Bargain Bride: The Billionaire’s Forced Wife

WITH TREMBLING HANDS, Monika clicked the laptop’s touchpad and opened the email. There was no text on it aside from the subject line. The only thing she saw is a link towards a video.

Her eyebrows furrowed, as she can’t find any reason why a video was there. She was expecting for a file of investigation result, not some media. She was hesitant to open it, as she had a hunch that the file might contain some virus.NôvelDrama.Org: text © owner.

Monika was using her work laptop, and she can’t risk it to be attacked by some malware. However, her eyes landed on the subject line again. Her mind is tirn between the two choices: ignore the email thinking it was a virus or read it and risk the laptop’s security.

She decided to go with the latter choice. It was her late beloved that was the topic of the email. She was thinking that this video might tell something about his death.

Before Ariti died, their wedding is already scheduled a month after that. Of all people, Ariti was the one who is looking forward for that day. He spent years on preparing the wedding, giving the dream location and theme that Monika wanted.

And then all of a sudden, he died. Not just a normal death, but suicide. Monika never believed the statement of the police that Ariti killed himself. Not even when they saw his suicide letter nor when two witnesses stated that he jumped by himself.

Monika firmly believed that someone pushed him off the cliff to kill him, but the people around her were adamant to convince her the Ariti did that by himself.

She cannot forget the letter that Ariti wrote before he died: Life’s been tough. I’m barely surviving everyday. I want to end this suffering.

Every aspect of his life had been doing good at that time. His business was booming, together with the companies he inherited from his father. He had a good health. And most of all, he was getting married to the woman he dreamt for so long.

The video loaded, and the thumbnail showed a familir back of a car – Ariti’s car that he used when he went to Milan before he died. From the thumbnail, she can see her ex-fiance’s back on the driver’s seat. The perspective of the video might have came from another car just behind Ariti’s.

She clicked on play, and various noises emerged from the speakers of her laptop. Her eyes were fixated on the screen, not leaving it for a moment. The longer she watched, the more her heart thumped inside her chest, wanting to get out.

Her body shook as she watched another person hit her beloved with a metal rod. More tears fell from her eyes as the other person pushed Ariti to the cliff, even kicking certain parts of his body so that he will lose his grip.

Monika screamed, her hoarse voice echoing inside the whole mansion in the middle of the dawn. Her hands reached for Ariti in her screen, trying to save him from falling to his death.

“Amore mio, amore,” she hysterically called for him while hugging the laptop. The screen touched her chest as dam of tears fell down to her cheeks, until it reached the laptop.

Monika rocked herself back and forth. Her screams of depression didn’t stop even if she already lost her voice.

For several years, people make Monika believed that she was such an uncaring fiance for letting her man die by himself. For a long time, she carried the guilt that she was not enough for Ariti to keep on living. Monika blamed herself for her fiance’s death.

Monika felt that she will pass out. No one will help her in the middle of dawn, as her maids and staffs were all out of the mansion after four in the afternoon.

Unexpectedly, the door of her bedroom opened, and her head maid rushed in with panicked reaction.

“Signora,” the head maid called for her before rushing towarda Monika. She tried to remove the laptop from Monika’s grip, but the latter won’t budge.

Instead, the head maid tried to calm her down. She made Monika take normal and steady breaths. Monika was shocked to see that someone is still inside the mansion at that early time.

Another maid entered the room, carrying a glass of water. They made Monika drink when she calmed down. Fortunately, the head maid decided to stay for the day. If not, they don’t know what could have happened to their signora.

When Monika composed herself, she hesitantly looked at the video once again. This time, the video stopped and was zoomed in to the window of Ariti’s car.

A familiar face was shown on the screen. Monika’s knuckles turned white as she gritted her teeth. The man who made her life miserable for years. The man who married her only for her wealth. The man who didn’t respect her as a woman. The same man who killed her beloved.

Monika was determined to make Giovanni pay. She will go through lengths just to make sure that he will be punished for what she did to her Ariti. That the same day, Monika ordered her subordinates to check if there’s another autopsy that was done at the time of his death. Days after that, once she gatherrd enough evidence, she filed a case against Giovanni.

Giovanni and Isadora were exchanging each other’s heat when series of loud knocks on his office in the Giordano’s building interrupted them.

Thinking that those were just employees who need to talk to their president, the two ignored the knocks and Giovanni went on thrusting inside his mistress. Their moans and groans echoed in the room together with the loud knocks.

However, the knocks became louder that it sounded like someone is kicking the door. With annoyed expression, Giovanni pulled himself out and stood up. He put on his clothes, same as Isadora, before opening the door.

He was about to scold the person outsidd when he was startled that there are police officers outside his room. Before he could even react, one of the police cuffed his hands and pulled him out.

“You’re under arrest for murdering Ariti Gomez,” the police spoke with authority before ordering his men to take Giovanni out.

“What?” Giovanni asked with confusion while the policemen pulled him out. “I didn’t kill him! He killed himself!” he exclaimed.

The police looked blankly at him. “You can ask for a lawyer to defend you. For now, you will be imprisoned. We have evidences in hand,” he spoke before looking back at him men. “Take him out.”

Isadora, who just wore her dress, ran towards her lover. “Sir, he didn’t kill anyone! You must be arresting the wrong person!” she pleaded while pulling Giovanni, releasing the grip of those policemen.

But her strength cannot be compared to them. Instead, other one policeman pulled Isadora out of the scene and told her to just visit Giovanni in the prison.

Staffs and workers watched the scene unfolding before them. Most of them whispered between the crowd, stating their disappointment for their president. Some were just silently watching, but quietly enjoying the scene.

“Let me go!” Giovanni screamed at the policemen. “Don’t you know who I am? I am the president of this company! I am powerful enough to remove you from service! I know Chief Pessi! He will surely punished you!”

But Giovanni’s words don’t have any effect on the authorities in front of him. Instead, the head police looked at him as if mocking him for saying those words. “Chief Pessi is suspended, so he can’t help you. Stop spouting nonsense.”

The pushed Giovanni towards the police car while Isadora followed them on foot.

“Baby! I will get you out! I promise!” she shouted to him while standing outside the car. “Just hang in there!”

Giovanni hurriedly moved towards the window of the police car, but another officer was blocking his way. “Call him! He can help us!” he spoke, pertaining to the man backing them up.

Hours after he was imprisoned, someone visited Giovanni. Before he arrived at the visitation cubicle, he was filled with hope that the man or Isadora visitef him to pull him out.

However, his hope was crush upon seeing Monika waiting for him. The moment he sat down, Monika went straight to the point and asked. “Why did you kill him?”

Giovanni feign ignorance in the matter. “Killed who? I didn’t kill anyone,” he spoke. In his mind, he just need to deny any allegations until Isadora pulled him out.

Losing her patience, Monika pulled up her phone and showed him the downloaded video. The video of Ariti’s death played on the screen.

“What?” he reacted. “How did you get that?”

He is sure that he hid that video very well. He had not opened it since he got married to Monika. In his mind, he cannot delete the video because it showed how he won between his battle against Ariti.

“You don’t have the right to know how I got this,” Monika said with gritting teeth. “I’m asking, why did you kill him!”

Giovanni didn’t budge. He looked uneasy, but he kept his composture. “I don’t know where you got that, but that’s edited. I didn’t kill him.”

Monika stood up upon realizing that Giovanni won’t tell the truth to her. “Don’t worry. I also have other evidences in hand,” she replied, pertaining to the autopsy and the fake witnesses he used. “Let’s see each other in court.”

On the other hand, Isadora tried several times to call the man. It took her until afternoon before he answered.

“Help us, please,” Isadora spoke when the old man answered. “Giovanni was arrested for killing Ariti Gomez. You can pull him out, right? We will do anything you want,” she pleaded.

The man on the other line chuckled, as if mocking her. “That’s out of my problem. If I asked Giovanni to kill Ariti, I would have help you. However,” he puffed a cigarette while staring at a woman’s photo. “He did that on his own accord. I can’t help you. And if you will call again to ask the same thing, I can’t guarantee that I can answer you again.”

“But-,” Isadora was about to argue when the old man ended the call. She stared at the screen of her phone, gripping it tightly.

She doesn’t know who she can ask for help. The only person backing them up doesn’t even want to help them. Now that Giovanni’s in prison, Isadora is afraid for him and herself – because Giovanni can turn her in anytime.