Chapter 2

Nadia froze and slowly turned her head around, suddenly realizing that Clive was sitting at the table right next to them, and she didn't know how long he'd been there. He was wearing a black tailored suit, sitting robotically straight and looking untouchable, obviously sticking out like a sore thumb in the noisy, rowdy club. In fact, he looked as though he had accidentally entered the wrong parallel universe. Everything around him became dull just because of this mighty presence. Kenzie gasped in shock and immediately sobered up. She cast Nadia a "good luck" look, grabbed her bag, and slinked away at once. Suddenly, only Nadia and Clive were left staring at each other. Nadia's finger was still holding the male escort's chin. Clive wouldn't stop glaring at it, his eyes darkening to the point that they looked like infinite black holes. He took one step forward and grabbed Nadia's wrist. Then, he shot the male escort a threatening glare. "Leave." The male escort was so terrified by Clive's intimidating presence that he turned pale instantly. He quickly scrambled off, disappearing into the rest of the crowd. Nadia shook off Clive's hand and nursed her reddened wrist. She glared angrily at Clive. "Clive Gibson! What the hell are you trying to do?" "I should be the one asking you that question, Nadia Young," Clive responded, his voice as cold as ice. "Why are you at a place like this?" "I came here because I felt like it," Nadia responded nonchalantly, staring into his eyes as a challenge. "What's that got to do with you?" Clive's eyes darkened even more when he saw how stubborn and nonchalant Nadia was. A split second later, to Nadia's horror, he crouched over, grabbed Nadia by the waist, and hoisted him over her shoulder, ignoring all of Nadia's screams and protests. "Clive Gibson! What the hell are you doing! Let me go! Let me go, you bastard!" Horrified. Nadia kept hitting his back with her fists and wouldn't stop kicking out and struggling in his hands. However, Clive didn't seem to feel anything at all. He carried her right out of the club, ignoring the rest of the shocked glances cast his way, walking out quickly to his car and stuffing her right into the back of a black Rolls-Royce waiting outside. "Leave now." "Yes, Mr. Gibson." The car began to move. Nadia was so angry that she tugged on the door handle, wanting to jump out of the moving car. "Nadia!" Clive roared, grabbing her by the wrist again and yanking her back into the seat. "How long are you going to keep making a fuss like this?" Clive glared at her and spoke in his clear, icy voice. "You are about to marry into the Gibson family. I've given you a volume of all the house rules in the Gibson household. One of the rules stated that you must always be home by 10:00 pm every night. You are also forbidden from patronizing clubs, bars, and other entertainment hubs. Didn't you read them at all? "You're not allowed to come to places like these anymore. And you will be punished for this. Go home and write a ten-page apology letter to reflect on your behavior tonight!" A ten-page apology letter? Household rules? Nadia nearly laughed because of how angry she was. Her chest rose and fell angrily as she wrestled with her anger. It was precisely those 3,000 stupid household rules that had repressed her all her life in her past life, reducing her to nothing more than a puppet on a string. She was never going to allow the same thing to happen again this time! "What apology letter? I'm not going to do it!" Nadia yelled back at him. "And what do your stupid household rules have to do with me? I'm not marrying you anymore!" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, the entire car descended into silence. Clive instantly turned around to glare at her, his dark eyes boring holes straight into her head. His face was wrought with disbelief and another conflicted emotion beneath. After staring at her for a long time, he asked through gritted teeth, "What do you mean by that?" When Nadia saw him looking at her like that, her urge to spill the beans and confront him suddenly just disappeared. She calmed down instantly. He hated having her as his fiancee because she was too wild and carefree. But if she let the cat out of the bag too early on in the game and told him that he was marrying someone he would be more delighted with, that would just be letting him off too easily. She took a deep breath, recalling the repression he'd imposed on her in her past life. She wanted him to put up with the bitterness and suffering of still thinking that she was going to be his bride, just so that she could torture him a while longer. At the thought of that, she forced herself to withdraw her emotion and instead looked out of the window. She mumbled, "Nothing. I was just talking nonsense." Clive observed her for a short while, the darkness in his eyes diminishing by just a little. However, he still spoke to her in a demanding manner. "Sit properly." Nadia watched Clive still maintaining his robotic posture even at the height of his anger, without losing his composure at all. She also thought about all the suffocating rules in his household and suddenly hated him even more. She was going to rebel as much as she could this time. As such, Nadia sat sideways on the seat on purpose, kicked off her high heels, and stomped on the cashmere carpet on the floor with her bare feet. She also rolled down the car windows and let the wind blow her neatly-styled curls into a mess. She was going to be as wild and rebellious as she could. She didn't give a shit about "proper etiquette", and she definitely wasn't going to care about her image either! This was the real Nadia after all. Clive frowned hard as he watched Nadia behaving like she didn't belong in the luxurious car with the heavy atmosphere hanging in the air. Still, he never said a word to her. The car came to a stop at the Young residence. Nadia pulled on the door handle, getting ready to get out, but Clive's cold voice sounded again behind her. "Nadia. The ten-page apology letter. Give it to me tomorrow." Then, Clive told his driver to drive off. Nadia watched the taillights of the car disappear into the night and kicked angrily at the stones at the side of the road.