He turned only for Clara to run into his arms out of nowhere, stunning him as she hugged him tightly. Marcel had been tense since earlier when he found out one of the cleaners was assaulted and he thought it was Arianna.
Hence, when Clara hugged her, he only tensed up the more and stood awkwardly. But Clara didn’t care and held him tighter. After her useless imagination where she thought she saw Marcel’s mistress here, Clara was uneasy and was afraid to lose him, so she wanted to feel him. To confirm that he was here and real – that she hadn’t lost to that woman.
Daniel chuckled upon seeing the situation, “We haven’t left for a long time and you miss him already. Young people and their excessive energy, the both of you must take advantage of that now you have the time and youth. Life runs faster than you think,” He hinted that they should have lots of sex now they were younger.
Marcel shut his eyes, trying to rein in the anger and frustration. The last place he needed to be was here and Clara touching him was beginning to upset him. He needed to see Arianna and confirm that she was unharmed – and as well, understand what went on here.
From what he saw so far, Arianna looked fine, but he needed to confirm that she was truly without injuries. That damned Sébastien hit Mimi, what if the asshole hit her as well and she was hiding it? If only Marcel knew that Arianna was well except for her damaged pride – Sébastien groped her.
With them out of here, Marcel knew Victor was already on it – he would guide them back to the base. But until he had Arianna in his arms, he would not be comfortable.
She stepped back, then looked at him, “Are you all right?”
“What?” He glowered at her. What was she up to now?
“You look a bit pale, are you worried about something? Or is something bothering you? You’re clearly worried. ” She inquired further, brushing off his rudeness.
“What do you think? I’m thinking of how much of a hassle it would be to plan another family dinner when we have just a week to plan our wedding ceremony? Perhaps, father should simply speak to your mother when he’s recovered from his illness while we focus on making the wedding arrangement?” Marcel suggested innocently when in reality, there was a hidden agenda behind those words.
And Clara must have figured out his objective as well because she suddenly looked nervous and laughed awkwardly, “What do you mean by visiting my mother all by himself? It’s a family dinner after all and we should all be together,” she signaled Marcel to support her but he pretended not to have noticed her signs even when she was pinching him tight.
Clara’s face turned dark immediately, he was breaking out of their agreement!
“If that’s the case, I’ll handle that myself,” Daniel said unsuspectingly, not even noticing the tension between his son and his daughter-in-law because they both covered it up with a smile.
“Since that’s all and I’ve confirmed that you’re not dead, we’d be taking our leave then,” Marcel said, wrapping his arm around Clara’s waist and giving off a sense of intimacy when in reality he was simply warning her from saying or doing something stupid.
Marcel added, “Moreover, I’m sure you want a word with your men and their education,” He rubbed salt in Daniel’s wound, having the last laugh in this encounter.
“Goodbye father,” Marcel said and without even waiting for Clara to say a proper goodbye, he dragged her along.
His grip was iron around her and Clara couldn’t break away as much as she wanted to. It wasn’t until they successfully made it outside that she broke free and then with an aggrieved roar, she pushed him hard on the chest.
“You bastard! You broke our agreement!” Clara was so filled with anger that she pushed him once more but Marcel didn’t react and let her take out all of her frustration on him. No, it annoyed her most that he didn’t even stumble back, he was firm on his feet.
“You failed me! You of all people know my mother wants to break off the engagement and you did what? Set things in motion? You plan for him to go visit my mother unprepared so they could do what? Annul the engagement?!” She was furious.
“What do you think?” Marcel laughed crudely.
“You bastard!” Clara reached out and slapped Marcel across the face. There was not even an ounce of fear in her eyes, after all, what’s the worst that he could do to her? Moreover, they were still at his father’s place, he wouldn’t dare.
But then, Marcel proved to her that he could pretty much do anything he wanted when he reached out and grabbed her hair, yanking her closer and tilting her head up while she moaned in pain.
He then let go of her hair and gripped her jaw and her eyes teared up. He was hurting her. Marcel was hurting her.
“Now, this is the way we are going to play this little game of yours from now on,” Marcel instructed her, “You are going to obediently get into that car with me and I would drive you to whenever I seem fit before you get off because there’s no way in hell I’m driving your royal ass home .” He chuckled as if the thought itself was ridiculous.
“After that, you would get home and be a good girl, Clara. It’s up to you to decide to tell your mother if you want to end this bad idea of a marriage or go ahead with this version of hell we’re about to enter.”
He dragged his thumb across her face with a smile on his face – the smile of assurance that he usually gave his victims before he ended their life.
“No tricks there darling, like calling on my daddy and snitching on me like an unfaithful partner, after all, I did keep my own end of the bargain with your mother around. It’s your fault for not telling me that the gesture extended to my father as well.” He claimed.
Clara whimpered, he was lying. But she didn’t dare to say that out loud.
“So, are we good to go?” He asked her, hoping for a positive answer.
But there was a look of defiance from Clara and it wasn’t until Marcel intensified his grip on her jaw and another round of tears slipped from her eyes, that she finally gave in by nodding her head. Her eyes were shut close in pain, this was the first time that Marcel hurt her physically.
However, Marcel paid no attention to her petty emotions and patted her head with a sardonic smirk, “Good girl.”