Bargain Bride: The Billionaire’s Forced Wife

CHIARA’S RIGHT KNEE touched the soft pad first before her left one. With her hands grabbing the seat in front for support, she slowly kneeled and looked up at the statue in the middle.

The church is silent like it always used to. The number of people inside can be counted using fingers. People who went inside were with someone they knew. Chiara is the only one who went inside alone.

She clasp her hands and closed her eyes, whispering her prayers with her heart.

“I’m not a religious person, God. But please, hear my prayer,” Chiara said in her mind, talking to the Almighty Being.

“Please, wake my husband up. That’s the only thing I want right now. Wake my husband from comatose and make him healthier.”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

She kept on repeating those words until she felt tired of talking in her mind. She looked up at the statue in front and ended her prayer.

Fara greeted her when she left the church, the guards did the same. Today is Saturday, and it is not just a day for her to pray for her husband, but also to meet someone.

“Signora,” Fara spoke while giving a folder to her. “Luigi stopped by to give this. He said it was the report from the auditing department.”

Chiara nodded and placed the folder in her hand. She also grabbed another folder – the one passed by Caterina. She flipped the pages of both folders and cross checked the data given.

She massaged her temples as more discrepancies arise while she checked both of them. The data are not the same. The amount of profit indicated are far from each other by millions.

Before she could lose her patience, Chiara closed her eyes and put the folders away from her sight.

“Phone, Fara,” Chiara said while taking deep breathed. Fara immediately grabbed the phone on the bag and handed it to her signora.

She dialed a number which was answered immediately. “Dante,” she spoke on the line.

“Yes, signora? Good thing you called, I was about to report to you,” Dante answered as his printer finished it’s job.

“State the gist of your report first. I have a new job for you. A paid one this time,” she responded. The car stopped in the parking of a restaurant and she can already see the person she will meet from the window.

She heard flipping of papers while Dante was explaining. “I followed that woman just like you said. And I discovered a lot about her.”

“First, she went to Giovanni’s cell three times this week. My intel inside reported that Caterina provides food for Giovanni. From a far, you can see that there’s something romantic going on between them,” he started. “I have pictures of them here. I’ll send it to you with the full report.”

Chiara hummed and let him talk more. Her suspicions are right. Caterina indeed has a connection with Giovanni. That explains that discrepancies in the audit report. They are trying to sabotage the company and make me think that it is doing well even if the reality is the opposite.

“Second, she has been giving confidential records of your company’s partners and investors to Giovanni. And lastly, she was manipulating the audit report. There is a picture of her throwing a report sent by a staff,” he added. “That’s pretty much the gist of the report. I’ll send it to the hospital. Just tell me when.”

Chiara took a deep breath. She was thinking of ways how to catch Caterina in act. She has to dig deeper, and maybe, find a weakness to use in her advantage.

“Thanks for this, Dante. Now for your new task,” she turned her head to the woman waiting for her in the restaurant. “I want you to know why our sales and profit is decreasing. I have a feeling that someone is sabotaging us, again.”

Dante pouted his lips as he received an ‘uneventful’ task. “Sure, signora. But it will cost you.”

“Name your price.”

“2 million euros,” he stated with a grin. “I actually want to give you a discount, but you tricked me before, so no.”

Chiara rolled her eyes at his statement. “Two million it is. Make sure to have the report within two weeks.”

The call ended after their deal. After that, Chiara hopped out the car. Fara was left in the car while only two body guards went with Chiara to guard her inside the restaurant.

As she walked inside, the woman stood up and offered her a small smile which she returned.

“I apologize for being late. I still have to finish some matters,” Chiara spoke as she was standing beside the table.

Elisa shrugged it off. “No worries. I didn’t wait that long,” she said and motioned her hand to the chair. “Please have a seat.”

As they settled, Elisa called for the waiter and had their order. When the waiter left, Elisa’s eyes dropped to the ring Chiara has in her hand.

“He gave you a blue diamond,” she spoke while staring at the ring.

Chiara showed it and extended her fingers with her palm facing her body. “Yeah. I was actually shocked when I realized that it was indeed a blue diamond,” she spoke. “It’s kind of uncomfortable to wear it outside at first.”

“I understand what you felt,” Elisa commented and a genuine smile formed in her lips. “When my husband gave me a blue diamond ring, I was contemplating whether to wear it outside or just make a duplicate.”

“You made a duplicate?” Chiara asked, interested because she was considering it too.

Elisa shook her head. “No. My husband doesn’t want to. He said that he wants me to show the world that we were married: by this ring,” she caressed the ring in her finger using her thumb. “He wants me to show this off.”

“Ezio told me the same thing,” Chiara responded while remembering how Ezio demanded her to wear it and not another ring like a child.

“Well,” her mother-in-law chuckled. “Ezio is like his father in several ways. He got her intelligence from him.”

Chiara looked at the woman in front of her. The first time they met, she looked like she has a huge grudge against her child. But now, she looked like a mother who is proud of her son.

“Ezio is a lot smarter than the kids at his age,” she started sharing while looking outside the restaurant. “He got accelerated by three years. That’s why he graduated early.”

Chiara cannot help but to feel surprised and proud at the same time. She knew that her husband is an intelligent man, but not to the point that he was this genius.

“He wanted to pursue astrophysics before. He said he wanted to learn how the universe started, and how it will end,” Elisa had a sad smile on her face. “He loves science so much.”

“What happened? Why did he end up in business?” she asked, surprised that she doesn’t know about that fact. In their mansion, there was no sign of Ezio having interest in science. He never talked about it. Their library even have few science books only.

Elisa took a deep breath as she looked back. “He wanted to takeover our business, but it is not because he wants to. It is because it was his obligation.”

“You see, Ezio is our only child. There are no other people who will inherit our business. Only him.”

Chiara cannot help but to feel sad for her husband. He had to let go of his dream in order to make sure that the business that his family took care for generations will be intact.

“Did you try to have another child when Ezio is still young?” she asked.

Elisa shook her head. “We didn’t. My husband was too afraid to try again that he had vasectomy in order not to get me pregnant.”

She touched her belly. “When I was still pregnant with Ezio, my husband did everything to make sure that he will be healthy. He never left my side and made sure that I will get everything that my body needs.”

She was smiling at the first part of her sentence, but her eyes became teary as she continued.

“But when I was in labor, the doctor said that there is a high possibility that I wouldn’t be able to handle giving birth. My body is fragile. Actually, my husband decided to save me,” she wiped the tears that are about to fall from her eyes. “But I love my child, so I went through labor. I almost didn’t make it. My husband was so devastated with my condition. I was thinking that he might had some trauma because of it.”

“Nevertheless, we gave our love and attention to Ezio to make sure that he will have his needs and wants as he grew up,” Elisa smiled at her. “And he did. He became a fine gentleman.”

Chiara was touched by her story. She didn’t know that they suffered like that. She didn’t know that her husband was almost not born in to the world.

But her mother fought for him.

Elisa seemed to love her child so much that Chiara couldn’t grasp how they ended up like this: a mother and son with grudges against each other. Did Elisa loved her husband too much to resent her child like this?

They ended up talking more about Ezio. His childhood, his hardwork, his relationship with his parents. Chiara tried her best not to talk about the death of Elisa’s husband. It might made her change her mood.

After eating, subtly gave her a folded tissue. When Chiara touched it, she noticed that there was something hard inside. Before she could react, Elisa stopped her.

“Inside that tissue is a memory card,” she spoke while smiling a little. She positioned her back facing the window. “It’s up to you how you will use that. Just make sure that Giovanni wouldn’t catch you nor he will found out that the files came from me.”

Chiara subtly imitated her position, for she noticed that Elisa is trying to hide something from the window.

“What?” she asked, confused on what her mother-in-law is doing.

“I have a connection with Giovanni. He asked me to meet you to know where Ezio really is,” she confessed. “His men are watching outside. Just act normal.”

Chiara opened her bag and flashed out a plastic. She simple put the used tissue with the memory card inside and put it back like it was nothing.

She started to give a room for trust to Elisa. Her mother-in-law already know where Ezio is. She was visiting him from afar. Even after knowing that, she didn’t report it to Giovanni and feign her ignorance.

“As much as I want to visit my son, I can’t. His men are on me because Giovanni thinks that you will give me the information,” Elisa added. “I will tell him that you told me that my son is in your mansion. Better create some hints that he’s there, or Giovanni will doubt my report.”

Chiara nodded. “I will. Thank you.”

They walked towards the exit of the restaurant. Elisa guided Chiara towards Ezio’s car. Before Chiara left, she hugged her mother-in-law, facing the restaurant and hiding her face from where Giovanni’s men are hiding.

“You can visit him if you want. Just make sure that I’m there and that they wouldn’t follow you,” she whispered.

Minutes after Chiara left, she received a text message from an unknown number.

“There is a presidential suite in the hospital and the bathroom of it has a hidden passage towards Ezio’s private suite’s storage room. I was using that suite for my check-ups until now. I can use my check-up as an excuse to visit my son, but I can only visit once a week.”

Chiara smiled and typed her reply. “I’ll wait for you at the passage.”