Bargain Bride: The Billionaire’s Forced Wife

IT’S EARLY IN THE MORNING yet Chiara and Ezio were both on the way towards the prison where Sigmund is currently staying. Now that they removed Simone out of the way, and Ezio’s plan to attack Isadora is currently in the making, it is a good move for them to find the physical evidences that will pin their biggest rival: Giovanni.

“Do you think someone is backing him?” Chiara asked her husband while scrolling through Giovanni’s information that were once provided by Nick before.

Ezio rested on his seat. He was lost in thoughts for days because of that question. “Given that I have more connection and wealth than him, I think so,” he answered. “But the question is who?”

Chiara read the names of all people connected to Giovanni – workers, family members, investors, business partners, and even former colleagues. She made a research on their current standing, hoping to find who among them has the capability to back Giovanni and give him such power.

“I still can’t find anything,” she added and closed her laptop with frustration. “No one in this file can be powerful enough to back him up.”

She gave the laptop to her husband, who put it back to their bag. “That person or those people backing him must have a lot of power for those men to be loyal,” Chiara said before turning to Ezio. “Those men who shot me and Chief Bruno were escaped criminals with heavy cases.”

“If you will think about it, they can just escape once they’re arrested, just like what they did before,” she added, her hands making various signs while explaining. “But they chose to poison themselves.”

Ezio’s eyes glistened as a hunch formed in his head. “Maybe they chose to die because that’s the easy way out,” he spoke.

“What do you mean?” his wife asked.

Ezio turned his head to her and smirked. “Have you watched movies where people chose to die because their punishment for failing is much worse than that?”

Chiara’s mouth formed an o-shape upon understanding what he meant. If that’s really the case, then the man behind Giovanni must have various methods to make those criminal kneel for him. That, and he must be insane like them.

“If Giovanni really have someone behind him, I’m afraid,” she said in a low tone, almost a whisper.

Ezio touched her back while his right hand settled in her waist, as if hugging her from the side. “Why would you be afraid?”

“We don’t know who we’re going against with,” she answered while looking straight into his mismatched eyes. “That’s scary. We don’t know that person but they know us. They have the upperhand in this battle. Aside from that, I can sense that this person is twisted. That person didn’t even think twice ordering others to kill people.”

“I understand your fear, cara,” he responded before cupping her face and kissing her forehead. “But remember that you’re with me in this battle, and I’m with you. You won’t be alone.”

“I’ll be right here, fighting with you and protecting you,” he added and gave a reassuring smile.

He made their forehead touch, and he stared at her twinkling eyes, filled with delight. Slowly, he leaned to kiss her lips with love and passion.

“Signor, Signora, we’re here,” Luigi, their designated driver to today, spoke as he parked the car outside the prison.

Ezio helped her wife step out of the car, offering to carry her small bag. They walked with their hands intertwined towards the entrance, where they were greeted by the guards.

Chiara and Ezio waited on the visitation cubicle given to them. After a few minutes of waiting, the person they wanted to visit emerged from the door, with a cuff on his hand and a police man guarding him. The moment the old man entered the cubicle, the police left and locked the door.

Sigmund looked thinner from what Chiara remembered. His cheekbones were more evident and his eyebags became deeper and darker. His facial hair also grew long, but not enough for him to be unrecognizable.

“We can get you out of here,” Chiara went straight to the point as the visitation time is limited. “You told me over the phone that you will cooperate with us, is that right?”

Sigmund nodded before speaking. “What do I need to do? I’ll do anything as long as I will be out of here.”

“Who’s behind your case?” Chiara asked while Ezio was just silent on the side, observing the old man. “Who told you to slander our hotel’s image?”

The old man was silent for a moment, and Ezio sensed the hesitation in his face. Sigmund’s eyes were moving in an uncomfortable manner. The sound of the metal cuffs making contact with the glass echoed in the telephone they’re using.

“Are you backing out?” Chiara asked with her left eyebroe raised. “If you can’t give us the information, we cannot help you. Our help is not for free. Give us what we need and we’ll pull out of here. Plain and simple.”

But Sigmund didn’t respond. In his mind, he was torn between telling the truth and keeping it for his sanity. However, a part of him knew that he cannot survive in this environment, especially when he’s not the one who pulled the strings of the case.

Chiara was getting impatient. She was tapping her wedge shoe on the floor while waiting for him to answer.

She just wanted to hear Sigmund’s answer and compare it to Alessandra’s words. If both of them mentioned Giovanni, then both of them are telling the truth.

Hearing no response, Chiara stood up and was ready to leave when Sigmund hurriedly spoke, not wanting to waste the opportunity that was given to him.

Days before, his mind is already made up that he will cooperate with them. He doesn’t know what came to him for him to be this cowards even when given an opportunity to clear his name.

“Giovanni!” he screamed that made Chiara stop from walking away. “Giovanni Giordano! He was the one who ordered me to do it! He wanted to ruin the Vitali’s image!”

Chiara looked back and him while Ezio smirked from his seat. He tapped the seat behind him and his wife went back to it, her eyes glued to the old man.

“Words aren’t enough evidences in the court,” she spoke and gave a small smile. “Those can be twisted. Do you have another evidence that can prove that?”Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

“Yes,” he answered. “My phone has a copy of our text messages. You can see our call records. Those messages can be the evidences.”

He was desperate. He didn’t care what will happen as long as he can leave that prison and leave normally again. He just hoped that his phone and the messages can still be retrieved, because that’s the only thing that can save him now.

“Then where’s your phone?” Chiara asked him.

“In our house,” he answered, pertaining to the house where Simone and Alessandra stayed when they got married – the same house where Simone was arrested.

Chiara nodded and squeezed her husband’s thigh, a sign that they already got what they want from him.

“Once we gathered those evidences, we will file a case against Giovanni,” she said. “And if we won, that’s the time we will pull you out of here. So pray that your messages will work.”

She stood up with poise while holding her husband. “We will update you about the progress. For now, what we can do is to provide you a private cell. It’s nice making business with you.”

With that, they leave the prison and headed home. Ezio didn’t waste any time and ordered his men to look for the evidence in that house. Gabriel and Luigi led the search, while Ezio and Chiara waited for the result.

While waiting, Chiara used the time to send an email to Monika. It was anonymous, and she’s how Monika will react once she saw the contents of her email.

It just took two hours before their men came back. Luigi handed them all of the gadgets they found in that house, and some documents that they were able to receive.

There were only three gadgets inside. One is a laptop while two were phones. Chiara opened the black one first. Upon seeing the screen with large fonts and high brightness, she knew that the phone is the one Sigmund mentioned.

She opened the messages app, and looked for Giovanni’s name. True to his words, their chats were still in that phone.

“He’s careless,” Ezio commented while helping Chiara in taking a screenshot of those messages. “If I were him, I would have deleted everything the moment I sent these messages. No traces, no chance of getting caught.”

Chiara grinned at his statement. “But it is a blessing for us that he is careless,” she responded.

After taking a screenshot of those messages, she transferred it to Ezio’s phone, and the latter created multiple copies. Chiara looked for more information inside the phone before setting it aside.

“Tesoro, can you ask Dante if he can retrieve the recordings of Sigmund and Giovanni from this phone?” she asked. “That might help us.”

Ezio nodded before calling his friend. While their conversation is ongoing, Chiara looked for more inside the other gadgets. Unfortunately, none of them contains crucial information.

Then she proceeded on looking at the paper documents that their men retrieved. Some of the ducuments were bank records, payslips, government-issued papers, and work documents.

Until Chiara found a brown expanding envelope. She opened it and was greeted by several papers. However, the first document immediately got her attention.

“So this is what had been holding him back,” Chiara murmured to herself while scanning the contents of the documents.

It was a copy of Giovanni’s birth certificate, stating that his biological father is Sigmund.