Bargain Bride: The Billionaire’s Forced Wife

CHIARA INFORMED her mother-in-law that she and her husband will be visiting her in the Vitali’s old mansion. Ecstatic, Elisa gathered her staffs to clean the house. The whole mansion was meticulously cleaned from the top to bottom, curtains and sheets were changed, and every corner were spotless.

Elisa was busy organizing the dining table when the doorbell rang. She hurriedly asked her cook to continue placing the foods on the table while she quickly walked towards the gate to greet her son and her daughter-in-law.

“Piccola,” Elisa greteed her daughter-in-law before turning to her son. “Mi figlio. Come in, I’ve cooked for you.”

Elisa grabbed their hands before pulling them gently inside the mansion. The first thing Chiara noticed is that the curtain of the floor to ceiling living room is now changed from cream to white.

“Mamma Elisa must have prepares a lot for our arrival,” Chiara thought to herself.Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

On the other hand, Ezio was taken aback by his mother’s action. Before they arrived, he was preparing himself on how to talk to his mother, how he will apologize to her, and how he will make it up for the years that was lost.

However, just by seeing his mother’s excited face and her gentle action, his worries of him that Elisa might be angry faded. Before, Chiara used to urge him that his mother is not angry at him, that she doesn’t feel any hatred towards Ezio. Upon seeing his mother now, he realized that Chiara’s words were true.

Elisa offered them a lunch, which actually looked like a feast because of the huge amounts of foods on the table. They gathered around and ate with gusto.

The first things Ezio noticed is that the foods on the table were mainly his favorites. A lot of the foods were the ones that his mother used to cook when he was still young and staying in the mansion. Various memories entered his mind and he cannot help but to smile on those happy events.

After a few minutes, Chiara was so full that she needed to stand up and stretch her back. “My tummy looks so big,” Chiara spoke while massaging her stomach that is filled with foods.

Ezio chuckled at his wife before helping her walk. “You sure have a lot of appetite today, cara,” he spoke while staring at her tummy.

It was bloated that he could mistook her for being pregnant. His thoughts of his wife carrying a child in her womb sent butterflies in Ezio’s stomach. He couldn’t help but wonder when they are going to be blessed with a child.

He turned to his mother before inviting her. “Mamma, shall we take a walk to the garden?” he asked.

Elisa doesn’t need to be told twice and hurriedly stood up to accompany them. She was on all smiles and almost teary, as she heard her only son call her “mamma” again. It was the sound and the word that she had been longing for to hear for the past years.

While walking, they couldn’t help but to catch up on what happened with their lives, until their conversation switched to Ezio’s childhood.

“He was a naughty child,” Elisa told her daughter-in-law while they were sitting on a bench that overlooked the mountains.

“No, I’m not,” Ezio hurriedly defended himself while shaking his head repeatedly. “I’m a very good child, cara. Don’t listen to Mamma’s words.”

But Chiara didn’t listen to her husband. Instead, she turned to her mother-in-law and asked her. “Really, Mamma? I wonder what my husband did for him to be that naughty.”

“Well, he just put a big rock inside his classmate’s bag,” Elisa answered before laughing. “He wasn’t caught, though. He just told me about it.”

“I don’t remember doing that one,” Ezio feigned his ignorance. “I’m too good to do something like that.”

Chiara clicked her tongue and looked meaningfully to her husband. “He is naughty until now. No wonder if he’s like that when he was a child,” she teased him.

Ezio knew that his wife and mother were just beating him up, so he didn’t mind. Instead, he felt contented and happy seeing them laughing their hearts out.

After a few minutes of talking outside, Elisa told them to stay in the living room since the sun was already on its peak. As they entered, Elisa became serious and informed them about what she found out on the previous day.

“You found his assistant?” Ezio asked her mother after her talk.

Elisa nodded. “I found him in the Red Club. Actually, it was difficult finding him. Her previous colleagues don’t have any idea where he is. I was just lucky enough to bumped into someone that recognized him from that club.”

“Did you talk to him, Mamma? What did he say?” Chiara asked while noting down the information that Elisa said on her phone.

Elisa turned to her. “He didn’t really gave me a useful answer. I wasn’t able to get Kazimir’s hideout, but he told me that I can meet Kazimir. I just need go give the date and place, and he will meet me,” she answered, recalling Jacob’s answer.

“It might be a trap,” Ezio spoke while thinking deeply. “I’m sure he still wanted you, Mamma. He might use that meet up to get you from us again. It might put your life in danger.”

Ezio knew what Kazimir was thinking. His request looked like a simple one, but there were a lot of malice and dark intentions behind it. Kazimir is so meticulous that he will prepare for that event to make sure that Elisa won’t escape.

He already failed capturing Elisa more than once, and Ezio is sure that he learned from those failures. His next plan might be a close to being foolproof one, so they need to be careful.

“That’s what I’m also thinking,” Elisa replied. “But I’m afraid we might can’t get any information anymore if I won’t meet with him. If offering myself can help us bring him down, then I won’t hesitate to do it.”

“No, Mamma,” Chiara and Ezio immediately disagreed in unison. “We won’t resort to that. We will find him, one way or another. But using you won’t be on the list,” Ezio added.

Elisa was having second thoughts. If Kazimir is really after her, then can’t she just offer herself so that he will leave Ezio and Chiara alone?

While she was drowning in the arguments in her mind, Chiara’s phone rang and Nick’s name popped up on the screen.

“Nick?” Elisa asked. “Who’s that?” she added as the name doesn’t sound familiar to her.

“It’s a friend of mine, Mamma. He is a detective, an efficient one. Aside from Dante, Nick also helped me in investigating when my husband was still unconscious,” she answered before answering the call.

The call was in loudspeaker, and all of the people inside the mansion heard Nick’s shouting voice. “Chichi! Where are you?! I’ve been waiting outsidd your house for ages!”

“What?!” Chiara exclaimed while looking with furrowed eyebrows at her phone. “You’re outsidd my house?!”

“I just said that! Didn’t I told you that I sill visit Italy?” he answered. “Now come home to you hubby’s house. I’m hungry and I have something to report.”

The call ended before Chiara could respond. She looked surprised at her phone before chuckling. “That Nick dared to boss me around,” she spoke while clicking her tongue.

“Is he really like that?” Ezio asked because he thought that his wife’s friend is a thoughful and gentle one, as described by Dante before.

“No, he’s just hungry,” Chiara answered. “Let’s go back. I’m sure Nick already has the report about Kazimir. I just hope it will help us.”

It didn’t took long for the three of them to arrive at the the mansion. When they arrived, Nick was already being served by Fara with food and drinks in their living receiving area.

“How did he found out our house?” Ezio whispered to his wife while staring at Nick who seemed not to mind their arrival, and continued to munch on his foods.

“He’s a detective, so it’s not shocking,” she responded before walking towards his friend.

Nick looked up and gave her a thumbs up before reaching for a folder inside his bag. He gave it to Chiara as he explained the contents.

“That Kazimir Colombo is good at hiding,” Nick started after he swallowed his food. “After his immigration to Poland, there were no other records of him. Home? None. Contact number? None. Work? None,” he added. “It looked like he vanished after stepping in Poland.”

“So, you didn’t find anything?” Ezio asked while looking at him, observing the man who is new from his sight.

Nick turned to him. “About Kazimir, none. But,” he told Chiara to go to the next pages of his printed report. “I looked deeper on his assistant, Jacob Rizzo.”

Chiara, Ezio, and Elisa looked at the contents of the report. An unfamiliar name was written on it, making them confused.

“Augustine Severino?” Elisa asked after reading the report. “Who’s that?”

“Jacob Rizzo – Kazimir’s assistant – worked as an executive assistant in a construction company called August Builds Co. It is the biggest construction company in Warsaw. The owner? Augustine Severino. Sources said he was a good friend of various senators and government personells in Warsaw,” Nick spoke before leaning on the couch. “I search who that Augustine Severino is, but it looked like he doesn’t exist at all! No records, no face, no pictures. Nothing!”

Chiara squinted her eyes. She knew what are the implications of the information that Nick found out. It’s either this Augustine Severino has a connection to Kazimir, or he is Kazimir himself.