Raina's POV
I always thought the most terrifying thing would be remembering the past.
I was wrong.
The most terrifying thing is when the past decides to introduce you to the present.
The television is on.
Not because I turned it on, but because the world has a habit of forcing itself into your life when it wants to be seen.
Every channel is the same.
Every headline.
Every breaking-news banner.
Every scrolling line of text carrying my name like it finally has the right to exist in public.
ETHAN HALE CONFIRMS MARRIAGE.
MYSTERIOUS WIFE REVEALED: DR. RAINA MEHTA.
BILLIONAIRE CEO ENDS YEARS OF SPECULATION.
I opened social media, same thing...
I sit frozen on the edge of the couch in the safe wing of the house, my heartbeat loud enough to drown out the anchors' voices. My hands are cold. My mouth is dry. My mind is racing too fast to form complete thoughts.
There he is.
On the screen.
Ethan.
Standing in front of cameras, in front of a sea of flashing lights, in front of a world that suddenly wants a piece of my life.
His posture is perfect.
Calm.
Unshakable.
The same controlled presence I saw the first night he walked into my clinic and shattered the illusion of safety I had built for myself.
But this time, he isn't hiding.
This time, he isn't watching from shadows.
He is standing in the light and claiming me.
"My wife has lived in privacy for her own protection," he says, voice steady, Southern drawl smooth but lethal in its confidence. "That privacy will continue. Any attempt to harass, threaten, or speculate will be treated as a security violation, not celebrity curiosity."
A pause.
The kind that commands attention.
"Her name is Dr. Raina Mehta. And she is under my protection."
The word wife echoes in my head like a bell that refuses to stop ringing.
Wife.
Not a rumor.
Not a secret.
Not a shield.
A declaration.
My stomach twists.
Four years of hidden existence. Four years of being the woman no one was allowed to see. Four years of living in a carefully constructed silence so the wrong people wouldn't remember I existed.
And now…
Now Ethan has placed my name in front of the entire world like a challenge.
I feel it in my bones: this isn't just an announcement.
This is a line drawn in blood and law and legacy.
I close my eyes and memories crash into me in fragments.
Kabir's nervous glances in Russia.
The way his phone calls always ended with a single word.
The necklace heavy against my skin like it was never meant to be jewelry.
The Italian whispers.
The Russian silence.
The panic room.
The kiss that broke something open inside Ethan.
The voice on the phone that answered him without question.
And now this.
The world knows who I am.
Which means the world knows who to aim at.
My chest tightens as realization settles in, slow and merciless.
Ethan didn't reveal me for romance.
He revealed me because in his world, a hidden woman is prey.
A publicly claimed woman becomes territory.
Property.
Off-limits.
Untouchable.
And he has just put my name under the protection of forces I am only beginning to understand.
The door behind me opens softly.
I don't need to look.
I feel him before I see him.
Ethan steps into the room, the same man from the screen, but without the cameras, without the armor of a public mask. His eyes come to me immediately, searching my face for damage, for fear, for the kind of regret he would never admit out loud.
"They've seen it," I say quietly.
"Yes."
"You did it."
"Yes."
I stand slowly, my legs unsteady, my emotions colliding inside me. "You just told the world I'm your wife."
He doesn't flinch. "You are."
"You told them I was hidden for my protection."
"That is also true."
I swallow. "You made me a target."
"No," he says, voice firm, stepping closer. "I made you a declaration."
I look up at him, really look.
At the man who has loved me in silence.
At the man who has fought shadows I am only beginning to name.
At the man who carries a promise older than our marriage and heavier than any vow.
"Why now?" I ask.
His gaze softens, but his answer is ruthless in its honesty.
"Because they're watching," he says. "Because they already know your name. Because secrecy no longer protects you — it only isolates you."
"And being your wife will?" I whisper.
He reaches out, stopping just short of touching me, like he's still afraid of what his control might do if he lets it slip again.
"Being my wife makes you untouchable to everyone who understands what that title means in my world," he says. "And a warning to those who don't."
My heart pounds painfully.
Somewhere deep inside, fear and safety twist together until I can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins.
Outside this room, the world is erupting with headlines and speculation and curiosity.
But beneath that noise, something far more dangerous is happening.
Lines are being redrawn.
Old powers are taking note.
And a word that once lived only in whispers is echoing again through the corridors of influence.
Da.
I meet Ethan's eyes and see the truth neither of us can escape anymore.
By claiming me publicly, he hasn't just protected me.
He has bound me to his war.
And the world has just been informed which side I stand on.