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.

No seal.

Only a single number written across the front in black ink.

27.

Riva stared at it.

She hadn't put it there.

She was certain.

Slowly, she opened it.

Inside was a photograph.

Her breath caught.

It was her.

Not recently.

Years ago.

She was standing outside her father's old house, perhaps seventeen or eighteen, wearing a pale dress and holding a schoolbag against her chest.

Someone had photographed her from across the street.

But that wasn't what made her blood run cold.

There was a man standing behind her.

Half-hidden beside the gate.

She didn't recognize him.

On the back of the photograph, someone had written:

THE DEBT WAS NEVER HIS.

Riva turned the photograph over again.

Her pulse hammered.

Then she heard the door open.

She spun around.

Ares stood there.

His tie was gone.

His sleeves were rolled to his forearms.

His expression was unreadable.

"Where did you get that?"

Riva held up the photograph.

"You tell me."

His eyes dropped to it.

For one second, something dark crossed his face.

Then it disappeared.

"Give it to me."

"No."

His jaw tightened.

"Riva."

"You knew."

"I knew someone had been watching you."

Her stomach dropped.

"You knew?"

Ares walked toward her.

She immediately stepped back.

"Don't."

He stopped.

"What exactly did you know?"

"That your father's debts weren't the whole story."

Riva stared at him.

"And you married me anyway?"

"I didn't marry you because of your father's debt."

"Then why?"

Silence.

The question hung between them.

Ares looked away first.

That was answer enough to make her furious.

"You keep doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Looking at me like I'm supposed to understand things you refuse to say."

He came closer.

"I've been trying to keep you alive."

"By keeping me ignorant?"

"Yes."

The bluntness stunned her.

Riva laughed bitterly.

"At least you're honest about being controlling."

His eyes sharpened.

"You have no idea how many people would kill to have what you have."

"What do I have?"

"Protection."

"I don't want protection."

"You need it."

"I need the truth."

Ares said nothing.

Riva stepped closer.

"Who was at the auction?"

His expression changed.

"Where did you hear that?"

"So there was someone."

"Riva."

"The man knew my name."

Ares went still.

"He knew my name before anyone announced it."

"I know."

"And he said my name was already in some ledger."

"I know."

Her anger faltered.

"You knew that too?"

Ares reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

He opened something.

Then turned the screen toward her.

A photograph of a leather-bound ledger filled the screen.

Several names had been crossed out.

Several amounts had been written beside them.

Riva's eyes moved down the page.

Then stopped.

There.

Her name.

RIVA SHARMA.

Under it:

DEBT: PAID.

And beneath that, written in a different hand:

TRANSFERRED.

Her mouth went dry.

"Transferred to whom?"

Ares didn't answer.

She looked at him.

"To whom?"

His silence became unbearable.

"Say it."

His eyes met hers.

"Me."

The room seemed to tilt.

Riva stared at him.

"No."

"I didn't put your name there."

"Then who did?"

"I don't know."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"I expect you to believe that I have spent years trying to find out."

Years.

The word lodged somewhere inside her.

"How long?"

Ares looked at the photograph in her hand.

"Longer than you've known me."

Riva's fingers tightened around it.

"Why?"

He stepped toward her again.

This time she didn't move.

"Because your father didn't owe them money."

Her heart stopped.

"What?"

"He owed them something else."

"What?"

Ares's expression hardened.

"A promise."

The word barely left his mouth when the lights went out.

Riva gasped.

Ares immediately grabbed her waist and pulled her against him.

"Stay behind me."

Something crashed downstairs.

Then another sound.

Glass breaking.

Ares pushed her behind his body.

"Don't move."

"Someone's inside."

"I know."

He reached beneath his jacket.

Riva's heart slammed against her ribs.

"Ares—"

"Quiet."

Footsteps.

Slow.

Deliberate.

Coming up the stairs.

Ares's body became completely still.

The footsteps stopped outside the bedroom.

Nothing.

Then—

A soft knock.

Three times.

Riva's blood turned cold.

Ares looked at the door.

Another knock.

Three times.

Then a woman's voice came through the darkness.

"Riva?"

Her breath caught.

She knew that voice.

It was impossible.

Her mother had been dead for eleven years.

Ares looked at Riva.

"Don't answer."

The voice came again.

"Riva, sweetheart."

Riva's eyes filled with tears.

"Mom?"

Ares's hand tightened around her waist.

"Don't."

The handle slowly turned.

The door opened.

But there was no one there.

Only a small black box sitting on the floor.

Ares moved first.

He stepped in front of Riva and kicked the box away from the doorway.

It slid across the carpet.

Nothing happened.

He crouched and picked it up carefully.

Riva stared.

There was something carved into its lid.

A symbol.

A circle split by a vertical line.

Ares froze.

"You recognize it."

His voice was quiet.

"Yes."

"What is it?"

He didn't answer.

Instead, he opened the box.

Inside lay a single gold ring.

Riva stared at it.

She knew that ring.

She had seen it once.

A long time ago.

On her father's hand.

Her stomach dropped.

Ares turned the ring over.

Something had been engraved inside.

A.S.

Riva looked at him.

"A.S."

Ares's face had gone completely blank.

"That's your initials."

"No."

"Then whose are they?"

He didn't answer.

Riva reached for the ring.

Ares caught her wrist.

"Don't touch it."

"Why?"

"Because I don't know where it came from."

"You're lying."

His eyes met hers.

For the first time, she saw something she had never seen in him before.

Panic.

Ares released her wrist.

Then his phone rang.

One call.

Unknown number.

He answered.

Neither of them spoke.

A distorted voice came through.

"She finally knows."

Ares's expression turned murderous.

"Who are you?"

A pause.

Then:

"Ask your wife what happened the night her father died."

The call ended.

Riva's face went pale.

Ares slowly lowered the phone.

"What happened the night my father died?"

He said nothing.

"Ares."

Silence.

She stepped closer.

"What happened?"

His gaze dropped to the ring.

Then to the photograph.

Then back to her.

And when he finally spoke, his voice was almost a whisper.

"Your father didn't die that night."

Riva stopped breathing.

"What?"

"He disappeared."

"That's impossible."

"I was there."

Her knees weakened.

"You were there?"

Ares nodded once.

"And the last person he spoke to..."

His eyes locked onto hers.

"...was my father."

A loud crack came from downstairs.

Ares immediately turned toward the door.

But Riva barely heard it.

Because another realization had already begun tearing through her.

Her father's debt.

The auction.

The ledger.

The photograph.

The mysterious man.

The ring.

Ares's father.

All of it was connected.

And somehow—

she had been the debt long before she'd ever met Ares.