Chapter 6

When Nadia woke up, the first thing that greeted her was the sting of hospital disinfectant. She opened her eyes and found herself lying in a hospital bed. Someone was holding her hand. She turned and saw Clive, who was sitting next to her bed. He was holding one of her hands in his, and his eyes, wrought with dark eye-circles, were closed. However, he seemed to realize that she'd woken up and stirred awake as well, opening his eyes at once. Their gazes met. Clive immediately let go of her hand, the fatigue and perhaps even an apologetic look in his eyes vanishing into thin air immediately. In an instant, Clive was back to his usual coldness and aloofness. "I've already spoken to your father and apologized on your behalf," he said, his voice calm and emotionless. "He promised not to make things hard for you. But Nadia, you must also promise me that you will never hurt Celia again. She is your sister, after all." "Why do I need you to apologize for me?" Nadia asked, her hoarse voice dripping with sarcasm. "Also, she's a bastard child who should never have seen the light of day. Someone like her isn't my sister! If we were in the olden times, a person like her wouldn't even be worthy of licking the dust off my shoes!" Clive frowned. He looked like he was about to say something. Just then, the door was slightly pushed open, and a nurse poked her head into the ward. "Mr. Gibson? Ms. Celia Young from next door refuses to calm down and keeps asking for you." Clive got to his feet. He straightened the cuffs on his sleeves and said to Nadia, "I'm going to check on Celia. She only got hurt because of you. And it is right for me to visit her as your fiance." Nadia felt the corners of her mouth tugging upward. She turned around, facing the window, and said, "Hurry up and leave. That's your real fiancee over there." Clive froze. He turned around and frowned. "What did you just say?" Nadia couldn't be bothered to repeat herself. She just pulled the covers over her head, showing him that she was done talking to him. Clive massaged his forehead when he saw Nadia refuse to talk to him. In the end, he turned back and followed the nurse out of the ward. A few days later, Nadia was still resting in her ward. She kept hearing bits and pieces of gossip about Clive and Celia from the nurses who came in to check on her every day. "Mr. Gibson is really concerned about Ms. Celia. He's with her literally every day." "Exactly! I heard that Ms. Celia really hated bitter medicine and refused to take it, so Mr. Gibson got someone to bring in some imported honey for her." "I'd say that Mr. Gibson and Ms. Celia were made for each other. They're the perfect pair after all…" The nurses seemed to have already accepted that the docile and obedient Celia was Clive's actual fiancee instead of Nadia. Nadia felt nothing when she heard the gossip. In fact, she felt like laughing out loud instead. She really wanted the entire world to think of them both that way. On the day Nadia got discharged from the hospital, Clive finally showed up. He took the discharge papers from the nurses and spoke to Nadia, who was leaning against the bed and scrolling on her phone. "Pack up. I'm sending you back." "I'm not going back to the Young residence," Nadia said without looking up. Clive's expression turned dark. His voice was firm and left no room for discussion. "Don't make a fuss, Nadia Young." He didn't even give her a chance to reject him. He went up to her, grabbed her by the wrist, albeit not too harshly but still commandingly, and dragged her up from the bed. Then, he half-carried and half-dragged her out of the ward before he finally stuffed her inside his car. The car went straight back to the Young residence. Nadia shook off Clive's hand and stormed up into her room. However, when Nadia pushed the door open, she felt her blood run cold immediately. Celia was sitting in front of her dressing table, holding a dazzling sapphire necklace in her hand as she held it against her neck in the mirror. That necklace was the only thing that her mother had left her after she passed away. "Who gave you permission to touch my things?" Nadia said, her voice as cold as ice. "Put that down and get out of my room!" Celia was shocked by Nadia's sudden appearance. However, a mocking smile quickly appeared on her face. She didn't set the necklace down. Instead, she swung it between her fingers and said, "Oh, is this yours? Let me tell you that everything in this house will eventually belong to me!" "I see that you haven't learned your lesson after getting kicked off the balcony the last time," Nadia said, inching closer and closer to Celia threateningly. "I was careless the last time," Celia said, smugly and confidently scoffing in Nadia's face. "Did you think that I'd still be afraid of you now?" Barely after Celia finished speaking, her eyes turned sharp as she grabbed an antique vase from the dressing table and smashed it onto the ground. Then, she sat on the ground and let out a piercing scream. The loud commotion immediately attracted Hector and Ruby to the scene of the crime. "What happened?" Hector exclaimed, rushing in at once. When he saw the mess and Celia on the ground surrounded by the broken vase, his face immediately turned purple with anger. Celia immediately began tearing up. She pointed at Nadia and sobbed loudly. "Daddy… I just… I just wanted to take a closer look at Nadia's necklace… But I didn't think that… I didn't think that she would shove me to the floor…" "Nadia Young!" Hector roared in fury. Then, without waiting for Nadia to explain her side of the story, Hector marched up to her and slapped her across the face. The slap was loud, clear, and crisp. Nadia's cheek swelled at once, smarting. Her head was cocked to the side. However, she just licked the corner of her lips that had split and laughed.