Chapter 5

There was a huge commotion on the ground floor at once, with people screaming and scrabbling to their feet. Nadia stood by the balcony, coldly watching the crowd that immediately gathered around Celia, who was lying motionless on the ground. She felt nothing at all. She tidied up her slightly messed-up hair and dress, grabbed the shawl she'd draped over the balustrade earlier, and turned, getting ready to leave the place. However, she had only just walked out of the decorative doors when someone yanked her wrists. When she looked back, she immediately met Clive's eyes, which were filled with anger and disbelief. It was obvious that he had rushed up to her. He was still panting, yet his eyes were locked on her like a predator on a prey. His voice was colder than ice as he questioned, "Celia fell from the balcony. Was that your doing?" Nadia shook off his hand and admitted it. "Yeah. What's the matter with that?" Clive's eyes turned as dark as hell's gates. Fire burned in his eyes as he said, "I told you to learn how to behave properly from your sister, and this is what you do to her? How dare you behave like this? Come back with me and apologize to her now!" "Apologize?" Nadia sounded as though she'd just heard the best joke of the century. "She deserved it! You want me to apologize to her? Over my dead body!" "You're beyond salvation, Nadia Young!" Clive didn't waste any more of his breath on her and ordered the bodyguards behind him, "Since you refuse to apologize, then I'm going to teach you a lesson. "Throw her into the fountain over there. She isn't allowed to come out until I say so! Not until the end of the event!" "Clive Gibson! Who do you think you are? How dare you touch me!" Nadia scrambled as she struggled. Clive grabbed her by the wrist again with so much strength that Nadia doubled over in pain. He then stared intently into her eyes and enunciated every word, "Because I am your fiance! And you nearly killed Celia! If I don't teach you a lesson now, your father will only punish you even more when you get back! "You must be punished! And you're never to make such a fuss ever again!" "What do you mean you're my fiance! We are—" Nadia wanted to scream that she wasn't engaged to him anymore, but Clive's bodyguards had already stepped up, grabbed her, and lifted her over their bodies. Then, they threw her into the fountain without another word, despite her screaming and struggling, letting the icy-cold water seep into her bones. It was early spring, and the water in the fountain was freezing. Nadia choked on mouthfuls of water and bobbed back onto the surface, trying to get back on land. However, she had only just grabbed hold of the edge when the bodyguard grabbed her and dunked her head under the water. She kept trying again and again to get out, and each time, the bodyguard would shove her back into the fountain and hold her head underwater. "Clive Gibson, you piece of shit! Let me back up!" Nadia wouldn't stop screaming and thrashing, but she just got dunked and held under the water again and again until she felt like she was going to drown. Her constant struggling eventually wore out all of her energy. The bone-chilling freezing temperature of the fountain was also seeping into her bones, numbing her completely. Even worse, she suddenly felt a familiar, excruciating pain stirring in her lower abdomen. She was just having her period. Bright, crimson blood seeped out from beneath her, quickly turning the fountain pool an alarming red color. The red quickly dispersed across the entire fountain, and soon, half the water had been dyed red. Nadia's face turned pale and white, not just from the cold, but also from the pain. She began drifting in and out of consciousness. She thought she heard the bodyguard calling someone, and it sounded like Clive. "Mr. Gibson, Ms. Nadia… Ms. Nadia seems to be on her period. She's bleeding out. Should we stop?" There was a short silence on the phone. Then, Clive's cold voice sounded, and Nadia could hear everything clearly over the still water. "Don't stop. Otherwise, she will never learn her lesson." Learn her lesson? To Clive, every protest, every suffering, and every act of stubbornness, no matter what her reasons were, meant absolutely nothing to him. He only wanted Nadia to be docile, obedient, and behave. The frigid waters suddenly felt like burning lava on her skin, eating into her chest. A wave of despair that was a thousand times more painful than whatever her body was going through began to drown her, just like the water in the fountain. Her tears dripped into the water soundlessly. Finally, Nadia couldn't take it anymore. Her vision went black as she completely lost consciousness of the world, slowly sinking to the bottom of the crimson waters around her.