Bargain Bride: The Billionaire’s Forced Wife

CHIARA’S EYES were all swelled when she was woken up the sound of a ringing phone. As she opened her eyes, she can’t still remember what happened hours before. She’s all groggy and had difficulty opening her eyes.

The phone stopped ringing after a minute. Just as when Chiara was about to go back to her slumber, the phone rang again. This time, she reached for her phone.

Her whole body was awaken when she saw the name of the caller. Her fingers immediately swiped to answer the call.

“Ezio!” she exclaimed as she put her phone near her ear.

Chiara was so excited to hear her husband’s voice. Maybe because she was still sleepy earlier that she had forgotten what happened a day before.

She was about to ask if her husband is already going home when another voice spoke on the other line.

“Signora?” a man’s voice spoke, pain and uneasiness evident in his voice. “This is Luigi, Signor Ezio’s assistant.”

Chiara stood up and removed the hair strands covering her face. “Luigi? Where’s my husband? Is he going home?”

She heard a controlled sigh from the other line. Seconds of silence passed before Luigi spoke again.

“We’re going back to Italy now, signora,” Luigi replied, not knowing what to say next or how he will give the news to his signora.

“Really?” Chiara’s eyes beamed with happiness and her heart thumped with excitement. “Is he going to be here before noon? I’ll wait for him in the airport.”

Luigi can sense the happiness on his signora’s voice. It made him have a second thought. He doesn’t want to wipe off that happiness on her face.

But he has to do what he has to do.

“Signora, you have to know something,” he started speaking, gulping every strength. “Please do not panic or anything.”

“Huh?” Chiara asked, confused by Luigi’s words. “What is it?”

Luigi took a deep breath first as he looked at the man laying on the hospital bed, unconscious.

“Yesterday, when signor’s about to get on the plane, a shooting incident happened,” he explained.

“What?!” Chiara exclaimed. The excitement and happiness she was feeling earlier were replaced by worry and fear. “What happened to my husband?! Is he fine?”

Luigi shook his head even though Chiara can’t see him. He stared at his signor, who is full of injuries in his body. Ezio’s head is also covered with bandages. His boss, who he knew as a strong and indestructible one, is now laying unconscious and fragile.

“Signora, Boss Ezio was shot. Twice.”

Chiara’s world crumbled after hearing that. She suddenly went deaf and her whole body lose its strength. Her knees touched the ground as tears formed in her eyes.

“No, no, no,” she whispered to herself while brushing her hair, not believing what she just heard. “No!”

“I’m dreaming,” she said to herself. Chiara slapped herself a lot of times. She can even feel the stings it gives everytime her palm touches her cheeks.

“Yes, yes. This is a dream. I just need to woke up. Wake up,” she spoke like a crazy lady, not minding the pain she does to her body.

Luigi, on the other hand, was stunned and worried on Chiara’s words. “Signora, please calm down,” he spoke to the other line.

He grabbed his phone and texted Fara’s number to inform her of what’s happening. Their signor is already on the verge of life and death, he can’t risk to get their signora hurt, too.

“Wake up, wake up,” Chiara spoke to herself while rocking herself back and forth, still kneeling. “Wake up, Chiara. Your husband’s going home.”

Luigi pity his signora. She hasn’t heard the full details, yet, she’s already acting this way.

As if on a cue, Fara rushed to open her signora’s bedroom. “Signora!”

Fara ran the distance from the door to Chiara who is still kneeling on the floor, wet from the tears on her face. She looked so messy, as her hair is disheveled and her clothes are wet.

“Signora, please stop crying,” Fara spoke, not knowing how to calm her signora down. She reached for the phone on Chiara’s hand.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“What did you tell signora?!” Fara exclaimed on Luigi.

He sighed loudly. “Fara, please calm signora first. After that, tell her that boss Ezio is still unconscious, but the bullets have been removed. Tell signora that we’re going back go Italy and wait for us in boss Ezio’s private hospital. We’re going now,” he explained. Luigi didn’t wait for Fara’s response before ending the call.

As Fara put the phone down, she turned to her signora who can’t breath because of her nose being stuffy from crying. She reached for her and hugged her body, hoping that it will help her lessen her sadness.

She doesn’t know the full details, but from what she heard from Luigi, Fara is sure that their signor is indeed in danger. Just like her hunch yesterday.

“Please calm down, signora,” she spoke gently, stopping herself from crying, too. “You have to be strong for signor. They’re going home now.”

She kept on caressing Chiara’s back, waiting for her to compose herself. Fara just hoped that nothing more serious happened, because she is sure as hell that their signora will be drowned if that will happen.

Chiara, on the other hand, still can’t process anything. Her mind is replying on the last time she heard Ezio’s voice. How he asked her to cook for him. How they talked for hours about random things. How he sang her to sleep.

THEIR WAY TO the private hospital is quiet and uncomfortable. After hours of endless crying, Chiara passed out, much to Fara’s worry.

Everyone in the mansion were in chaos while looking for solution on their signora’s situation. Fortunately, Chiara woked up after some minutes, but she didn’t talked after that.

Until they bumped into someone outside their mansion.

“You looked like a mess,” Elisa commented when she saw Chiara’s face. “Did you already divorce your husband?”

With a dead eye, Chiara looked at her mother-in-law before shaking her head. “No. We’re still together. I have no place divorcing him.”

Elisa’s eyebrows raised. “Then why do you look like that?” she asked with a condescending voice. “You looked like someone died.”

“Ezio’s in the hospital,” Chiara spoke with a low voice, but still enough for Elisa to hear. “They told me he was shot.”

Elisa couldn’t answer immediately. Chiara thought she will laugh at their misery, or maybe throw more insults to her own son. But, the opposite happened.

Chiara saw how worry filled Elisa’s eyes. If sudden, and it faded fast, but it didn’t escaped from Chiara’s sight.

Elisa opened her mouth a little to say some words, but she closed it again and made a sigh before leaving.

Chiara followed her mother-in-law using her eyes. She can’t be wrong. She saw how Elisa became worried after she told her what happened.

Chiara knew that Elisa still cares for her son.

But it is not the priority right now. She has to go to the private hospital and see her husband.

“Signora,” Fara called Chiara while fixing her seatbelt. “Luigi told me that the bullet were already removed from signor’s body. I’m sure he is recovering now.”

Fara said that to cheer her up for a little bit. She saw how Chiara’s pupils dilated for a moment, but she didn’t spoke. For Fara, the reaction on Chiara’s eyes is already enough to know that she is responding.

“We are only 10 minutes away to the hospital. Luigi informed me that they already arrived,” Fara continued. She told her signora on what room Ezio was currently staying. After that, silence filled the car.

It’s a good thing that even though Chiara is not talking to them earlier, her body is still moving. She let them clean her up and feed her earlier. If not, they would have brought her to the hospital with disheveled hair and wet clothes.

When the car stopped, Chiara’s eyes wondered the area. She hurriedly took off the seatbelt and left the car when she noticed that they are already in the private hospital of Ezio.

Fara, as well as the other body guards, followed Chiara’s quick steps. It didn’t took them long to see Luigi waiting outside a room.

At a certain angle, Luigi looked fine. However, when he turned his body to look at them, they noticed that he was injured as well.

The lower right part of his neck has a huge bandage. He is only wearing a shirt, so the long bandage on his right arm is visible. It looks like he can’t move his right arm because of that.

“Signora,” Luigi spoke and greeted Chiara with a bow. “You arrived.”

“Where’s my husband?” Chiara asked with a hoarse voice.

Luigi didn’t speak, but he looked at the door behind him as an answer. Just as when Chiara was about to walked inside, the door opened and a doctor in his white coat stepped outside.

“How’s my husband, doc?” Chiara hurriedly asked the male doctor. She is rubbing her palm together, nervous of what he is going to say.

“Mrs. Vitali,” the doctor called her. “Mr. Vitali is now stable. It’s a good thing that he was operated immediately. The bullets didn’t hit any vital organ. However…”

Chiara knew that another bad news is yet to come. She gripped on Fara’s hand, asking for strength not to pass out.

“Mr. Vitali’s head was severely injured. I was informed by Luigi that Mr. Vitali fell down from the stairs of the plane,” the doctor continued before looking at the patient inside the room. “He is still no responsive. Very minimal brain activity is recorded.”

The doctor looked at Chiara. “If Mr. Vitali doesn’t wake up after 48 hours, we will consider him brain dead, or comatose.”

Chiara gasped. She was about to fall down when Fara and Luigi supported her. Luigi even flinched in pain because he used his right hand to help her.

“You can visit the patient now. Please call me if anything happens. Please excuse me,” the doctor spoke before leaving.

Chiara, after moments of staring at nothing, slowly walked inside Ezio’s room. Fara and Luigi were left outside to wait for her.

Chiara closed her eyes while walking. She doesn’t know if her heart can take the sight of her unconscious husband. Just from how the doctor and Luigi described her husband’s situation, she can already feel that she won’t like to see it.

When she closed the door, she slowly opened her eyes, nervous to see Ezio’s situation.

“Tesoro…” she whispered under her breath as she closed the steps between them.

The sight is too heavy for her heart, but she hold on. Her husband is laying unconscious, with bandages in his head because of the injuries he got from falling. His arms have small bruises and scratches.

Just days before, they were talking with happiness. They were planning what to do after he goes home.

Never in Chiara’s mind she would imagine her husband going back to her in this state. Unconscious and almost lifeless.

Chiara sat on the chair beside the bed. She gently touched his tummy that’s covered with his hospital gown and blanket.

“Tesoro, wake up. Please,” she whispered on his ears, hoping that he can hear her voice while in his reverie.

But Ezio’s body didn’t move a bit. Chiara’s tears fell down one by one. She caressed his cheeks while staring at his sleeping face.

“Please wake up,” she repeated. Chiara can almost hear Ezio’s voice, telling her not to beg, because she knew how her husband disliked her begging for anything.

She sniffed and hugged her husband’s body, putting their face side by side with their cheeks touching.

“I promise to stay with you forever. Just wake up and come back to me, tesoro,” she whispered and closed her eyes, joining her husband in his deep sleep.

At the back of her mind, she is ready to find and chase whoever did this to her husband. She will never let that bastard go.

She already has a person in her mind. Once she found out who really is that person, she will make sure to destroy everything.

He touched her husband, so there will be hell to pay.