Bargain Bride: The Billionaire’s Forced Wife

WHITE CEILING AND WALLS greeted Nick as soon as he opened his eyes. The light was too much for his eyes that they started to hurt after a few seconds. He shut his eyes while trying to move his body.

“Don’t move, ” a familiar voice of a woman spoke. “I’ll break your leg more if you try to move.”

Nick tried to open his eyes once again. He purposely avoid the bulb on the ceiling and turned his head to the right. A denim pants greetes him together with a pair of hand.

“Senior,” he spoke weakly. His voice is strained as if he shouted for a long time.

He slowly looked up and with squinting eyes, he saw Detective Javier looking down at him with a poker face. He felt relieved as soon as he saw him.

He is not in that awful place anymore. There are no captors or abusers here. He knows he is safe in this place.

“What happened?” he asked, using the strength he has.

Detective Javier raised her left eyebrow. “I’m the one who should ask that to you. What happened?”

Nick looked at her and didn’t answer. He has a lot of things to say, from the reason why he was abducted, to what those people did to him. He wanted to speak, but the killer ache in his throat is too much.

When Detective Javier noticed that her subordinate won’t speak, she threw a deep breath. She sat down on the chair beside his bed.

“Lia called me,” she started speaking. “She said she can’t contact you. At first, I thought you were busy in Italy. I didn’t look for you since you filed a leave. I thought you were doing fine. ”

“But when I contacted your parents, they told me you haven’t messaged or called them either,” she peeled a banana before biting into it. She swallowed first before she continued. “That’s when I know something was wrong.”

“Darwin checked the records and we found out that you didn’t leave the country, ” she looked back to Nick who is just listening attentively to her. “We tried to find you, but the only thing we saw is the van who abducted you that day.”Please check at N/ôvel(D)rama.Org.

“It’s not registered, just as I expected. Every investigation we did only reached a dead end,” then she threw a small button up and down from her hands. “Until you sent us a signal.”

She smiled cockily. “You were lucky that we have a case nearby. If we were far away, we wouldn’t arrive in time. Who knows what could have happened?”

Nick felt a shiver in his body. He doesn’t want to think of what could have happened to him if Detective Javier and Darwin didn’t arrive in time.

“Thank you,” he replied to their good deeds. He wanted to say more, but his aching throat always stopped him.

“Do you know who those people are? We have to punish them in accordance to law, ” she asked.

“They did a lot of damage to you,” her eyes looked around his body. “You look awful.”

Nick just gave a bitter smile before responding. “I know who the boss is. Leave it to me, ” he spoke in a very slow and weak voice.

Detective Javier didn’t push it more. She knows that Nick does have the capability to find those people, and she will just be there to support and help him.

“I’ll go to Italy,” Nick spoke after a moment of silence.

Detective Javier nodded. “Sure, but only after you recovered.”

ON THE OTHER PART OF THE PLANET, Chiara is busy filling up red and white balloons with hydrogen. She is all smiled while pushing the air pumper towards the balloons.

“Mi figlia,” Fabio called his daughter. “Do you need help with those balloons?”

Chiara shook her headhead while doing her work. “I’m fine, dad. I can finish this all.”

Fabio just smiled while watching his daughter happily decorating their bedroom. After Chiara filled up all of the balloons, she taped them to the wall while doing a certain shape.

Her parents, Celine and Fabio, just watched her doing most of the decorations. Chiara has a smile on her face, already celebrating the very important day of her life.

“I never imagined our daughter doing something like this for her husband, ” Celine spoke as she was unboxing the other decorations her daughter bought last time.

“Well, she is already grown up,” Fabio replied while helping his wife. “It’s just sad that Ezio couldn’t celebrate this day with her.”

Celine looked at their son-in-law who is still unconscious. “It’s been months. The doctor said he has some improvements. When will he wake up?”

“No one knows, ” Fabio spoke. “Let’s just not ruin this day and look at the brighter side. They have been married for four years, that is what matters.”

His wife nodded with a smile before continuing their task. On the other hand, Chiara was enjoying her own work.

She downloaded a lot of inspirations for the decoration until she opt for a red and white design. The balloon were arranged in heart shape and a foam calligraphy of “Happy Anniversary” is in the middle.

Chiara made most of the decorations by herself. Her talent for handicraft emerged while planning their anniversary celebration. She created some dangling heart designs that are taped on the ceiling. She also created flowers from papers and added it as a part of their decorations.

It didn’t took long for her to finish everything. Her parents and Fara helped in cleaning the trashes away until the room is back to being spotless.

Chiara sat beside her unconscious husband. She reached for his cheek and gently caressed it using her thumb. After staring at him for a long time, Chiara stood up and grabbed the photobook on the other table.

“I know a lot about you. You always tell me stories about you and your family, tesoro, ” she spoke as she sat down. “Now, it’s my time to tell my own stories. I hope you can hear me.”

Chiara opened the photobook and she was greeted of her pictures as a baby. She positioned the photobook in a way that Ezio can see the pictures, if he wakes up.

“This is my first photo as a child. Dad took it after I became one week old, ” she spoke while pointing the photo. “This one was during my christening. I don’t know why I’m crying in the photo, maybe because I’m a baby. But mom told me that it was because of the holy water the priest poured in my head. She said I hated water when I was a child.”

She flipped the pages of the book and told Ezio the stories behind each photo. The doctor said it will be better for someone to talk to Ezio even if he’s asleep, to make sure that his brain can pick up the sound waves.

Chiara took a long time deciding how they will celebrate their anniversary, and she settled with this. It was intimate, just only her and her husband.

“Wait, tesoro, ” she spoke while putting down the open photobook in the table. “I’ll just drink water.”

She stood up and poured some water from the dispenser. She was too focused on telling stories to her husband that she didn’t notice that it was already night time.

Chiara looked at the clock and she found out that half an hour passed since eight in the evening. From the mini fridge, she pulled out a small cake before lighting up the candle.

“I made this myself, tesoro,” she spoke as she sat down. “I hope you can taste this when you wake up.”

She cut two slices from the cake after blowing the candle: one for her and one for Ezio. She ate her part before continuing on telling her childhood stories.

There were a lot of photos. The book doesn’t even include her photos after elementary school. Hours passed and Chiara finally reached the last page.

“This one was taken after I finish elementary school. My parents brought me to the newly opened playground in Florence. I met a lot of children that day and I -” her words were interrupted when a portion of icing fell on the photobook from her fork.

She hurriedly removed the icing from the page. Suddenly, she noticed a familiar face on the part where the icing fell.

Chiara looked carefully at the photo, and noticed the child’s face resembles her husband.

“Tesoro, ” she called for him. “Is this you?”

The boy that’s photobombing Chiara’s shot also has the same eyes as Ezio. He was staring at Chiara who was playing on a swing.

Chiara looked at the other photos that were shot that day, and in each of them, the boy that resembles Ezio is on the background, always looking at Chiara.

There was this one photo, where Chiara was sticking her tongue out to the boy that looked like Ezio. Even if she was teasing the boy, he has this smile on his face.

“So we have already met before,” she spoke under her breath. “Too bad I can’t remember our interaction.”

She put a bookmark on those pages and noted herself to create duplicates of those. Chiara closed the book, went to brush her teeth, and did her evening routine.

As she left the bathroom, Chiara glanced at the clock and found out that only a few minutes are left before the day ends.

She sat beside her husband and whispered. “I enjoyed this day, tesoro. I’m sure we will celebrate more anniversaries together in the future.”

Chiara touched his cheek and closed her eyes while resting her head in his side. “I promise to make it up to you. I will make up the years I wasted for nothing. You’re the best husband in the world, and I will do my all to be the best wife for you. I promise to shower you with love and care everyday.”

“My only wish is for you to wake up. I promise to wait for the day you will open you eyes again. And when that time comes, I will make sure to treasure it, ” she spoke with all of her heart. “Te amo, tesoro. Please wake up.”

Chiara lifted her head to plant kisses on her husband. However, just as she opened her eyes, mismatched orbs – blue and green – that is filled with tears met her gaze.