Bargain Bride: The Billionaire’s Forced Wife

METERS AWAY from an old and creaky house, a black Ford Mustang was parked. From the backseat, Chiara has her eyes glued to the stressed woman organizing plastic bottles to different containers.

It’s been a few days since Chiara fired Caterina from work, yet the change in her physical appearance is very evident. Her eyes who were full of energy before is now as deep as a well because of eyebags. She looks like she didn’t have a decent sleep for the past days.

Her hair mid-length hair is disheveled. Her clothes are even not ironed properly as wrinkles can be seen in every side of it. Chiara also noticed that Caterina became skinnier compare from the last time she saw her.

But most importantly, the little baby bump of Caterina is now showing. Looking back, Chiara remembered that it’s been months since Caterina started wearing dresses and skirts at work. She assumed it’s to hide her swelling belly.

“She looks pitiful,” Victor commented while looking at the same direction as Chiara. He can’t help but to feel sorry for Caterina. He thought that the woman was blindes by her affection for their enemy that she wasn’t able to think about the consequences.

Chiara nodded as an agreement to Victor’s words. “Does she have any family members living with her?” she asked.

“As per Luigi’s report,” he trailed off his words while looking at the folders. “None. Her parents are dead and her siblings are now in another country. She’s living alone.”

Chiara took a deep breath, while thinking what to do next. She wanted to approach Caterina right now and use her against Giovanni. However, upon careful consideration, she cannot a hundree percent guarantee that Caterina will act on the way she wanted.

“Are you going to talk to her, signora?” Victor asked when he noticed Chiara’s silence.

She shook her head. “I think today is not the best time, ” she answered, her eyes following Caterina who is now walking towards a couple and extending her hands while talking. Chiara cannot read her lips, but from the looks of it, Caterina might be asking for something: begging for something.

“It’s been only a few days since she last saw Giovanni. She might try to approach him again. We wouldn’t know what’s on Giovanni’s mind, ” she explained before wincing her eyes when the man pushed Caterina away from their way.

“Let’s wait for her to surrender. When she knows no one will be there for her, I’m sure she will put her pride down and ask for our help, ” she added before telling the driver to go back to the safe house.

Victor can grasp his signora’s plan. Wait for Caterina to lose all of her hope until she decided to work with them on their own accord. That way, they can be sure that Caterina really wanted to go against her former lover, giving them the advantage on the situation.

They were halfway through the destination when Chiara’s phone rang. She answered it when she noticee Dante’s name on the screen as the caller.

“Hello, Dante, ” she greeted the person on the other line. “Is there any update on what I asked you?”

“Yes, signora,” Dante spoke but his voice says that the update he has is not good or will not be satisfiable for Chiara.

“Where is Marco Leon?” she asked, hoping for a positive answer from him despite his low energy tone.

A deep sigh can be heard on the other end of the call. “We still cannot see any trace of Marco Leon. It looks like she just vanished into think air like a bubble,” he spoke.

“You said that he was last seen inside his building, right? Is there no one who saw him going out?” Chiara asked with her furrowed eyebrows. On the passenger seat, Victor was listening to their conversation.

It has come to his knowledge, as per Luigi, that Marco Leon who is one of Ezio’s investors was missing. Authorities believed that Marco was hiding due to him being the mastermind on the shooting incident in Dubai which led to Ezio’s comatose stage.

However, like Chiara, Victor won’t buy the assumption of the police. He had several encounters with Marco before, and he has a good relationship with Ezio. Also, Vitali Empire’s stocks is the one that gives the most in Marco’s cash flow. He cannot see any reason for him to do such act.

“No one saw him exit the building, signora. I got the footages of every exit they have that day and days after that, but some parts were deleted and tampered with glitches, ” Dante explained while remembering the annoyance he felt while opening each empty and tampered footages. He knew that the person behind Marco’s disappearance must have worked quick to hide the evidences.

“Also, ” he stopped talking and opened a file from his computer. “We tried looking for the guard stationed that day. However, we found out just yesterday that the said guard is now under comatose. ”

“Comatose?” Chiara wondered. The person behind this act really planned everything to make sure that no witness will be left. “How did he became comatose?”

“He was found just a few meters away from the Marco’s building. He has a lot of bruises in his body and his head is bleeding severely when a civilian found him. A hammer was found in the scene which might have been used to hit his head, ” he answered and sent an email to Chiara containing the file which has the report about the said guard.

After a few seconds, Chiara received the email on her laptop. The file contains photos of the crime scene, as well as the information of the guard and his family. She kept on scrolling, looking for one important information.

“Haven’t they found the DNA of the suspect in the hammer?” she asked, confused because the weapon to the crime was collected, yet there wasn’t any report about it.

“They did, signora,” Dante answered. “I wasn’t able to get a softcopy but the copy of the results has been sent to your safe house. Unfortunately, no other finger prints aside from the victim was found.”

Chiara cussed in her mind. She didn’t imagine that the mastermind – who she thinks is Giovanni – will be this meticulous and careful. He must have planned it really well to make sure that nothing will be pointed back to him.

“But I think I know someone you can talk to regarding this signora, ” Dante added before sending a photo. ”

“The last known communication made by Marco Leon is through is phone. He sent a message to his wife that he is leaving the building and will be home in 20 minutes, ” he explained. “The photo of his wife is in the email I sent to you.”

A familiar face of a woman greeted her as she opened the new email. Chiara saw this woman at Marco’s birthday party. Together with the picture is the information about Sophia Leon.

If there’s someone a person must ask about a missing person, it must be someone who is close to that person. And Sophia is the closest one to Marco.

“Thanks for this, Dante. I’ll talk to her tomorrow. The payment will be sent after a few minutes,” she answered. “Please continue in this search. We have to find Marco as soon as possible.”

CHIARA LEFT THE OFFICE early to proceed to her plan. This day, Luigi will be accompanying her as Victor was tasked to keep an eye on Caterina.

Fara was preparing a small gift for Sophia that Chiara will bring. She is sure that Sophia is devastated because of her husband’s disappearance, and she cannot meet her empty-handed.

“Do you think Sophia will like this?” Chiara asked while holding the box that contains an antique necklace. They are now on the way to the Leon’s residences.

Luigi nodded from the driver’s seat. “Mrs. Leon has a love for antique materials, signora. I’m sure she will love that.”

Chiara recalled during Marco’s birthday that Giovanni gifted an antique material. Ezio told her that Giovanni did that to get Marco’s good side and for him to invest in him company and malls.

According to their investigation, the only thing that links Giovanni and Marco is their previous agreement about investment that didn’t came to contract singing as Marco decided to invest in Ezio’s company. After that, there were no known interactions between them.

Chiara couldn’t think of a reason why Giovanni used Marco as a scapegoat. If she is on his shoes, she will use another rival of Ezio to make sure that they will have the motive.

She was loss in her thoughts that she didn’t notice that they already arrived. It was Luigi’s voice who brought her back to the reality.

Chiara slowly walked to the gate and the guards let her in when she introduced herself. She was able to contact and inform Sophia of her visit yesterday.

On the other hand, Luigi was left on the entrance gate.

“Good morning, Sophia, ” Chuara greeted her with a small smile in her lips.

Sophia gave her an empty smile. She can notice how stress Sophia is. Papers, which Chiara noticed to be police reports, were scattered on the table.

“Good morning to you too, Chiara, ” Sophia replied. “Please take a seat. I’m sorry for the mess, ” she spoke while putting the papers back in place.

“It’s not a problem to me. I should be the one apologizing for disturbing you at this hour, ” she replied and extended her arms to give her gift. “Please accept this gift. ”

Sophia accepted the gift and opened it in front of her. Her eyes twinkled for a short time when she saw the antique necklace, but was replaced with a longing emotion.

“Thank you so much for this, Chiara, ” she replied before trying the necklace on. “This is beautiful. I love it.”

Chiara smiled at her remarks. “I’m glad that you loved it. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to give you every antique material I can see.”

“I appreciate it but there’s no need for that, Chiara. Antiques are difficult to find and I think you deserve to have a collection of that,” she replied. Sophia looked at herself from the screen of her phone while caressing the necklace.

“My husband always bring antique materials from wherever place he go, ” she shared with a sad tone. Her eyes getting wet as seconds passed.

Chiara touched her hand to comfort her. “I heard what happened to your husband. I will help you find him, ” she said.

Sophia sniffed and tried so hard to stop herseld from crying. However, her emotions are eating her whole body that she ended up wailing in front of Chiara.

“He even told me he is going home, ” she spoke with red eyes and stream of tears falling in her cheeks. “I waited for him. And hour pased but he didn’t arrived. I called him several times but he won’t answer. I don’t know where to find my husband. They even accusee him of shooting someone. , ” she looked at Chiara with helpless eyes. “Please help me. ”

Looking at Sophia’s state, Chiara can see herself at her. She was in the same situation when Ezio didn’t come home from Dubai. She remembered those time were she went to every place Ezio could go just to find even a shadow of him.

She understood Sophia’s situation. She was there before. The only difference is that Chiara received an update after a day. On the other hand, Sophia still has no clue even if it was weeks since he got missing.

“I will help you, Sophia, ” she assured her while caressing her back. “Do you know any person who has a grudge against your husband? Maybe we can start with them.”

Sophia shook her head. “I don’t know anyone who has an issue with Marco aside from some business associates. I have talked to them and the authorities but no one has a motive and they have valid excuses that time. ”

“I heard that he wasn’t seen leaving his building. Do you think the suspect is just a worker there?”

Sophia tried so hard to think of something. She tried to remember what were the errands of her husband that day.

She stood up, walked to a drawer, and grabbed a thick binder. She went back on her seat and showed the binder to Chiara while opening it.

“For the past years, I will write Marco’s daily errands here to know what time I can call and disturb him, ” she flipped on the pages until she reached the one that has the date where Marco was last seen.

Sophia pointed it and showed it to Chiara. “Here are the things he did that day. Marco wouldn’t interact with someone who he doesn’t have a reason to talk to. If the suspect is inside the building, then it must be one of the people he interact with that day. ”

Chiara looked at the list. It was a short one. Only three things were listed: meeting with the board at 10 AM, reviewing finance reports at 1 PM to 3 PM, and contract signing with Armano Darte at 4 PM.

“Do you know who are the people involved in these things?” she asked Sophia.

“I know who the board members are. I also know the people giving him the finance reports. But on the last one, ” she pointed the third bullet. “I don’t know who Armano Darte is. It’s my first time hearing that name. ”

The two woman talked for several hours, with Chiara getting clues and relaying it to Dante. Before she left, she assured Sophia that she will use all of her resources to find Chiara. She also left three body guards to stay with Sophia and her children.

While on the way home, Chiara was thinking about the people who Marco talked to that day. She has the list on her phone and Dante was looking for information about them.

“Who the hell is Armano Darte?” she asked in her mind. She grabbed her phone and typed on the screen to look for it.

Instead of a person, a brand name was the one who popped up. The name of the owner is not stated in any links. All Chiara saw was Armano Darte is a shop for antique collections.

Suddenly, a scene popped up in her mind.

Giovanni’s gift to Marco before came from Armano Darte, a shop which can only be seen inside his mall.