I ejected SD card through phone before factory resetting BUT card is empty. How can I recover this?

Just before I factory reset my Motorola G3 I pressed “eject SD card” through the settings. (I didn’t remove the card from the phone though) Now everything the from SD card (media/photos) are gone. What happened and how can I recover this?! PS. I used it as a portable storage, not internal. Also, I didn’t even get the option of deleting the SD card. Please help.