gesture. A final one.

She hadn't asked him to do it. He'd done it anyway.

She ran her thumb along the edge of the mug. The silence settled deeper.

---