The Billionaire’s Unwanted Wife

Chapter 02

“Pour me one,” Esteban ordered, sitting at the bar.

The bartender watched him for a brief moment and, without saying a word, did as he was told. He quickly returned with another glass and set it down in front of him.

“You might want to think about slowing down,” he muttered.

Esteban froze. Slowly, he lifted his eyes toward him.

“Mind your business. Just do your job which is serving me,” he shot back with unsettling calm.

The bartender walked away to take care of the other customers gathering nearby.

“All the same… I swear they all want to interfere in my life. Unbelievable,” Esteban muttered under his breath before downing his drink in one swallow.

“Bartender! Another one. Now!”

At that exact moment, Lia walked into the bar. Standing just inside the doorway, her gaze hardened still full of tears as she scanned the room.

People were laughing, drinking, enjoying their lives. And she had decided she was going to enjoy hers too at least for one night. She was going to get Sebas out of her head.

She walked straight to the counter.

“Give me the strongest thing you’ve got,” she ordered.

She sat a few feet away from Esteban. Her drink arrived.

“Do you believe in love?” she asked the bartender with a faint smile.

“I don’t know… I’m terrible at love,” he replied before going back to his work.

“Like all men,” she snapped loudly.

That caught Esteban’s attention. He glanced at her, intrigued.

“All men are jerks! And I’m sure of it,” she added before finishing her drink in one gulp.

“Bartender! Another!”

The bartender looked at her.

“What did I say? I said pour me another!” she insisted.

He stared at her with annoyance.

“And you say men don’t know how to love,” Esteban muttered, not caring if she heard him or not.

Lia turned toward him.

“What did you say?”

She let out a bitter laugh, slightly careless under the influence of alcohol.

“Oh, this one’s funny!” she exclaimed.

“Bartender! Did you hear him? He says we women don’t know how to love, when you’re the real idiots!” she repeated, laughing again.

Esteban set his glass down immediately.

He stood up and, with slow, measured steps, approached her.

“What did you say?” he whispered in her ear.

Lia turned around, and they found themselves face to face.

“Say it again,” he whispered.

“You men are jerks!” she declared with such anger that Esteban grabbed her arm.

“What are you doing? Bartender?!”

“You better not repeat that ever again,” Esteban warned.

“Or what?!” Lia shot back, fury in her voice.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down!” the bartender stepped in.

“That’s what happens when you drink too much,” he added.

Esteban and Lia turned toward him at the same time and shouted in unison:

“SHUT UP!”

“If that’s how you’re going to act…” he grumbled.

“Security!” he called out.

A security guard rushed over.

“Get these two out of here!” the bartender ordered.

Esteban clenched his fists.

“Do you even know who you’re talking to?” he snapped.

“Sir, ma’am, please come with me,” the guard intervened.

“Let go of me!” Esteban barked.

“Ma’am, please follow me to the door,” the guard said to Lia.

“What did I do?! This is all his fault!”

Esteban shot her a dark look.

“Ridiculous. Whatever. I wouldn’t stay in this trashy bar anyway,” he muttered before heading toward the exit.

“What a disgusting man!” Lia yelled.

“Ma’am… please follow me!”

She grabbed her purse and hit the guard with it.

“Let go of me! You’re all the same! You don’t know how to treat a woman! Move!”

She shoved him aside and stormed toward the exit as well.

Outside, Esteban was already on his motorcycle, ready to leave, when she ran after him shouting:

“Stop! Who do you think you are?!”

Esteban straightened up, his hand frozen on the key in the ignition. He didn’t answer.

“I’m talking to you! What do you think? That you can just do whatever you want and walk away? You’re all the same! You only think about yourselves!” she yelled even louder.

Esteban clenched his fist.

Suddenly, Lia hit him on the back with her purse.

“You’re all the same! Heartless losers! You don’t love! you destroy!”

Esteban stepped off his motorcycle and slowly walked back toward her, clearly done tolerating her sharp tongue.

“If we destroy you, you still love us, right?” he asked so calmly it was almost frightening.

Lia stopped talking. Her eyes locked with his, and in both of them burned fierce anger.

Silence fell between them.

After a long moment, he said abruptly:

“I dare you to show me how women love.”

Lia frowned.

“What?” she whispered, confused.

“Otherwise, you’re the real fools.”

“How dare you?!”

He turned around and got back on his motorcycle.

Just as he was about to start it, he looked back at her.

“It’s obvious you have a miserable life. Following me won’t change that. But at least you’ll get the chance to shut a man up. Decide fast—or stay there waiting for Prince Charming, damsel in distress,” he added coldly.

Lia looked around. It was dark. No taxis in sight for several minutes.

In front of her stood a man she found unbearable.

“You! You are !” she shouted.

Suddenly, she let out a sharp scream.

“As long as I shut him up…” she muttered to herself.

“Damn it!” she yelled, then ran and jumped on the motorcycle behind him.

“Be a man and take me home, and I’ll half-apologize.”

“You’re not worth it.”

Esteban turned the key, and the motorcycle roared to life.

Behind him, Lia held onto him tightly. She kept resting her head against his back, already heavily affected by the alcohol.

“P-please…” she tried to say weakly before letting her head fall against him again.

As he drove, Esteban’s thoughts consumed him:

They’re all the same. She doesn’t even know me and she’s challenging me drunk and loud. I almost feel sorry for her.