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COLLATERAL GIRL
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2025-07-01 21:14:34It had been a week.
Seven days of silk sheets, shadowed stares, and silence that pressed against her skin like a bruise she couldn't name.
Riva hadn’t dared ask what she was to him now—because some part of her already knew.
And for seven days, she endured him.
His heat.
His rules.
But not his touch.
Not again.
After that night, Ares hadn’t laid a finger on her.
Not out of mercy. No, never mercy.
He was waiting.
Letting her simmer in her own confusion, making her wonder when the next storm would hit.
And it did.
Just not in the way she expected.
The magazine slid across the marble counter like a blade.
Riva froze mid-step.
The housekeeper had left it open—centerfold spread wide, bold and glossy.
"Moretti Tied to Rivarez Empire: Engagement Rumors Ignite the South Corridor."
Photo: Ares Moretti, tux-clad, flanked by Delilah Rivarez—model, heiress, socialite. His fiancée.
Riva stared at it like a wound.
The date printed in gold.
He hadn’t been home that night.
She’d asked nothing.
And now she knew why.
Blood thundered in her ears. The floor shifted.
She snatched the magazine, stuffed it into her coat, and walked out of the mansion before anyone could stop her.
The air outside bit at her cheeks.
She didn’t go to her brother’s hospital right away.
She just walked.
Walked until the anger drowned out everything.
Until she reached the place she always ran to when logic gave up—her brother’s room.
The nurses smiled like everything was normal. The machines beeped in steady rhythm. Her brother still lay unconscious. Safe. Alive.
Paid for by blood money.
She kissed his forehead, whispered nothing she remembered, and turned to leave.
That’s when it happened.
The first flash was accidental.
A click.
Then—
“Miss Sen!”
The voice was too eager. Too sharp.
A man stepped into her path, holding a phone in one hand, the other holding up the magazine.
Her stomach dropped.
“Can we get a statement?” he asked breathlessly. “About you and Mr. Moretti? Are you aware of the engagement announcement? Do you have anything to say about sleeping with an engaged man—”
“Get away from me,” she snapped, pushing past.
Another voice joined in. A second reporter. “Is it true he bought you at a private auction?”
“Did you know about his ties to the Rivarez family before or after—?”
“I SAID GET AWAY!”
She ran.
Through the glass doors, down the stairs.
She didn’t stop until the paparazzi lights faded behind her.
But the humiliation had just begun.
She wandered for an hour before her fury hardened into something colder.
Resolve.
She marched back to the mansion.
Straight into Ares’s office.
He was sitting behind the desk, shirt half-buttoned, glass in hand like nothing in the world could touch him.
She threw the magazine at his face.
It hit the desk instead.
“I’m not asking if it’s true,” she said, voice shaking. “Because I know it is.”
He didn’t flinch. “I was wondering when you’d see that.”
“That’s all you have to say?”
“You’re not my wife, Riva. You’re not even my girlfriend.”
“Fuck you.”
“You already did.”
Her palm landed across his cheek before she could think.
The silence that followed wasn’t empty.
It was dangerous.
He didn’t blink.
Didn’t even raise a hand.
He just said, “Do that again, and I’ll put you on your knees.”
She stepped back. “I’m leaving.”
“No, you're not.”
“I wasn't asking.”
“You’re still under contract.”
“It was for one night.”
“And you’re still here,” he said, voice flat. “Still sleeping in my bed. Still moaning my name when you think I’m not listening.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you’re just learning what it feels like to be the collateral girl.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
He stood.
Crossed the desk.
Pressed her back against the wall with nothing but his presence.
“You’re not the prize, Riva. You were never meant to be. You were the cost.”
Her breath caught.
“I was supposed to marry Delilah. Still am. For alliances. For empire.”
“And me?”
“You?” He smiled coldly. “You’re the one thing I didn’t plan for. And the only thing I refuse to let go of.”
She shoved him back. “I’m done.”
And this time—he didn’t stop her.
He just said, “Don’t get followed.”
She didn’t understand what he meant.
Until later.
The walk back to the hospital was darker this time.
She didn’t notice the two men trailing behind her.
Not until they whistled.
Then laughed.
Then started following closer.
“Nice legs, sweetheart.”
“Moretti’s girl, huh? Thought he liked his women with more class.”
She kept walking.
Faster.
“You deaf?”
One of them grabbed her wrist.
She yanked away. “Touch me again and I’ll scream—”
He laughed. “Do it. Let’s see how fast anyone comes.”
And then—
Everything went still.
Because a long shadow moved from the edge of the alley.
A man in black. Calm. Cold.
Ares Moretti.
No words.
No warning.
Just a quiet hand lifting the gun from his coat.
She blinked.
The goon didn’t.
He laughed. “Oh, look who’s here—”
BANG.
The bullet tore through the man’s shoulder. Not a clean shot. Deliberately messy.
The scream echoed through the street.
The second guy tried to run.
Two of Ares’s guards stepped out of the shadows, grabbed him, and slammed him into the wall.
Silence fell.
Riva stood frozen. Heart pounding.
Ares lowered the gun.
Walked up to her.
“Two things,” he said, voice lethal. “One—you don’t walk alone.”
“And two?” she whispered.
“If anyone looks at you like you’re nothing again…”
“I’ll show them what it really costs to touch what’s mine.”
Latest chapter
OWNED: The Debt Paid in Flesh The Door Behind the Wall
“Riva.”Her father's voice came through the wall again.“It's time you came home.”Riva couldn't move.She had spent eleven years imagining this moment.In some versions, her father appeared at the front door.In others, she found him sick and broken in some distant hospital.Sometimes she imagined him walking toward her with tears in his eyes.Sometimes she imagined herself screaming at him.Asking why he had abandoned them.Why he had let her mother die believing she was alone.Why he had allowed Riva to grow up believing she had lost both parents in the same year.She had never imagined this.A voice behind a wall.A hidden room filled with photographs of her.Ares stood beside her, weapon raised.“Who are you?”The voice laughed softly.“You know exactly who I am.”Riva's lips trembled.“Dad?”Silence.Then—“Yes.”Her knees almost gave way.Ares caught her elbow.She barely noticed.“Open the door.”Her father's voice became quieter.“No.”Riva stared at the wall.“Why?”“Because
OWNED: The Debt Paid in Flesh The Woman Before Me
Riva stared at the photograph.For several seconds, she forgot how to breathe.The woman in the picture couldn't have been more than twenty-five.She was beautiful.Not in the delicate, harmless way that made people look twice and forget them afterward.She had the kind of beauty that demanded attention.Dark hair.Sharp eyes.A faint smile that looked almost arrogant.And beside her—Ares.Younger.Colder.But unmistakably him.His hand rested at the woman's waist.The same black suit.The same watch.The same expression that made every room seem to belong to him.Except his eyes.Riva knew those eyes now.This photograph had been taken before she had ever known him.And there was something in his expression she had never seen directed at anyone else.Possession.Not affection.Not tenderness.Possession.Her fingers tightened around the phone.The message remained on the screen.SHE DIDN'T SURVIVE THE DEBT.Riva's throat closed.Another message appeared.ASK HIM ABOUT MAYA.She star
OWNED: The Debt Paid in Flesh The Price of a Daughter
The old man hit the floor.Riva screamed.Ares caught him before his skull struck the marble, lowering him carefully onto his back.“Riva, move.”She didn't.She couldn't.Her father's name was still ringing inside her head.Your father sends his regards.He's been waiting for you.Your father.Eleven years of grief had just been ripped open in three sentences.“Riva!”Ares's voice snapped her back.She dropped to her knees beside them.“Is he alive?”Ares pressed two fingers against the man's neck.“Yes.”“Then call someone.”“I already did.”She looked at him.“You called someone?”“My security team.”“Not a doctor?”“Both.”Ares pulled out his phone.His fingers were steady.His face wasn't.Riva noticed the tiny muscle jumping in his jaw.He was scared.Again.And she was beginning to understand that whenever Ares Malhotra was afraid, somebody had already lost.She looked at the unconscious man.“Who is he?”“I don't know.”“He knows my father.”“Yes.”“He knows about our marriage
OWNED: The Debt Paid in Flesh The Man Who Should Be Dead
Ares moved before the sound downstairs came again.He caught Riva by the wrist and pulled her away from the bedroom door.“Stay here.”“No.”His eyes flashed.“Riva.”“You just told me my father didn’t die eleven years ago.”“I told you what I know.”“You told me the last person he spoke to was your father.”“Yes.”“And now someone is inside this house.”“Yes.”“Then I'm coming with you.”“No.”She yanked her wrist free.“You don't get to keep deciding what I can and cannot know.”Ares stared at her for a long second.Then another crash echoed from below.His jaw clenched.“Fine.”He reached for her hand.She looked down at it.“What?”“Hold on to me.”“I thought I wasn't supposed to move.”“You aren't.”“That makes no sense.”“Neither does tonight.”He pulled her behind him.They stepped into the corridor.The mansion was unnaturally dark.The emergency lights hadn't come on.Only thin strips of moonlight slipped through the tall windows, cutting across the polished floor.Riva staye
OWNED: The Debt Paid in Flesh The Name in the Ledger
The room had been empty for three minutes.Riva still hadn't moved.The man's words kept replaying in her head.You should ask your husband why your name was already in the ledger.Not why your name was there.Already.That one word had followed her all the way upstairs.She closed the bedroom door behind her and leaned against it.Ares hadn't followed.That should have relieved her.It didn't.She looked down at her hands.They were still trembling.Not because of the auction.Not because of the stranger.Because of the way Ares had looked at her when he'd heard the man's words.For the first time since she'd met him, Ares had looked—Afraid.Not angry.Not possessive.Not cold.Afraid.And that frightened her more than anything else.Riva crossed the room and went straight to the dressing table.She pulled open the drawer.Nothing.She checked the second.Nothing.Then the third.Her fingers stopped.A thin black envelope lay beneath a stack of old documents.There was no name on it
OWNED: The Debt Paid in Flesh The Man Behind the Door
The drive back to the mansion was silent.Riva sat with her arms folded, staring through the tinted window while the city disappeared behind them. Her wrist still remembered the stranger’s grip. Her ears still remembered the gunshot.But what bothered her most was Ares.He had not shouted.He had not rushed toward her.He had simply looked at the man who had touched her, lifted a gun, and ended the argument.She glanced at him.Ares was looking out the opposite window.“You could have just scared them,” she said.“I did.”“You shot him.”“He didn't believe the warning.”“You always carry a gun?”“Yes.”“Why?”“Because people tend to behave better when they know I have one.”“That isn't an answer.”“It is the only one you're getting tonight.”She looked away.A minute passed.“Was that why you left tonight?”Ares turned his head.“Why?”“The meeting.”His expression changed almost imperceptibly.“You shouldn't have followed me.”“You shouldn't disappear in the middle of the night with
OWNED: The Debt Paid in Flesh POWER HAS A PULSE
The mansion looked darker at night.Not just in light—but in intention. Like every shadow was waiting for her to misstep, for her to fall.Riva stepped out of the car with quiet dread, her heels clicking against the stone steps as the door opened before she could even knock.Ares stood at the top o
OWNED: The Debt Paid in Flesh CAUGHT RED HANDED
“You’ll scream again tonight, Riva.But this time—You’ll beg for more.”His voice lingered, thick and electric. She ducked out from under his arm, spine straight despite the tremble in her chest.“I need to see my brother,” she said, voice sharp.Ares tilted his head slightly, the predator pausing
OWNED: The Debt Paid in Flesh THE EXTENSION CLAUSE
The sunlight crept through the curtain like a thief, soft and slow. Riva blinked against it, muscles aching, skin bare beneath unfamiliar sheets. The bed beside her was empty. No trace of him. No words. No explanation. Just the echo of what he did to her. What she let him do.Her body ached in plac
OWNED: The Debt Paid in Flesh DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
“Ma’am, we can’t keep him here without payment.”Riva didn’t blink.She stood outside the ICU, her nails digging into the edge of the reception desk. Behind the glass, her brother lay unconscious—chest rising too slowly, machines breathing for him. His face was barely visible beneath the bandages,
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