Bargain Bride: The Billionaire’s Forced Wife

IT’S STILL EARLY in the morning but bad news greeted Chiara as she received a call from Dante. Giovanni was released from the pre-trial detention just that morning.

“How is that possible?!” she can’t help but raise her voice, making the two assistants and Fara stopped from what they’re doing.

She took a deep breath and stood up from the swivel chair. Her fingers ran through her rain because of frustration. “The trial is in three days. Why did they release him?”

“Apparently, the evidences we submitted are not enough. It was also reported to me that they gathered proofs that Giovanni is not connected to any shooters. Those shooters sign a sworn testimony that they don’t know Giovanni,” Dante replied, fisting his hand on the other end of the call.

Chiara clicked her tongue and laugh at disbelief. Anger is starting to swim throughout her body. “Not enough?” she asked, repeating what Dante said.

“Those evidences are not enough?! Are the police that dumb to say that?” her voice boomed inside the office.

Those testimonies. She didn’t see that coming. She forgot that in a case, the only people who can point out who the mastermind are the suspects.

“The testimonies from the shooters weakened our evidences,” Dante responded. “They all pointed the same person.”

“Who is it?” she asked.

“Marco Leon.”

Chiara was dumbfounded when she heard that. Of all people, Leon is not one of those she will believe who will hurt her husband. She was putting him on a neutral side, from what she observed during hee encounter with him in his birthday celebration.

“Have he given a statement? Did the authorities got him?”

Dante shook his head on the other line. “That’s the another bad news, signora. Marco Leon is missing,” he replied while scrolling through the report that was given to him. “Police believed that he is hiding, but according to my men, he was last seen entering his building last week. They never found him after that. He didn’t left the building.”

If Chiara’s hunch was right, Marco is just a false mastermind. Giovanni must have use him to divert the accuses from him. If Marco is really hiding, he wouldn’t be in his building and working like he did nothing when they started filing a case. He would’ve use that time to hide himself while they were busy pinning Giovanni.

But he didn’t.

He disappeared just a week before Giovanni was released, and a day before the shooters gave their testimonies. The timeframe is suspicious.

“Aside from that, I believe someone from the authorities is in Giovanni’s side,” Dante added which made her feel more frustrated.

“How do you say so?”

Dante clicked on a new file and texts pop up. “Some of the evidences we submitted, especially the record that Giovanni recruited those shooters days before the incident, are all gone. They didn’t reached the investigation department.”

Chiara wanted to ask more, but her intercom beeped and her meetings will start after a few minutes. She sighed before answering Dante.

“About the evidences, don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of that matter. For now,” she walked towards the other three people inside the office to check the results. “Investigate on Marco Leon’s whereabouts. I’ll handle the rest.”

She ended the call after Dante confirmed his tasks. Chiara took a good look at Victor’s face and a wide smile was built on her face.

“You indeed have a talent in this, Fara,” she spoke while analyzing Victor’s new features.

Fara’s cheeks reddened because of the compliment. “Thank you, signora. It’s been a long time since I did something like this. I’m very inspired.”

Victor’s facial features became sharp, just like how Ezio’s features look like. His nose became a little pointed from before. His lips became a little thinner but pinkish.

If Chiara doesn’t know every feature that her husband has, she might have mistook Victor as Ezio. Fara did a great job changing Victor’s face by just using cosmetics and fillers.

“Man, you really look like Boss Ezio,” Luigi spoke while laughing, holding the cosmetics that they used.

Victor glared at him. “Laugh more and I’ll have Fara make you look like shit,” he spoke before turning to Chiara. “What will I do now, signora?”

“We have to expose you to the public, but only on rare occasions,” she answered. “We will make a news that Ezio came back to work after almost two months of recovering. You don’t need to speak when someone talks to you when we are outside. Remember, just do Ezio’s resting face and I will do all the talking.”

Victor nodded and tried imitating his signor’s resting face. He can hear Fara’s giggles and Luigi stopping his own laugh. He didn’t mind them and just looked at the mirror, trying his best.

A question popped in his mind. “You and signor are a lovely couple. Am I required to show romantic gestures when we are outside?” he asked with hesitation in his voice.

As much as possible, he doesn’t want to do that. He knows that if his signor found it out, he will burst in anger, or worst, fire him. Just the thought of his signor scolding him is enough to shake his core.

“Just a simple holding hands will be enough,” Chiara smiled when she saw worry in Victor’s face. “Besides, you will only show yourself maybe once of twice a week, just enough to tell the people that Ezio is back.”

Victor made a sigh of relief and smiled. “I’ll do my best, signora.”

Chiara nodded. “Your first day as Ezio will start after my meeting later,” she turned to Luigi. “Make sure that no one will see Victor leaving that building and make it look like Ezio just arrive after my signal.”

After he nodded, Chiara ready herself for the meeting with the auditing department. She has a traitor to be kicked out.

“THESE TWO FOLDERS I HAVE are both the financial report from last month,” she spoke while looking at the members of the auditing department, memorizing their faces and names.

She put the folder in front of the member sitting on the nearest right side of her. “Check it and pass it to the next one,” sho told the staff.

“If you will observe the obvious numbers, you can see that these reports have different contents,” she looked at Caterina whose nervousness is evident in her eyes from her peripheral vision.

“The one with the higher profits came was submitted by your head, Caterina,” she said while motioning her hand to the woman. “While the one with lower profit and some losses came from Ida,” she pointed her other had to the woman who she got the second report from.

Murmurs from the staffs can be heard as the reports were passed through the table. Some of them have their forehead creased while other kept on looking back and forth between the two reports. Other even gave meaningful glances to each other.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Both reports must have the cashflow and earning for the past month, but they stated different numbers,” she reiterated. “That means, one report is false.”

A chubby woman wearing a floral top, who is named Luciana, raised her hand after Chiara spoke. She nodded at her before giving her the permission to speak.

Luciana placed the microphone near her lips before speaking. “The report with the higher profits, the one passed by Ms. Caterina if I’m not mistaken,” she spoke while looking at their head, “is different from the one I submitted to her.”

“Are you sure about that?” Chiara asked, stopping herself from grinning as the staffs of the auditing department stared at Caterina.

Luciana nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I am the assistant head and all the reports that came from our staffs undergo to me before submitting it to Ms. Caterina for final checking.”

Chiara looked at the people inside. “Aside from Ms. Luciana and Ms. Ida, is there anyone here who can attest that the report submitted by Ms. Caterina is different from the one you checked or submitted?”

All of the staffs raised their hands. That gesture is enough for Caterina to shake from fear. All of the people inside slowly turned their heads to her and glared at her with questions.

“Why did you gave me a false report? Explain yourself, Caterina,” she spoke and threw the folder that contains her report to her. The edge of the folder even hit her right cheek that it created a reddish line.

“I, I,” Caterina stuttered while her hands are shaking. “I didn’t do anything, ma’am!” she spoke while shaking her head.

Chiara titled her head to the side, annoyed on Caterina’s acts. “But all of your workmates are against you. They all confirmed that the report they created is different from the one you gave to me.”

Caterina stood up, her forehead filled with tiny drops of sweat. “They are all ganging up on me, ma’am!” she exclaimed, earning confused looks from her workmates.

“They don’t like me as the head, that’s why they want me to get fired!” she spoke while huffing. “That’s right. They hate me so they made stories like this! I’m a loyal worker to the Vitali. I won’t betray you, ma’am!”

Chiara is starting to lose her patience, so she pulled the pictures submitted by Dante and threw it at the traitor. Caterina, and some of the workers sitting near her, picked up the photos. The whispers became louder.

“You are working with Giovanni, the rival of this company and the man who almost killed my husband,” Chiara gritted her teeth. “You think I’m dumb not to find this out, huh?”

With the evidences slapping her face, Caterina’s knees lose their strength and she fell down kneeling on the floor. She felt a presence walking near her.

“Are you still going to deny it?” Chiara asked while looking down at Caterina who is clutching a photo in her hand.

Caterina threw herself to Chiara. She clung into Chiara’s leg and looked up at her. “Please! Spare me, ma’am!” she pleaded while tears are falling from her eyes. She looked like a mess in front of her colleagues.

“I just love him so much, ma’am! I can’t say no! Please! Don’t fire me!” she exclaimed and tightened her grip to Chiara’s leg.

Chiara became more annoyed and shook her leg to make her let go, but she kept on clinging more. When the workers saw this, they stood up and pulled Caterina away from their boss’ wife.

“Let me go!” Caterina screamed and extended her hand, trying to reach Chiara. Her eyes are now full of hatred as they glare on Chiara.

“You put my love on jail!” she spit but it didn’t even reach Chiara’s stiletto. “I will kill you! I will avenge my love!”

Chiara wanted to laugh at the delusions that this woman have. Instead of doing that, she threw another set of pictures to her.

“Look,” she said with a mocking tone. “The man you love is having his best time with another woman.”

Caterina shook her head vigorously. “No! He said he loves me! He promised that he will marry me! He will leave that woman! I’m better than that stupid blonde!” she said before laughing like a crazy woman.

Chiara wanted to feel pity to this woman because she was blinded by her love for the wrong man, but it looks like her screws in the head aren’t tightly sealed after all.

She looked at the guards who were called by the staffs. “Throw this woman out of this building,” she told them before looking back at Caterina.

“Before you go, I would like to say that you’re fired, and you’ll spend years in prison for trying to sabotage the company,” she spoke. “See you in jail.”

Caterina screamed as she was being pulled out by the guards. As seconds passed by, her screams faded until only silence can be heard.

Chiara took a deep breath and looked down at the photo of Giovanni and Caterina. Fury started to ignite inside her.

One traitor is now out. She just needs to find the others and make sure that they won’t damage the company anymore. She swore to God that she will make those traitors pay the damage tenfold.