Bargain Bride: The Billionaire’s Forced Wife

IT’S STILL EARLY in the morning when Chiara and Ezio went to the De Santis Law Firm, the one who initiated the reopening of Ezio’s case against Giovanni. By the time they reached the lobby of the building, Chiara was greeted by a familiar face.

“Attorney Falco?” she asked upon seeing the man waiting for them on the lobby.

The man greeted them a good morning while bowing. He has a smile on his face and their arrival doesn’t seem to surprise him.

“Do you work for this law firm?” she asked to an old acquaintance.

Attorney Falco nodded. “Yes, signora. I was accepted in this law firm when we were halfway throughout Signor Ezio’s case,” he answered politely.

Attorney Niccolo Falco was the lawyer who handled case before, with Dante’s help. She only saw him a few times, especially when they are talking about the evidences, since it was Dante who mostly did the work for her as she was occupied on taking care of her husband and the company.

He was a solo practitioner when they met, and it surprised her that he is now working for the De Santis law firm. But seeing his skills during their time working together, she knew that he deserved to be in this prestigious law firm.

The only bad thing that happened during the time he was handling Ezio’s case is the loss of evidences. However, Chiara was sure that it is not his fault. She was their when they submitted the evidences, together with Dante. So the fault is really on the lead investigator that time, who was Chief Pessi.

“Are the one who initiated to open my husband’s case?” Chiara asked. She remembered telling Attorney Falco to do everything to open the case again, after the chief announced that the case is now closed as Marco Leon, who was pointed as the suspect, is now dead.

He shook his head. “No, signora. Actually, before I could suggest it to the higher lawyers in this firm, they are already considering that, ” he responded. “All I know is a benefactor of our firm suggested it.”

Upon hearing her answer, only one person entered Chiara’s and Ezio’s mind. The person is no other than Elisa. When they traced back Elisa’s moves, they found out that she had been going in and out of the De Santis law firm just within a week after the case was close.

“I see. Thank you so much for considering my husband’s case,” Chiara responded. “We were actually here to talk to your firm about the case. Is there any person in-charged with that?”

“Yes, signora,” Attorney Falco answered before motioning his hand towards the elevator. “This way, please.”

They followed the lawyer in front of them. While they were walking towards the elevator, Ezio leaned his lips to his wife’s ear and whispered.

“Who is this guy?” he asked with a hint of jealousy in his voice. Chiara was observing him while she was talking to the lawyer, and she can see from his eyes that he is ready to break the lawyer’s neck if he will get closer to Chiara.

“He is the lawyer who handled your case against Giovanni before,” she answered, brushing her lips on his face. “I know you are jealous. I can smell it from it.”

She giggled and touched her husband’s hand. “It’s just purely about the case. You don’t have to worry. I’m all yours.”

Ezio seemed satisfied with her answer, but still rejected the idea of him being jealous. “I’m not jealous. I’m more handsome, wealthier, and more successful than him. I’m better and you deserved the best: me.”

Chiara couldn’t help but to laugh at his boastfulness. She wondered: is this the same man who was insecured when her attention was on her ex-boyfriend?

“Yes, tesoro,” she replied sweetly. “You are the best. No one can be compared to you.”

It increased Ezio’s ego and he pulled her closer, even if they are already close, to show to everyone that Chiara is his and his alone. He looked at the eyes of every man who dared lay their sight on his wife, glaring at them before sending a message to back away.

The moment they entered the elevator, Ezio cupped the behind of his wife. Chiara glared at him before pointing the lawyer with them using her lips, sending a message of “There is another person here. Don’t be nasty or I’ll spank you.”

But Ezio didn’t seem to mind her warning and squeezed her butt again. Chiara almost let out a noise because of that act.

Ezio bit the insides of his cheek, trying to supress the smile and laugh emerging because of his wife’s reaction. Since he fully recovered, he doesn’t stop on flirting and teasing his wife by touching her.

Chiara, who is annoyed in the outside but giggling in the inside, stomped on Ezio’s foot to give another warning. The pain was not too much but it made Ezio closed his eyes and retreat his feet.

His hand stopped teasing her and just rested on her waist, much to Chiara’s contentment.

The elevator opened and they were guided towards one of the offices in the floor.

“This is the office of our Senior Associate Attorney. He will be handling the case, as requested by our benefactor, and I will be a supporting attorney since I already have the grasp of the case, ” Attorney Falco spoke before adding something. “If you want to check his legitimacy, skills, or anything connected to him, please just inform us and we will be glad to provide you the needed information.”

Ezio nodded. “That’s noted. We will just contact you for clarifications about the new attorney of the case. For now, we would like to talk to him.”

The door of the office opened and they were greeted by an older man, maybe in his last 40s, who looked aloof and serious. He stood up when he saw the couple and his staff attorney.

“Signor, Signora Vitali,” he greeted them. “A pleasant morning. I have been waiting for your visit. Please have a seat.”

As soon as they rested on the visitor’s chair, with Attorney Falco standing beside the seated senior associate attorney, the main agenda of the meeting was opened.

“I’m Attorney Primo Cardona. I assumed that my staff attorney informed you that our benefactor, who requested to open the case, assigned me to handle this together with Attorney Falco, ” he started explaining.

“As of now, we have been discussing about the missing evidences. He, – ” Attorney Cardona pointed at the other lawyer. “- informed me that the evidences went missing under Chief Pessi’s watch. Is that right?”

Chiara was the one to answer. “Yes, attorney. We have submitted the evidences for the upcoming trial, but all of them went missing, which leads to us to be in the disadvantage of the case.”

“I see,” he responded before pulling a folder and handling it to Ezio and Chiara. “Because of that, we submitted a request to change Chief Pessi as the leading investigator of the case. As of now, we haven’t received the final decision of the court, but Chief Pessi has been sending us inappropriate messages regarding the matter.”

“Inappropriate messages?” Chiara wondered. “What kind of messages, specifically?”

“Most messages were attack to our new staff attorneys, while others were challenging the request we submitted, ” Attorney Falco responded before showing some messages from the said Chief.Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

Chiara couldn’t help but scoffed at the threats given by the chief. Her blood boiled a little upon reading how he tried to stop the transfer of investigation. In Chiara’s mind, it is already obvious that Chief Pessi is working for Giovanni. Just by the time he started wailing when he doesn’t have the control spoke a lot on who he is working for.

They talked for almost an hour regarding the case. They also finished some of the required paper works before they ended the meeting.

“Thank you so much for trusting us,” Attorney Cardona spoke while shaking hands with Ezio and Chiara. “Rest assured we will send updates about the case as soon as possible. I am hoping for a positive result on this.”

When they left the office, Attorney Falco guided them back to the lobby. Chiara couldn’t help but ask when she remembered something.

“Attorney, I read about the issue on Bonetti Law Firm. Do you have any updates on what happened to them?” she asked.

“As far as I know, they are currently under investigation. The heads of the law firm were found connected to the unethical procedures of one of their lawyers, ” he answered. “They also found out that there are a lot of lawyers in that firm who authorized unlicensed people to use their names as lawyers to earn money.”

Chiara nodded, sensing that the downfall of the Bonetti law firm is coming. They exchanged pleasantries before they went to the parking lot, getting ready to go home.

As soon as Chiara entered the passenger seat with her husband on the driver’s seat, she saw familiar person slowly walking towards the entrance of the law firm.

The woman looked around subtly, seemingly looking for something, or someone. The moment her eyes landed on Ezio’s car, she stopped for a little bit.

Elisa pretended to call someone from her phone, as her eyes looked at Chiara seating inside her son’s car. The window was open, and she saw her daughter-in-law signaled a thumbs up for her.

Elisa smiled and nodded slowly at her. They’re now moving, and she hoped that her sacrifices will come into fruition when the time comes.