Home / Mafia / OWNED: The Debt Paid in Flesh / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of OWNED: The Debt Paid in Flesh: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

11 Chapters

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, the aftermath of a collision that shattered bones and futures in a single second.“How long do I have?” she asked, voice flat.The nurse hesitated. “Till midnight. Then he’s either discharged or transferred to a government facility.”Discharged. She wanted to laugh. He couldn’t even open his eyes.Riva nodded once and walked away.No tears. No calls. No begging.She had already tried everything. No loans. No relatives. No options.Only one thing left.**The underground club didn’t have a name. Just a symbol carved into steel doors—a snake wrapped around a dollar sign.The man at the gate didn’t ask questions. He just looked her up and down, scanned her ID, then handed her a black envelope.

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 places she didn’t know could ache. Her thighs felt tender, her lips bruised. A scent lingered on her skin—his. Expensive. Sharp. Dangerous.She sat up slowly, the sheet dragging across her skin. And then she saw it—on the nightstand.A blank cheque. Signed. No amount.Just a signature in sharp, expensive ink.Ares Moretti.She stared at the name for a long second, her mouth dry. He hadn't said it. Not once. But he knew hers. Knew everything. And now he’d left her with a signature and silence.She stuffed the cheque into her bag, dressed wordlessly, and walked out like she hadn’t just been wrecked by a man whose last name alone could trigger headlines.At the hospital, the nurse at the front desk

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 before the kill.“I’ll have the driver take you.”“No—”“I wasn’t asking,” he said, turning and pulling his phone from his pocket. “He’ll be waiting at the gate. Don’t test my trust, Riva. I don’t offer it twice.”She nodded stiffly. “Fine.”But her mind had already made a different plan.When the Maybach pulled up outside the hospital, she hesitated.The driver looked at her in the rearview mirror. “Ten minutes?”She nodded. “Yes.”The moment she was out, she ducked around the side, pulled her hoodie tighter over her head, and walked past the ER entrance—straight toward the main road.She hailed a taxy. The driver didn’t question her destination.The same dim lights. The same wine-stained

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 of the stairs. No jacket. Shirt unbuttoned at the collar. Cufflinks undone. Veins along his forearms like art.“You’re late,” he said softly.“It’s been exactly two hours.”“I said not a second more.” He stepped aside. “You owe me now.”Her jaw tightened, but she walked past him.The dining hall wasn’t a hall. It was a stage—long glass table, candles flickering low, wine already poured. Two plates. Two chairs.She sat without being asked. Picked up the napkin and set it in her lap like she belonged there.Ares raised a brow but took the seat opposite her.Silence hummed between them.The steak was untouched. The salad ignored. Only the wine drained.“I have conditions,” she said after several

COLLATERAL GIRL

It 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.She was his possession. His prized entertainment. His secret.And for seven days, she endured him.His presence.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 p

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

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

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

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

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

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