Widow’s ledger WidoW’s ledger The grief had dulled to something almost like a faint bruise, still there, but not throbbing constantly. Anya Tiosa Ovi ebooks are available in Ovi/Ovi eBookshelves pages and they are for free. If somebody tries to sell you an Ovi book please contact us immediately. For details, contact: ovimagazine@yahoo.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the writer or the above publisher of this book An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C Widow’s ledger Widow’s ledger Anya Tiosa Anya Tiosa An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C Widow’s ledger T he house smelled like dust , but beneath that stale scent, there was a faint lingering trace of violets. It was always that way since Alice’s husband, William, died; like a perfume he’d left be- hind. A signature scent, unique to him, and it clung to the house long after he’d gone. It made her heart ache. But more than that, it made her long to remem- ber him, despite everything. Alice sat at the small kitchen table, her hands trembling slightly as she shuffled through a box of old papers. She hadn’t meant to search through Wil- liam’s things. It wasn’t that she was against it, she just hadn’t been ready. But it had been six months since his death, and the grief had dulled to something al- most like a faint bruise, still there, but not throbbing constantly. Anya Tiosa That morning, she’d found an old ledger hidden beneath a stack of unused receipts in the back of a drawer. Its leather cover was cracked and worn, the pages yellowing at the edges. It was a relic of some other time, from a life she hadn’t known about. Wil- liam’s life, of course, but it was a side of him that Al- ice had never seen, never asked about. Now, as her fingers traced the cracked spine, she couldn’t help but wonder: What could he have been involved in that he’d hidden it so well? She opened the first page, her heart skipping in a way it hadn’t in months. The entries were meticulous. Names of families she knew well, people she’d seen at church, at town meetings, at the grocery store. The Whitakers. The Mills. The Delacourts. They were all there, along with amounts, figures, and cryptic notations. At first, it seemed harmless enough, loans, small business deals, even investments in local farms. But as Alice turned more pages, the transactions grew darker. There were debts, large ones, followed by payments that weren’t quite payments, but were instead crossed out, replaced by phrases like “arrangement” or “pay- ment deferred.” The further she read, the more her breath quick- Widow’s ledger ened. Names kept repeating: her neighbors, old friends, even distant relatives. There was money, and lots of it, moving through town, connecting families in ways Alice had never suspected. Each line seemed to reveal a deeper, more tangled web of debt, obli- gation, and secret alliances. Some entries made her stomach churn, like the one beside the name “Dela- court.” “Paid in full, nothing owed, debt wiped clean, for now.” “For now?” Alice whispered to herself. She could hear the wind whistling through the cracks in the windows, but the world outside seemed distant. Here, in the quiet of her kitchen, it felt like the air itself had thickened. She picked up the phone. It rang four times before her sister, Margaret, answered. “Alice? What’s wrong? You sound...” “I found something,” Alice said, her voice trem- bling despite her attempt to keep it steady. “I found William’s ledger. It’s got all these names, all these fig- ures. People we know. What the hell was he doing?” Margaret sighed deeply on the other end. “I fig- Anya Tiosa ured this day would come,” she muttered. “Let me guess ...the Delacourts are in there?” Alice glanced at the page where the Delacourts’ name appeared. “Yes. But not just that. There’s more. There’s more, Margaret. It’s like he was running something in the shadows, something I never knew about.” “Will you stop reading it for a second?” Margaret’s voice was sharp. “I always thought William had a side to him we didn’t know. I never asked, and neither did you. But this... this is a bit much, even for me. Are you sure you want to go down that road?” Alice stared at the ledger in her hands, her pulse quickening. “I don’t know what to do with this, Mar- garet. I don’t know who to trust anymore.” Margaret was silent for a long time before she answered. “You should talk to the Whitakers first. They’re the ones that started all this. It’s been years, but I remember my husband telling me things, things William had promised to keep quiet.” “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Alice asked, a mix of shock and hurt in her voice. “Because I didn’t know how. I didn’t know how Widow’s ledger deep it all went, and frankly, I still don’t.” Alice hung up the phone. The room felt colder, and the ledger in her lap now seemed like a heavy weight she couldn’t discard. She stood up, holding it tightly, and walked to the front door. She hadn’t planned to leave today, hadn’t planned to confront anyone. But now she knew she had no choice. The Whitakers’ house stood at the end of a long, winding road, a quiet, unassuming place tucked be- tween two dense stands of oak trees. Alice hadn’t been here in years. Not since the summer barbeque, when William had gotten into that argument with Harry Whitaker about a loan. Alice had forgotten the details, but the heat of that argument, the bitterness that hung between the two men, it all came back in a rush as she approached the front door. She knocked, her heart pounding in her chest, and the door swung open after a long moment. A tall, weathered woman with silver-streaked hair stood there, Sarah Whitaker. Her sharp blue eyes seemed to flicker when they landed on Alice, as if she had expected this visit long before it happened. “Alice,” Sarah said, stepping aside to let her in. “You’re here about him, aren’t you?” Anya Tiosa Alice nodded, unable to speak for a moment. She crossed the threshold, the house dimly lit by the fad- ing afternoon light. It smelled like lavender and old wood. “I found something,” Alice said finally, clutching the ledger to her chest. “William’s ledger. And your name is in it. Along with a lot of others. I need to know what this is. What he was involved in.” Sarah didn’t seem surprised, but her expression hardened. “I knew this day would come,” she said softly. “Come sit down. Let’s talk.” They sat in the living room, the silence hanging thick around them. Sarah took a long, slow breath before speaking again. “William was a man of deals, Alice. A man of quiet promises and debts that never saw the light of day. You don’t realize it, but when you live in a town like this, there’s always something, always a trade or a favor passed under the table. You might not see it, but it’s there.” Alice frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Sarah’s gaze softened. “Because, my dear, some things are better left unsaid. We did what we had to Widow’s ledger do. And when your husband made those deals, we had to keep our mouths shut.” “But it was about more than just money, wasn’t it?” Alice asked, her voice trembling. “What was he really doing with the Delacourts? Why did he owe them... for so long?” Sarah’s eyes darkened. “That’s a debt that should’ve been paid long ago. But William was stubborn. Pride- ful. He thought he could outsmart the Delacourts. They’re dangerous people, Alice. Don’t you under- stand that? Your husband played with fire, and now... now that ledger is the proof of everything that’s been buried.” Alice stood abruptly, pacing the room. “So what now? What do I do with this? What does it all mean?” Sarah rose to her feet, her face grim. “You can’t undo what’s been done, Alice. But you can keep the rest of us from getting caught in the fire. The Dela- courts are still looking for something—something they want from William’s past. You need to decide if you’re going to be part of their game, or if you’re going to stand on your own.” Alice glanced at the ledger once more, the weight Anya Tiosa of it settling like a stone in her chest. The past had a way of catching up to you, no matter how far you tried to run from it. And now, it was staring her in the face, threatening to drag everyone into its wake. The decision was hers to make. But as she left the Whitakers’ house, the wind pick- ing up in the trees around her, Alice couldn’t help but feel that the storm was already on its way. END Widow’s ledger Widow’s ledger Anya Tiosa Ovi eBook Publishing 2025 Ovi magazine Design: Thanos Ovi ebooks are available in Ovi/Ovi eBookshelves pages and they are for free. If somebody tries to sell you an Ovi book please contact us immediately. For details, contact: ovimagazine@yahoo.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the writer or the above publisher of this book An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C Anya Tiosa WidoW’s ledger The grief had dulled to something almost like a faint bruise, still there, but not throbbing constantly. Anya Tiosa. By day, she wrangles the minds of unsus- pecting pre-teens, armed only with patience (mostly) and a healthy supply of caffeine. By night, she trans - forms into a secret agent of the mundane, infiltrating the lives of ordinary folks and documenting their hilarious, heartbreaking, and utterly bizarre quirks.