The Substitute Bride

Sheryl was not sure whether she should believe in Charles' words. 'Maybe he is telling the truth. Maybe he is not. He could have gone to Cloud Advertising Company after hanging out with Rachel, ' she thought in her mind. The inability to trust Charles was extremely frustrating for Sheryl. No matter how much she tried she could not get her faith back on him.

"My phone was dead and Isla forgot to take her phone. So I could not call you and tell you that I was going to be home late," Sheryl replied in a cold voice without even looking at Charles' face. As she uttered the words in a trembling voice, she realized that she found a lame excuse. But she didn't lie about her dead cell phone.

She was not yet ready to reveal her doubts about him and Rachel. She shuddered at the thought of the possible outcome if she brought up the topic.

She could not let him go.

"Sher, I don't know the reason why you have become so cold towards me. I just hope that you can have some faith in me instead of trusting some bad people," Charles said, emphasizing on the last sentence. Recently Charles had been noticing a striking change in Sheryl's behavior. She just became unusually quiet. And all his attempts were met with a cold and indifferent response from her. Sheryl was slowly building a shell around herself which Charles found extremely hard to break through. He had a very strong intuition that Rachel might have some kind of involvement in it.

But right at the moment, all he could do was try to make Sheryl confide in him about what was going on. That was the only way in which he might find a solution to their problem.

However, Sheryl's mind was too clouded to read the earnestness in what Charles said. She ended up misinterpreting his statement.

'Is he trying to escape from the situation? Perhaps he is trying to cover up the mistake he made, ' she surmised, tears peeping through the corner of her eyes. She turned her face away from Charles to make sure that he could not gauge at her state of mind by looking at her face.

"I'm going to bed," Sheryl uttered in an icy tone. With her chest brimming with all sorts of conflicting emotions, Sheryl felt like being breathless. The best way she could avoid an argument was to run away from Charles. Otherwise, she was afraid that she might be out of control and blurt out all her complaints and confusion about her husband and Rachel.

She didn't want to see that happen.

She hated to break down in front of someone when she was in a helpless position. But it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to hold her composure.

"Sher..." Charles tried to say something, but Sheryl had already hurried into their bedroom.

Charles let out a sigh of helplessness, engulfed in inexplicable frustration. At the moment, he sensed that he was losing Sheryl.

That was how he felt.

He tried his best to clear up the misunderstanding between him and his wife. He made many attempts, but all his efforts ended up facing Sheryl's indifference. And now he was at a loss and d

ain and helplessness, and there was no one in the house to help her out with a simple bandage to stop the blood flow. When she ran out of all the options, she had no other option than to turn to her son for help.

When Charles received her call, he was in a meeting. As soon as he learned about the emergency at home, he rushed out of the conference room regardless of others' stares. He headed straight to the car and zoomed out of the parking lot. He drove as fast as he could to reach Dream Garden at the earliest.

As he parked his car in his driveway, the house was absolutely silent. At the thought of his mother being all alone and in distress, he felt his heart in his mouth. He somehow locked the car and rushed into the house. When he dashed into the house, sweat was dripped from his head and he was breathless. "How are you feeling, Mom?" he asked anxiously after he found Melissa in the living room.

"I wrapped the wound with some tissue, but the blood keeps flowing..." she replied in a trembling voice. Seeing her son, she heaved a sigh of relief and tears started streaming down her cheeks. There were many blood-stained tissues scattering on the ground near her.

Charles' eyes popped up to see the number of tissues scattered all over. Without wasting time, he said nervously, "Let's go. I will take you to the hospital and get your wound dressed."

He grabbed lots of tissues to wrap Melissa's finger, escorted her to his car and drove away.

On the way to the hospital, Charles drove at a dangerous speed. There were several times that he almost crossed over the red light. If Melissa hadn't been with him, he would have even driven over the speed limit.

Soon the two arrived at the hospital. Charles paid the medical bills and led her to the doctor. The physician disinfected the wound, dressed it and gave her a shot. After that, the physician asked tenderly, "I have bandaged the wound. How are you feeling, Mrs. Lu?

The cut is not deep. Please remember to come here and change the dressing."